St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-02-09
Down a Coal Mine.
AN EXPERIENCE IN THE BOWELS OF
PENNSYLVANIA.
[From the Philadelphia Times

[From the Philadelphia Times.l
sGo down as fast as that ?" the su
perintendent continued "Oh, yes /;
there's no danger. The shaft is 900
feet deep, and we go down sometimes
in Is seconds; sometimes, when we're
in 10 hurry, we take 80 seconds, some
times 20. The engineer always knows
when to stop it, and the only danger
would be at the top and bOttem." The
cage stopped ut our level with jerk,
and we stepped on. 1t was little
platform. about six feet one way by
four the other, with roof, and fitted
into the shaft so nicely that marble
could hardly roll through.
The superintendent seized little iron
ring and pulled it twice (mine language
for 'lowerr0. His hand had hardly left
the ring before a terrible rumbling be-
gan (the cages make deafening nOise),
and the floor began to sink from under
us like flash of lightning. The bot
tom was dropping out of everything.
The wheels rolling against the sides,
would have shamed Il nOrtheaster on
the coast. This sinking lasted four or
five seconds then we seemed to stand
still. Things had changed. We were
not moving, but the sides of the shaft
were going up, up, as if they had beeu
shot out of volcano. | wondered for
second or two, how long it would
take at this rate for the Shaft to tear
itself out of the mine entirely. 1t be-
gan to go faster than ever. There
must have been about $40 miles of that
shaft fired out already, and still it kept
coming. 1t went up so fast, the shaft,
that it began to perspire, and the spray
flew over lis. At this point 1--WE had
according to my calculation, gone down
about two thousand milesl, began to
loose all interest in shafts and mines.
We hadn't been moving for some
time, but the sides Of the shaft stopped
all of a sudden. | suppose it had all
gone out. There were dim, smoky
lights moving about. There was q
mule (happy reminder of the world
abeve), complacently wagging his tail
We were in the mine. Time of leave
ing daylight, 10.4015: time of arriving
in gassy darkness, 10.40.33 time O
trip l8 seconds through express NJ
stops.
The main tunnel runs through the
mine from end to end. From thi.
smaller tunnels branch off, and from
these smaller tunnels the workings are
struck. A working is a little black
cave dug into the black rock, and in i
the miner spends his dreary days. i
begins with single drilling into thu
rock, and keeps increasing every hOu,
and every day until it is big enough
for a man to stand in. Still it grows
till it is big, dark cave, and at last
after months, or it may be years of 81
lent labor. it turns into another tunnel
and other workings, in turn, branch on
of it. What is dug out of this tunne
in making it is coal. From one to fiv,
men work in each of these holes, on
miner digging out the black wealth
the others, laborers shOveling it away
There were working i'll these sOleml
caves, in little groups, four hundre'
men, digging and delving, braving ga
and falling rocks and kicking mules
, One of the miners, handing me hi
: pick, asked whether | didn't want t
7 save piece that I'd mined out myself
, The first stroke was failure til
D., second brought out half ton or so. al
t in one lump, but the third produced
4 shining little black diamond, sparklin
g like diamond of another sort, whic
t l am saving till there's a rise.
r There comes, while we stand here,
! terrific shock. The bed of rock unde
1 our feet trembles the wall of coal ris
e ing up bV our side, so cold and black
| seems TO totter, a current of air file
| through the tunnels and drifts, so un
e expected, so violent, so indescribabl
e swift, that it feels as if it was pebble
e and stones and rocks instead of ali
d and with this notion we put up OF
4 arms to shield our faces. | notice
i that even the miners did this. 1t wa
t so quick that even long custom coul
n not override instinct. Then, in SET
/; ond or two, comes a tremendous cras
}, that is the noisy part, the shakin
j came before. Now comes the nois'
n and a deafening noise it is. The roc
=, must inevitably fall in with such
0 shock, we think. But it doesn't; it
t nothing but u blast, such as there al
n hundreds of, every day, and, the ne2
!, moment, all is quiet as the grave agail
d Going through the dark tunnel fol
e or five hundred yards, we came to
:, little undergI ound depot, guarded by
e man with black face and a lamp
If his hat. This man was the TELEGRAPH
, operator. The Audenried mine has Il
y the appliances of modern civilization
e except ray of sunlight, now and thel
d so, of course, it has its telegraph liue