Sharp County record., 1878-09-19
A TASTE OF PURGATORY.

lne lower levels OF Jne l6dulnS InlneS VI
the ComstOck can have but very faint
conception of the heat prevailing there
in at the present time. The heat is ter
rible even in the winter; it is like the
breath of furnace, and in most places
where men are obliged to work it is de-
fcient in oxygen, that life-supporting
ingredient having been burnt out by the
many candles used, and in various ways
absorbed and exhausted. 1t can be felt
piercing through the little clothing
worn, drying the saliva in the mouth,
and almost Shriveling the eyeballs. A
temperature of 120 to 130 degrees is so
much above blood heat that the process
of cooking begins in the human frame.
But for the floods of perspiration cover
ing the body the flesh would really be
cooked to a certain extent. A famous
English philosopher has given an ac-
count of his going into an oven hot
enough to cook beefsteak, and remain
ing there till one lying near him was
actually cooked. Had it been the dead
instead of the living body of the philos-
opher that accompanied the beefsteak it
would undoubtedly have been "done to
turn" All that saved the expert
menter, as he himself says, was
the fact that he was constantly in
state of profuse perspiration.
A temperature above the natural
heat of the body undoubtedly attacks it
and causes the flesh to undergo the first
stages of cooking. This happens to
miner the moment perspiration ceases
to flow from the pores of the skin. The
stomach is first affected, then the brain.
It is probably through disorder of and
sickness at the stomach that per-
spiration is checked. As soon as per-
spiration ceases to flow the body begins
to cook, and first of all, apparently, the
brain, as the man at once becomes de-
lirious-as wildly insane as any patient
in a lunatic asylum. Cases of this kind
occur much more frequently than is
supposed or generally known. OF late
they have been very frequent in the Cal
ifornia and Consolidated Virginia
Mines. When a miner suddenly begins
to rave and talk incoherently his COM
panions "doctor" him. 1t is rough
treatment they give him, but it is found
to be very effective. The man affected
is seized and carried to the coolest place
in the vicinity, when he is bound hand
and foot and put through a process OF
rubbing. The friction is applied to the
stomach, which is found to be the seat
of the trouble, and in which knots near
ly the size of mans fist are found to
have formed. These must be rub
bed out, and as soon as they
disappear perspiration again starts
and the man regains his senses. The
rubbing is sometimes done with a
piece of gunny sack, but, as this Is la
BILE to cause useless abrasion OF he SKIN,
a pick handle is preferred. To be rub
bed down with a pick handle in the
hands of muscular miner is not such
reat ment as any man in his senses
would be likely to greatly desire, nor
does the miner, even in his dellrlum,
desire it, therefore he is tied in such
way that he can not resist. The miners
say that they can bring man out all
right by their method of treatment In
less than half the time that it would be
done by the physicians. A day or two
since at the Consolidated Virginia the
men took one of their companions, who
became deranged from the heat, tied
him at the end of rope, and lowered
him about 100 feet to a place where he
could be conveniently " doctored, then
went at him with their pick handles and
soon brought him out all right. Day
before yesterday thing happened in
the Consolidated Virginia shaft, which
borders on the miraculous. A man was
standing on a plank that was placed
across the shaft when he suddenly faint
ed and fell upon his back, lying as Sc
curely along the plank as though he had
been placed there with the greatest
care. 1t was quite wonderful,
too, that he remained just as he
fell sufficiently long to allow his fellow
workmen to reach him and withdraw
him from his perilous position Not
once in ten thousand times would
mans life be saved when fainting IN
such position. The shaft mentioned
is so fearfully hot that beside it purga-
tory would be reckoned a cooling of sta
ton. Although the men who work there
are species of human Salamanca
like the philosopher who got into the
oven along with the beefsteak-still they
can not work but about 10 minutes at
time. They then fall back and let others
come to the front. In this way OF work.
ING it is asserted that there are places in
the bonanza mineswhere it is now costing
SIG per day to do the work OF one man.
The men could do nothing at al! but for
the liberal supply of ice and ice-water
allowed them. They swallow ice-water
by the gallon, and frequently pour the
same over each other. In these hot
nIoooc tbev use abOut 95 pounds of ice