Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-03-04
Down in the Mines.

OeI dG Guc 1dI w eSl6Tll lO"u VI oSdSo,
Kan, there was an episode on Wednes-
day which might furnish Charles Reade
with subject for an heroic equal to his
story of the exploits of brave Jamie
Lambert. 1t was noon when the village
was startled by the awful news that a
fire had broken out in the shaft OF the
Usage Mining Company. Thirty men
and three boys were working in the mine
shaft shot high and hot into the air, tell
ing their anguished wives, sisters, moth
ers and children, who gathered around
it's burning mouth, of the awful fate of
those imprisoned within. Engines and
water were procured as quickly as posi-
bic, but there was only despair in the
hearts of those who gathered round.
Suddenly in the midst of the fam IS ap-
peared the head of a man. Anxious
hands, reckless of the peril of their own
ers, dragged him from the fiery pit, to
fall fainting on the ground. Inspired by
the rescue, brave fellow named Marks
volunteered to descend the shaft and
save the mans comrades who remained
beneath the ground. And he did Soon
man after man appeared at the opening,
some unconscious, and a few with
strength enough to grasp the ropes. In
four hours every one Of the men who had
been doomed but little while before
were saved. And then the town went
wild with joy, for at the beginning none
had dared to hope The dispatch which
tells this story says: The escape Of the
men was wonderful, and deeds OF cool
ness and courage were done worthy of
the proudest days of old time chivalry."
Aye, but more worthy of the better days
when such deeds are done not for
woman's smiles and from the desire for
vain-glory, but for humanity's sake, and
in fulfillment of the law which says,
" Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy
self"
The thousands who are warmed by the
heat of the cheerful fires in their homes
these freezing days have little knowledge
and less thought of the dangers the men
who have dug the fuel from the bowels
of the earth ran in the labor. Not even
the men who go down to the sea in ships,
to bring home the jewels that adorn and
the silks that Clothe us, encounter such
perils as he who robs these subterranean
vaults of their dusky diamonds. There
is danger in every shaft, and he who
enters it in the morning knows not
whether he will leave it at night alive or
blackened corpse. Much improvement
has been made during the last few years,
and many new safeguards provided by
law, but the statistics compiled by the
bureau at Harrisburg will show that
more men are killed and injured every
year in the mines of Pennsylvania than
there were in many battles in the late
war. "Killed in the mipes!" is a stand
ing line in the newspapers of the anthra-
cite region, met SO frequently that it at
tracts only passing attention, and one
Pottsville newspaper, with grim sar-
casm, natural in such an atmosphere of
death, weekly prints the list of accidents
with the caption: what 1t Costs to
Mine Coal"
The annals of our own mines are not
without deeds of heroism equal to those
of that of Usage. Our readers will re-
member the explosion at Ayondale which
set the mine on fire and sent the foul air,
which 1t is death to breathe, circulating
through the workings or chambers. In
one of these number of miners, who
had heard the shock and who knew that
escape by the shaft was impossible, bar
ricaded or buried themselves to keep out
the murderous atmosphere and flames
A boy, just in his teens, who could not
gain their shelter, but who knew that
they were within, dragged himself to the
wall they had built and, with his ex-
piring strength, chalked upon it's walls
There are fourteen men inside-save
them" And there he was found a few
hours later, dead, with his dirty, be-
grimed face turned to heaven and his
little fingers still grasping the piece of
chalk with which he had written the
message of deliverance. Who shall say
that his soul did not &C straight to Him
who said "Suffer little children to come
unto me PHILADELPHIA Press.
Hanging Basket.-These floral beau