The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1881-11-10
ssCAyED."
BY A MINER.


bursting into the cabin where l was
leisurely eating breakfast and reading
the news from last years papers that
were pasted on the wall. ''The ground
has caved Itcame down mighty sud
den; and little Jimmy was at the
breast. / was further out in the drift,
and had the start of it; but it made
such close call for me that l knew
ne must O. got ketched"
This technical jargon revealed to me
fact that our mine had caved, and had
buried one of our companions, for
Little Jimmy" was not an infant but
a mana miner and friend. He had
been working at the breast, or far
thest end of the drift" but was now
perhaps sleeping his last sleep in the
bottom of the mother Ofus all.
Three years before we hal come to
this creek, we had prospected the
''side sulches" and the bars, and found
cOlOrs everywhere. Indications were
favorable, so we "staked" body OF
ground along the main creek, built
cabins, organized a company, of which
the writer was elected President, and
went to work to open our claim.
Those three years had been years of
toll and privatiOn. We were in the
heart of the Rocky Mountain. Our
camp was pitched in a little basin of a
valley, warm and sunshiny, and just
at the entrance of a deep and roomv
canon, which we named "The Devils
Gate" and through which our spark
ling little stream foamed and tumbled
down to the great river, the Missouri.
Our ground was deep and very wet.
Draining was necessary, and we had
driven a tunnel for this purpose
though the earth had filled the pri-
InBval bed of the creek, until we had
| attained a horizontal distance of
thousand yards; but the slope of the
gulch was so gradual that We had not
reached the "bed rock" where we no.
ped to find the gold laid in heaps.
"Bed rock" being the objective point,
must be reached so we sank a shaft
at the head of our tunnel and betOOk
ourselves to tie pump.
AS it was couple of thousand
miles to the nearest foundry, and we
! couldn't afford 10 await the completion
of the North Pacific railroad, a pump
under the circumstances was a prob
| lem so will tell on how we got one.
| We had blacksmith's and carpenters
tools, which most of Us could use 4;
there was plenty of timber growing
on the mountains, and pair of diFap-
| idated freight wagons supplied our
! stock of iron. Great slabs of fir trees
and hewn and dressed on one side to
/ a smooth plane. The other side was
! rounded to an orc or convex surface,
| so that when four such seq
ments were placed together length
! wise, secured with pins at the edges,
which were first squared and then
made parallel, they formed long,
hollow trunk or barrel, four squares
within, cut cylindrical, and tapering
slightly from one end to the other.
Upon this were driven hoops or
bands of iron, which forced the
joints close like those of a cask, and
thus we had pOmps or pipes of con-
siderable length and solidity. 1t was
easy to fit to them valves and pistons,
and to work them with a wooden
walking beam, moved by the crank
of a water wheel. The crank was a
master piece. 1t had an arm or lev
erage of about two feet, and was
forged from the iron axle of one of
our wagons, and its dungeons or bear
ings were turned in a lathe of our
own continuing. This was a heavy
I Jul lOI our CIV ICSOuECGS, Out II was
finished after an age Ut seemed to us)
of toll, puzzzling and perspiratiOn,
and we had machinery that w as ca
| pable of raising to a height of nearly
thirty feet many tuns of water per
day, and which answered all our re-
quirements for drainage, so that we
| were able to reach that long sought
"bed rock" at a depth of ninety feet
. hninRU fhn lDI.aSnnt haH of 10 fg.anl-
will mention here that our pump was
twelve inches square inside, and had
stroke of four feet, raising the
water twenty-nine feet, into one
drain-tunnel, whence it flowed out to
the surface a thousand yards down
the canon.
We had reached 'fbed rock" but
had not 'struck it very rich," and
were running a drift or tunnel on bed
rock across and up the gulch in
search of the "pry steak" which we
were hoping every day to find, when
the announcement of startling ac-
cident was made. Here was the ruin
of our hopes and the death of our
friend for there was little room to
hope for any other result.
1t must not be Supposed that much
time was wasted in such reflections
for telling Bill to rouse the entire
camp, rushed off to the mine. SncE
of the men as had heard of the occur
renee hurried from their work, bring
ing with them their picks and shOvel'
as likely to be needed, and the miners
from wet diggings came clad in coats
high boots and helmet-shapcd caps O.
India rubber. and looking like knights
in armOr. Knights they were, too, fOl
that matter, for though armed only
with shovels and picks, they wer,
as daring and as generous as eve
belted prince who rode with lance a
rest to right imaginary wrongs; anC
they were ready now to risk ever
danger to save the poor fellow buried
in the mine beneath.
On reaching the scene I found oul
machinery apparently uuiniured, bu
looking more closely / discovered tina
the pump was raising not a drop o
water, and it would not be long befor,
the entire mine would be flooded
The pump must be relieved at once
or we could not hope to save the mine
much less to rescue our friend. Call
ing Bob Piper, a tall black bearded
miner, who had worked at his trade
in every mining country from TIT
English Channel to the Pacific Ocean
and who, in skill, courage and expe
rience, was the mining oracle Of on
camp-I pointed him to the pump
which was wearing itself out in vaiE
for it lifted no water.
"Bob," said I, eve must fix tina
pumpl It Is our only hope to saw
/; Little Jimmy.