The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-09-26
A THRILLING WELSH STORY.

Golfers Imprisoned Ten Days In IN Inun-
dated NIinc-An Event which Aroused
the sympathy Of NIL England md Its
Queen.
An English correspondent of the New
York World writes: During period OF
nearly ten days terrible battle ragged
in the Welsh colliery of Troedyrhiw, n
battle in which death savagely fought on
one side and the brave miners of Ponty-
pridd on the other. The tale is one that
will live long in the homes of the
Rhondda valley. 1t is story the details
/ of which were given day by day, and
which has stirred to the lowermost depths
the sympathies of the English people,
and enlisted the earnest solicitude of the
queen herself. It was on Wednesday,
just as the day-shift colliers were quit
ting the Troedyrhiw pit, when the catas-
trophe occurred Some last incautlous
blow, or some accidental breach of wall
or vein, burst the thin partition which
held back vast concealed reservoir of
subterranean water, when suddenly, with
a rush like that of an angry incoming
seq, the flood broke in upon the mine.
Filling the lower galleries and the bot
tom of the shafts, driving before it the
atmosphere from every portion of the
workings, this mysterious deluge cut of
two parties of men, who escaped with
difficulty from the peril of immediate
drowning only to find themselves i'm
INJURED in the first and second adits Of the
mine nearest the upper shaft No sooner
was it known that number of opera
tives were missing than scores Of brave,
hardy volunteers were Forthcoming to
rescue their fellows. Many at once de-
scended the shaft, which is 276 feet deep,
and entered the workings. It was then
ascertained that all the workings within
q few hundred yards of the bottom of
the shaft were filled with water to the
roof, and no hope was entertained that
any one would be discovered alive.
While the explorers were consulting as
to what movement should be made, faint
knockings were heard on the other side
of the coal, rs was conjectured, at a dis
tance of thirty or forty feet. No sooner
was the discovery made than score of
men threw off their jackets and with
mandrils commenced cutting through
the solid mass. The imprisoned were
also at work. Throughout the night,
relays of men toiled with desperate, lln-
firing energy, cheered and encouraged
by the knocking and sounds of labor of
the imprisoned men. The task was very
laborious, it having to be performed in
deep water, but such was the progress
made that on the following morning
mandril struck through and hole was
made into that part OF the pit where five
men were shut up.
The next moment terrific explosion
occurred and one of the imprisoned,
miner named Morgan, was hurled into
the opening, where the rescuers found
him dead. The inundation had been SO
sudden as to imprison the air in the
inner workings, and the force of this
had kept back the water from the five
men in that locality. The moment a
small hole was cut by Morgan's mandril
this yolumn Of imprisoned air escaped
and Mrled the poor fellows body into
the opening and his soul into eternity.
Ills UOuy Wis SOol ulOCl U1OuGbo w VIZ
surface, and Immediately following the
four living men were brought up and
delivered into the hands of their over
joyed friends. Others, however, were
still missing; others were mourning
over friends still immured in the pit,
and once more the explorers, with will
ing hands and stout, manly hearts, set
to work. These remaining prisoners
were, like their released fellows, shut up
in a chamber of compressed air leading
ont of gallery which the water had en-
tirely filed. The other end of this
chamb T. was thick solid wall of coal,
and beyond this again was another pas
sage filed with water. Divers attempt
ed tc penetrate this latter passage but
failed, and it. WIS not until four days
after that the water in it was so far re-
duced by pumping as to render working