The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1875-02-25
TRUE HEROISM.
Wiitam Marksh Descent Int q
Burning Pit-Th1rsy-tWO Lives

Burning Pis-Thsrsy-tWS Lives
From the St. Louis Globe.
The FIRE broke ont about midday, and
when 6rst discovered the main shaft in the
mine was in a blaze, with thitty-tno men
and boys at work beyond and beneath the
flames, nearly forty feet below the level of
the earth. In few minutes the whole
population of the place rushed to the sc.ne,
and thousand or more men, women and
chldren-the relatives, friends and neigh
bors of the entomed miners-were gath
cred at the mouth of the burning shaft, stu
pefed with fear and anguish. All the wells
in the town had run nearly dry weeks be-
fore, and scarcely enough water could be
secured to subdue The heat above ground,
much less to arrest the confagration inside
the mine. Thus matters stood for two
awful hours, when a railroad engine ar
rived with full tank. which was hurriedy
emptied into the shaft, and a great shout of
hope went up from the people.
At this juncture man emerged like a
spectre from the blaze and smoke, and fell
10 a swoon at the very edge of the shaft. An
hour later, two more men cried up through
the flames for help, and ladder Was low
cred to them, on which they made their
way to this top, and were dragged forth
alive, but burned and blackened beyond
recognition. Three were now saved, hut
tweaty-nine others were still below, and the
fire was not yet under CONTROL. The ter
rifed crowd stood aghast fer few min
utes, and then suddenly panic of despair
seemed to seize them, the stided means OF
the women and children breaking out afresh
and the men drawing hack from the mine
with blanched and averted faces. The su-
preme moment of the emergency had come,
and the one man to meet il was there. His
name was William Marks, and he stepped
to the front with the promptness and the
medesty of a true hero. "Fasten a rope
around me, and let me down into the shaft"
he said. The proposition was appalling, but
down he went into the horrible cavern,
without another word, and reaching the
bottom, freed himself for his search in the
entries diverging from the main shaft. At
almost the first step into the esifling dark
ness. he stumbled upon the inanimate form
of one CT the miners in coal car, viii ch
he pushed to the entrance, secured the rope
around the body, called to those above to
h DIST away, and in moment the man was
safe. Further search soon revealed the
whereabouts of the remaining twenty
eight, and slowly but surely Marks piloted
them to the mine ard delivered them, one
by one--many insensible, but all a.ive-out
Of the jaws of death into the hands of their
wives and CT ildren. Then. when the last
one had been rescued, he came himself to
the surface, scorched and blinded, and near
ly suffocated, and stood there silently among
the cheering townspsople, the master OF
the situation.
THUS the peril was surrounded without
any sacrifice of life; but the heroism was
there all the same. The rescue of the
helpless miners, and the escape of the man
who gave death scorn to save them, spoiled
the perfection of a tragedy; but tn. de.
struetion of all concerned, could not have
aeded to the radience which belongs to the
unselfsh bravery of William Marks. lie
was a common workingman.