Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1877-06-30
Welsh Heroism.

~ JeASAS "AN o"VosO oCGetC-
ment, was there a finer exhibition Of
heroism than that displayed by the
imprisoned miners of Pontypridd and
their rescuers; and were not these he
roisms Of the humble SO frequent. this
marvellous story of the fortitude and
self sacrifice of the prisoners, and the
Titanic and triumphant toll of their
deliversrs, would, become one of those
household tales which time cannot
idealize-to which tradition cannot
add romantic gliding. These men,
very common and very ignorant,
coarse of feature, coarser in apparel,
stolid fellows who spent their lives
burrowing that English homes may
be warm, proved that they had a re-
fnement Of courage and heroic virtue
which the lord ellsworth might we'll
think an adornment to his greatness.
Several Of them had stopped work and
were coming out of the mine, when
of a sudden, some accident caused tho
thin wall of the mine to Yield to vast
concealed basin of subterranean water.
This water, black and noisome. rushed
out in a relentless food it cut off two
parties, who receded through the dark
galleries and fed to the farthest linn
its Of the mine. Here the party which
was finally rescued found themselves
safe, indeed, from the food, but pre-
served by the fact that the dense air
held it back ; this air was hard indeed
to breathe. Hidsous perils threaten
ed them-peril Of drowning, of sti-
fling, of starving. Yet for eight days
they lived there, most of the time in
the dark as their candles which they
used for light instead OF food soon went
out. Then they were rescued by the
magnificent efforts of their brother
miners outside, who tore at the mas
sive walls of coal foot by foot working
night and day for week, until the
huge walls were brokon through,
small aperture was made, and the al
most lifeless bodies of the pent-up men
were drawn forth into the free air
again. These men had tended each
other through that desperate, stsrv-
ing week; one was sick boy, who
was nursed as tenderly as his mother
could have nursed him, and they sang
their Cymric hymn, with parched
mouths while the dread of death
hung ever over them. and a growing
faintness made them sink fast toward
oblivion.
The tale of herOism, 70 the praise of
our human nature be it said, is not SO
uncommon as to need long drawn pam
egyric; but one feature of this terri
BILE and happily concluded event is in
terestlng to the world, and valuable
to science. The five men, one and all,
lived for eight days; not one of them
moreover lost consciousness, until
overcome with joy, in their weakness,
at hearing the final blow of the pick
which broke the last splinter between
them and their comrades, they swoon-
ed. They tasted no food during the
eight days; water they tasted, but it
was so no1ious that they rejected it;
besides, they were living during this
period in terribly compressed atmos-
phere, without breath of current, an
air full Of coal-gas, yet an air which,
thick and noxious as it was, proved
their salvation. For this air held
back the black torrent, and kept it at
bay. Add to these physical ciroum-
opduCco IuC COuotduI cIltlu duo LcIIOT
Of mind; the temptation to destroy
each other; the utter despair which
they must have felt when they thought
as they must have been ever think
ing-of the immense barriers between
them and life-the black food on one
side, the vast wall of coal on the 9TH
er Yet they lived to the extreme
limit assigned by the doctors to life
without food. 1t has been thought
that the range of foodless life is from
five to eight days. according to the
bodily vigor of the sufferer. This
theory must now be corrected for, if
we imagine these miners confined in
place where they had every comfort
except food--where they had light. air,
warmth, ability to stretch themselves
on bed, the hope of food or water
coming-it is certain that they could
have lived much longer than eight
days. Even as it was, they were not
.hsolutalv aYhauated and IL ia proha.