The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1880-02-06
Descending the Humboldt Mine.

Entering rough wooden building,
you see a steam-engine turning an i'm
mense drum, around which is cOiled
wire rope. On a chair sits, with each
hand on a lever, the bright, watchful
engineer, his eyes fixed on the drum,
now nearly covered with the coil. In
another minute, click! the machinery
has stopped, and out of an opening in
front, like Harlequin in Christmas
has come a grimy figure,
who stands there smiling at you, with
lamp fixed on the front of his cap, and
his feet on the rim of a great iron buck
ct. He steps off, the bucket is emptied
of the load, not of rich ore, but of very
dirty water, which it has brought up,
and there is an air of expectancy among
the workmen, and an inquiring smile
on the face of Mr.. Thornton, the super
intendent. Something is clearly ex-
pected of you, for it is established that
you are not what is called by the miners
a "specimen fiend," or unmitigatcd
sample-collecting nuisance, and it is as
sumed that when you came hither to in
vestigate you "meant business" You
take the hint, and follow Mr.. Thornton
to a room, where, amid good deal of
joking, you put on some clothes-and
such clothes! If you have one spark of
personal vanity, call hope abandon, We
who enter here" for even your kind
guide has to turn away to hide a
smile when he sees you in over
alls which will not meet in front,
and are precariously tied with ragged
string, an ancient flannel shirt, the
sleeves of which hang in tatters around
your wristbands, and a cap which
might have come over in the Mayflower,
and has smoky lanp hooked into its
fast decomposing visor. AS you ap-
proach the mouth of the shaft, the en-
gineer genially remarks that there
saint much DANGER and when the
bucket has come up and been partially
emptied, the by-standers repeatedly adj
wise you to be careful about getting in.
As you climb perilously over the side,
YOU think of the Frenchman who, start
ing in the fox-hunt, cried out: 6 Take
noteece, mes amis, Eat leafe every zing
to nv vife!', And when you are
crouched 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 called ga dem'd mois
unpleasant body" Mr.. Thornton make;
a grim remark about it being as well tt
have some matches in case the lamp:
90 out, gives the word, and down you
90. Understand that there is just abou
room for the bucket in the shaft, tina
the latter is slightly inclined, and tina
YOU catch and jar and shake in nerve
trying way; and understand, further
that a person should carefully study hi
temperament and possible disabilitie
before he takes contract to 60 into
deep shaft.
At a certain depth-it may be 800 o
900 feet Tin some Nevada mines it
2,5OO-you stop at side drifts or cross
cuttings in which men are at work, an
here you see, walled in by rock, tn
assure vein. Some are "stoping," o
cutting pieces away with the pick
others holding the steel wedges, AM
others striking them tremendous blow
with sledge-hammers. They are, by
the-way, in the habit of accompanying
these blows with gutteral sounds, tn
hearing OF which induced a specla
correspondent of the gentler SEX
ignoring the fact that they receive thre
. dollars per diem, own chronomete
3 watches, and have fine bank account:
} and silver spoons on their tables-t
t write soul-moving description OF tn
l poor, down-trodden miner, imprisone
far from the light of the blessed da!
. uttering terrible groans as he toiled h
7 life away for the enrichment OF tt
3 bloated and pampered capitalist. Oth'
: men, again, are drilling, loading, an
3 tamping for the 'shots,'' which are
}, tear the rock in pieces; and you wi
probably remember a pressing engag
ment to "meet man" at some distan'
from the mine, and induce Mr.. Thor
: ton to ring for that moist car, and tai
: YOU up before they light the match
S 4. 4. Hayes, J., in Harper's Jor Re
y rudry.
Now Save the Rags.