The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1880-02-13
Descending the Humboldt Mine.

Entering rough wooden building, you zee
a steam-engne turning an immense drum.
around which is coiled wire rope. On a
chair sits, with each hand on a leaver, the
bright, watchful engineer, his eye fixed on
the drum, now nearly covered with the coil.
In another minute, click the machinery has
stopped, ana out of an opening in 'front.' like
Harlequin in a Christmas pantomime, has
come grimy figure, who stands there smil-
ing at you, with lamp fixed on the front of
his cap, and his feet on the rim of great
iron bucket, He steps off, the bucket is
emptied Of the load, not of rich ore, but of
very dirty water, which he has brought up,
and there is an air of expectancy among the
workmen, and an inquring smile on the face
Of Mr.. Thornton, the superintendent. Some
thing is clearly expected of you, for it is es.
tablished that you are not what is called by
the miners specimen iend or unmitigat-
ed sample-collecting nuisance, and it is as
sumed that when you came hither to investi-
gate you meant business You take the
hint and follow Mr. Thornton to room,
where, amid good deal of joking, you put
on some clothes-and such clothes If you
have one spark of personal vanity, all hope
abandoned ye who enter here, for even your
kind guide has to turn away to hide smile
when he sees you in overals which will not
meet in front, and are precariously tied with
a ragged string, an ancient flannel shirt, the
sleeves of which hang in taters around your
wristbands and a cap which might have
come over in the May .f0wer, and has a
smoky lamp hooked into its fast decomposing
visor. As you approach the mouth of the
shaft, the engineer generally remarks that
there amt much danger, and when the buck
ct has come up and been partially emptied
the by-standers repeatedly advise you to be
careful about getting in. As you climb per
man who, starting in the fox-hunt, cried out :
Take noteeee, mes amiz, zat | leafe every
zng to my wife / And when you are crouch
ed down so that Mr., Thornton can stand on
the rim above, you do not think at all but
know, that you are what Mr. Mantalini call
ed "a dem'd moist, unpleasant body Mr.
Thornton makes grim remark about it be-
ing as well to have some matches in case the
lamps 60 out, gives the word, and down you
CO. Understand that there is just about
room for the bucket in the shaft, that the lat
ter il slightly inclined, and that you catch
and jar aud shake in nerve-trying way
and understand, further, that person should
carefully study his temperament and possi-
bic disabilities before he takes a contract to
go into deep shaft.
At a certain depth-it may be 500 or 1000
feet lin some Nevada mines it is 25OO)-you
stop at side drifts or cross-cuttings in which
men are at work, and here you see, walled in
by rock the fssure vein. Some are stopping
or cutting pieces away with the pick, others
holding the steel wedges, and others striking
them tremendous blows with sledge hammers.
They are, by-the-way, in the habit of accom-
panying these blows with cultural sounds the
hearing of which induced special cores
pondent Of the gentler sex-ignoring the
fact that they receive three dollars per diem,
own chronometer watches, and have fine bank |
accounts, and silver spoons on their tables
to write a soulmoying description of the |
poor down-rodden miner, imprisoned far J