The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-03-19

must have been increased in pressure, to at
least three stmosphsres. We talked OVER
our affsirs ana prospects just o. soouy as y
we bad been 10 place Of afety. l mean
bv this the affairs Of our families. and our
eternal prospects. I cannot answer ior ne
feelings Of my companions, but 1n.h @e'
pangs Of hunger began to szsrciss tnel. ~
ropative, I never before felt 50 cneenui ~
my life. Although / can not now say tnst
/ ever hoped 10 escape with life tine orlen'
side Of everything appeared. The dream
my little Mary lisped to me in the morning
entered largely into my thoughts seemed
to possess great capacity for thought the
actions Of my past lifs were condensed and
brought within limits or range, as II they
took the form Of some compressed material
BODY. This extraordinary power OF mino;
was without doubt dine to che compressed
state OF the atmosphere. We all seemed
then reconciled to our fate, and deter,
mined to do the best We could
TO comfort each other under the en-
cumstances. But we did not know what
was IN store for us we did not understand
in our intoxicated condition-for intoxicated
we must have been by inhailing the COM
pressed sir-or we should not bave viewed
our situation 50 lightly, we did not real.
ize what it was to suffer the horrors OF
starvation under the circumstances in which
we were placed horrors that ended in mad
ness and death, which crept upon my com.
panions, all except the " Galloway driver
who have told you was one Of us. The
Galloway or pony l shall call it, was at hrst
in q great state Of excitement the drifts
echoed again and again by his neighing.
The sound of our voices we're greatly aug
mented, in fact as far as sound was concern
ed, we seemed to be il new world: We
could have distinguished the dropping of a
pin. t
But the pangs Of hunger crept on us, and
this feeling soon predominated. | lave
not told you Of my companions. All
I need say concerning them, that .
the three remaining hewers, were
Young married men, between twenty
and thirty. and the driver was about six
teen, the sou OF widow. This lad had
two brothers in the mine beside himself, and
two little sisters at home and the widow
and her family depended for their support
on these boys labor. This lads name was
John Thompson.
have read Of the wild beasts, how
they devour their living prey, and cannot
but pity the poor animals if their hunger is
as was ours. Had not there been other
means at hand, hunger would have compel
led us to become cannibals.
To appease our hunger, the natural con-
clusion we came to, resulted in the slaught-
e. Of the poor pony. The butchering of
this animal is still sting to my conscience.
Had it been performed in the usual way, it
would not have been SO bad, but my tools
in blunt axe, and old saw and
with these we put the poor dumb beast to
barbarous death. need not say that we
eat the flesh Of this raw for we were with
out light, and it would not have been pru-
dent to start fire, for this would have suf-
located us in a short time. We did not
stint ourselves, and we ate ravenously until
VIC were satiated. We had no control Of
our appetites, and must say that hunger
such as we felt then, cannot be experienced
in an ordinary atmosphere. If men were
set at large with feelings akin to our passion
for food, we would devuur each other with
out mercy. Our hunger appeased, we
became rational Within, should jud ge,
a couple Of days. two Of my companions
sickened and died. They died. apparently
in great pain, raging mad. l judged their
deaths to be caused by eating too freely of
the raw animal flesh. and took warning
by their fate, and endeavored to persuade
my remaining companions to do likewise,
But this advice proved useless, and in day
more the oHly remaining lever paid his
last debt.
There now remained the boy and myself,
and I used means TO prevent the boy from
eating more than his stomach could digest.
In the meantime we found the water to
be lowering very rapidly, and as it lowered
the pressure Of the air became less, and we
began TO live with less excitement. With
the lowering Of the water, ray Of hope
beamed in upon US, and we began to reckon
on possibilities.
| came to the conclusion that it would be
impossible to drain all the water of in less
time than three moRtbs, and until il was all
drained off to the level of the shaft, it would
not be possible to escape by Il Is channel
Our hope came from another source.
knew that the old mine, that bad been tap
ped by some other part Of the mine where
danger had not been expected, must be
nearly drained to the level of the face of
the drifts, for the water had lowered very
rapidly, and the air was becoming in its
natural state. thought that the old mine
would be visited as soon as practicable, in
order to discover any available means Of
recovering the dead bodies Of those that
must have persisted in the mine.
1t was expected that these drifts were
within few yards of these old mines, and
with the hope of calling attention, we
concluded to knock on the coal face at in
tervals. This we did for days without
receiving any notice. We had nothing now
to eat, the pony had all been disposed Of,
and hunger had been gnawing at our weak
ened vitals for a few days at least. Twas
fortunate thing that the water was good to
drink. and did not affect us to our injury.
We had carried our dead companions as far
off as we could convey from the water, in
order to avoid the stencil arising from the
putriication Of their bodies, and we were
patiently awaiting the results of our knock
sng on the coal face; but we were wasting
away, and the pangs Of hunger had been
displaced by disease. l felt very weak,
and it was with difficulty kept awak for a
short time. to continue the knocking at in
tervals. We had agreed to keep awake one
- II -ha~ 90 oe, So ella III L.