The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1877-05-18
WELSH PLUCK AND ENDURANCE.
The Explosion at the TrOedyrhIw Col
IIery near d-Cymrtc
Hymns I'm CImerian Darkness.

The Explosion at the TrOedyrhIw Col
| IIery near POntyPrfdd- Cymric
Hymns I'm CImerian Darkness.
It may be surprising to learn that the
attention of England has been turned
during the week from the gathering Of
the armies in the east and directed to q
little hamlet in south Wales. 1t is not
hard to find in human nature the reason
for this. The looming war, with all its
probabilities of slaughter, of desolated
homes, of widows and orphans by the
hundred thousand, had only been re-
garded in the popular mind through dip
! 1omatic lenses. The war was still game
of chess, but suffering brought to the
peoples doors, as it were, by the aid of
newspapers, caught the sympathy of the
millien. 1t was the story of disaster at
the collieries. Scores of such calamities
to the men who work away dowd in the
dark. taking their lives by hundreds at a
time, have occurred within the last few
years in England, and the horrors of
| them have arrested attention for day or
two. They were stories of sudden catas-
| trophies; low subterranean rumbling
heard; column of smoke rising into the
air; the gathering of white-faced women
and children at the pits mouth; after
some hours the bringing forth of grimy
corpses in the cage; next day a great
funeral that shook the whole country
side with its passionate grief, and then
all over. All over in two or three days.
But there at Pontypridd there was a
prolonged agony. The correspondents of
the morning and evening papers poured
into London's great ear, hour by hour,
the intensity of the effort and suspense
that hung around the Troedvrhlw col
liery until London could think or speak
of nothing else.
THE DISASTER.
An explosion, followed by an inunda-
tion, occurred ten days ago. Nine men
were imprisoned behind column of coal
one hundred and twenty feet thick,
which had fallen with the first shock.
There was a mystery about their fate,
but the warm hearts of the south Wales
colliers decided swiftly that if sturdy
arms could unravel that mystery ere too
late, it should be done. Work was begun
and willing hands were superabundant.
Night and day the toll was unremitting,
and so it went for a week before the first
ray cf hope was given to the tOilers. As
the time rolled on the interest grew, and
London held its breath in anxiety to
learn the fate of the imprisoned or en-
tombed. At length on Thursday last
sufficient progress had been made to open
with group of the men
five in number, the other four having
away to other parts of the
mine. Now came the awful moment.
Brave, tireless, ceaseless. and sleepless-
the rescuers worked inch by inch to their
brethren in the living tomb, guided only
by their knockings from the gloom. AS
the men in the dark could be heard
singing their Cymric hymns. Tears of
Joy welled down faces black with coal
dust at the solemn sounds that told them
that God was STRENGTHENING the hearts of
their comrades to endure till they could |
be saved.
THE RESCUE.
At last a passage was made, and one
by one, weak, but still alive, the five |
men were borne on brawny arms to the |
light of day. This was yesterday after |
noon. Hundreds of thousands all over |
the land wept with Joy. In London the |
excitement knew no bounds. The home |
was questioned in the house of |
commons to know if the news was |
the queen telegraphed to |
Wales for a confirmation crowds gath |
cred around the newspaper bulletin; the |
are full of the praise of the res
cuers, the details of the rescue and the |
strong endurance of the men who were
saved. The Welsh bravery of last week
will be sung in the Eistedfodds of the |
Cymri for ages.-M T. Herald.