The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-08-28
Thrilling tory of Boys Adventures
in an Abandoned Coal. Mine.

company at this place mule boy III the
same mine was recently put to so ter
rible an experience in one of the com
pany's abandoned mines that he has
become, it is feared, hopelessly insane,
and has been sent to the lunatic asylum
in Danville, hIontour county.
The miners name is James Barrett.
The boy is son of poor widow, and,
although but fourteen years of age,
contributed largely to her support. His
name is James Gallagher. The man
Barrett, it seems, was in the habit of
abusing the lad in most shameful
manner, having no apparent cause save
a mere personal antipathy. The boy
stood in mortal fear of Barrett. A week
or so ago the latter had been tyranniz-
ing over young Gallagher with more
than usual cruelty, and finally swore
that if he did not quit his sight at once
he would kill him, at the same time
running toward the boy with his pick
raised as if to strike him. Gallagher
ran screaming away from his prosecutor,
and made directly into the abandoned
chamber, never stopping to look where
he was, in his fright only thinking of
getting out of the reach of Barrett.
After running for some time the boy
stopped, and for the first time saw that
ne was in worked-out mine. Even
then terrar of his cruel taskmaker was
upparmost in his mind, and it was not
until the little mine lamp on his cap be-
gan to grow dim and finally went en-
trely out that he awoke to the horror
of his situation.
If there is a chamber of horrors any
where in the world it is coal mine that
has been worked out and deserted. Its
labyrinth of silent corridors responds to
he least sound with the most demonia-
cal echoes, and noxious gases generate
in the pools of Shiny water that exudes
from the walls and drips down upon the
slippery floor. Pitfalls filed with water
that accumulates without interruption
abound in these noisome halls, and
myriads of hungry rats, bold, and even
aggressive, haunt these desolate cham
bers hundreds of feet below the earth's
surface, and over all the most OF pres
sive darkness. There is no darkness
like that in mine. It is so dense and
and heavy that one feels its weight up
on him as if he were beneath fathoms
of water, and the eye does not become
accustomed to its pail sufficiently to
penetrate it in the slightest degree. On
every side the constant drip, drip of the
unwholesome water is heard, and the
noise of rats, which frequently displace
some loose bowlder of coal as they
scamper over it, and send it tumbling
to the floor, awakening thousand
horrid echoes and sending them rever-
berating through the deserted chambers.
It was into such place as this that
young Gallagher found himself, without
llg t, alone, and entirely ignorant of
the way out. His first thought was to
shout aloud for help, but the sound of
his voice traversing the devious cor
ridors and yelling back to him his cry.
prolonged and multiplied q hundred
times, as if SO many fends were mock
ing his distress, so frightened the boy
that he could not gather courage to re
peat the cry, and he commenced cropping
his way along in silence in the direction
he thought most likely would lead to
the entrance of the mine. He had pro-
ceeded some distances along the Shiny
wall, when certain difficulty of breath
ing and choking sensation warned him
that he was trespasslng where that
greatest of all terrors to the miner,
fire damn, prevailed, and he hastily re-
traced his steps with the intention of
turning into the first corridor he came
to. 1t was a long time before he
reached one. 1t turned off to the right
aud he entered it and followed it for
quarter of an hour, feeling his way
along one side of it and being careful
not to turn into any of the corridors cross
ing it so that he might not become con.
fused if circumstances compelled him
to again retrace his steps. Suddenly,
in putting his foot forward, he found no
rest for it, and before he could recover
his balance he fell headlong into pit
His head came in contact with one side
of the excavation. He attempted to re-
gain his feet, but he was overcome with
a sense of numbness and fell back into
the slime and ooze that covered the
jagged bottom of the pit. How long he
lay there unconscious the boy did not
know. He came to himself with a
knowledge of peculiar pain in his
fingers and toes. At first he did not
realize where he was, but the impene-
trable darkness and cold, damp atmos-
phere soon recalled his situation. He
drew up his hands and feet to make an
effort to arise, when an army of rats
scampered away from about him. They
ran over his body and trailed their cold,
Shiny tails in his face. He sprang up
with shrek of terror that again started
the blood. curdIing echoes through the
chamber.
From the feeling of his hands and
feet Gallagher knew that the rats had
been gnawing at his flesh, but he did
not stop to make any investigation until
he escaped from the pit and was again
on his way back to the place from |
whence he had started. To get out of |
the pit he found no easy task. Twice |
he clambered up its jagged sides until
he almost reached the top, and as many
times fell to the bottom. The third |
time trying was successful, and he drew
himself out exhausted and fainting. |
He lay down on the floor of the corridor
for several minutes before he had |
strength to proceed, and then gathered
himself up and hurried away from the
spot which was so full of terrors to him.
When he reached the first cross cor
ridor he sat down on jutting piece of
coal and for the first time found that
the rats had gnawed two of his fingers
to the bone and had eaten away the
uppers of his shoes and the flesh of his
two great toes. He had often heard old
miners relate over their lunch in the
dismal chamber the experience of men
lost in mines and attacked by rats, and
now the reality of the thing nearly over
came him with it's horror, and he almost
swooned at the thought of what he had
passed through, and what he might yet
be doomed to experience. To add to
The terrible situation of the poor lad,
hunger began to make itself manifest,
md the tortures of thirst were begin
ming to affiict him. AS Was the case
with the Ancient Mariner, there was
Water water everywhere,
But not drop to drink.
From the fact that he was growing SO
hungry and thirsty Gallagher judged
hat he had been long time in the
nine. Up to this time he had been con-
ident that he would be able to find his
way ont of the old mine in the course
If few hours, but now hope seemed to
% leaving him. He coniured up pic
ures of his mother waiting for him to
,ome home at night, OF her anxiety at
lis hardness, and then her uncon-
reliable grief at the news of his loss
Then his mind dwelt on tho horrors of
death by starvation or sufocation in
he mine, and the sickening thought