The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1881-05-31
Weekly Ieader,
ISSUED EyxEr THURSDAY,
Ier.A., sslsss Year. sIISs Asif Year.
THE CRIES AND HERoIsM OF
.2aur1xom MINERS.

- 4" Ia
dead body Of her husband was then ly
ing in the mine; Lut she had children
the daily work Of life must be done by
her. She wanted q pan which, nearly
fuu OF dirty water, stood near her doc
upon a stone. lshall. l suppose. neyel
forget ut is many years ago now tn,
In herr eyes as she approach
ed the pan; her whole figure was the ex
preston OF one without hope; the yery
embodiment of despair; she raised til,
pan by the edge. utterly careless tina
the falling water splashed her dress ant
feet. and listlessiy moved away. He
griefln VAS 100 deep for words or tears
and turned away with a heart sick q
see such suffering. and % know that sh,
was but N OF more than n hundred ia
tile sahe sad condition. Gpe rAa
Take another case. When they wer,
recovering, after an interval OF months
the bodies of the 1879 men and boy.
killed ia the Luna Hill explosion, they,
the bodies, were brought to ths=banb
and carried to the shed in a large sheet
Of oil-cloth, and there bald side by side.
The shed was about thirty. feet bng by
Eighteen wide and high, and It's four
Sides wererof upright FAITHS or baftens,
about three inches wide each, and witt
an interval of similar width between
each, in order that, from whatever quar-
ter the wind hlew, It might sweep away
to leeward the dreadful effiuvium aris.
ing from bodies in such an advanced
stage of decomposition.
Whilst l was there a body was
brought in SO burnt and SO decayed oul
OF all likeness to q man, that you could
not. Distinguish the front fromthe back
Of the body. it could only be surmised
from the circumstance that from one
side Of the head a greenish matter was
ozzing out from two places OF holes
which were therefore supposed to DO
orbits OF the eyes. The smell was
dreadful, Notwithstanding the free use
, Of chloride Of lime and other disinfec-
tants. There were several women there;
suddenly exclaimed: ..It's oui
: JackM and before anyone could pre-
vent her. she with a bitter cry stopped
over and actually kissed the loathsome
object; what the eye of love discerned
that was hidden from us who wers
standing round, God alone knows"
l only speak Of what I actually saw.
Consider the men1 tlieirs husbands,
too? What like husbands are thew
Remember the one whose body was
found in the Haftiy mine. after the ac-
cident to the engine-beam, lying with
his breakfast can in his hand, upon
the side of which with the point of his
pocket-knife he had scratched a dying
message of love to his wife Sarah.
Or that other husband, who going in
early morning to that same colIiery, in
deep dePgession Of spirit. which he
could not account for, but only felt,
e,,r.al la al< o.. L..
derness his wife and children, and then
resumed his walk to the pit. which in
two short hours became his living tomb
for they did not die at once in this
case. their fate hung in the balance
many days, during which our kind
hearted queen constantly telegraphed
inquiries about the possibility Of saving
the mems lives. HE sfhHW r
Do you van to know what sort of
fathers these men arep
Remember the man who, escaping
with his boy and q comrade only this
year q think it was in the Seaham col
liery after the explosion), found this lad
unable to go any further; l think he was
insensible. They could not carry him,
and the boys father was urged by his
comrade to come along with him.
What was the fathers reply? Nay"
he said. looking at the insensibls lad.
'.Tn bide with the lad" And he did
stay, and father and son werefound AZ
ter many days. lying side by side in
death.
When the Edmunds Main explosion
occurred, which widowed so many
scores Of poor women, there was .
doubt, as there often is. whether all the
men and boys in the pit had been kill
ed; there was Q hone. yerv faint icdeed
but still a hope, that there might be
some men still alive in the pit; there
was imminent risk of a second explo-
sion which might occur at any moment,
and the peril of going down then was
simply awful. Still some men might
yet be then alive below. What happen.
edp
Volunteers offered themselves to go
down; the needful number were select
ed Il think seven mem they took their
lives in their hands, quite unconscious
Of the heroism Of their conduct because
their moral attitude was simply that of
SO many others; they went down on
their errand Of mercy, and in a short
time these men (whose names were not
given in the published accounts, so lit
tie surprising did their conduct appear
to those who knew colliers) were added
to the list Of slain, for the dreaded ex-
plosion occurred; and now. alas! there
was no longer room to doubt that all
below were numbered with the dead.
Take another instance. When tho
last dreadful explosion took place at the
Oaks colliery, near Barnsley, which al
so killed nearly two hundred mcn and
boys. If l remember rightly. l went
there Immediately and what had hap
pened? My friend. Parkin .Jeffcock,
mining engineer, had been sentfor at
ter the first explosion hadoccnrred; it
was one Of extraordinary violence and
had completely destroyed The head
gear, and they were in, ,momentary OK
pectioni Of y second, as, it was. clear that
the first had utterly dcranged the ven
t~ilation; but here also the hope was
chung to that some Of the men might
stillbc alive in the pit, and lafter, most
anxious. consideration it was decided to
incur the awful peril of descending the
other shaft to see if it were happily so
,(scorcs npon scoresso of mems lives lave
been saved by these heroic darings of
periD. When the decision was taken
Mr.. Jeffcock said: II want eight men
to go down with me; volunteers, stand
forward" At once not 8 but 10 men
stepped out from the crowd; they then
picked out and rejected the seven men
who had tho largest families, aud had
to employ the police to put them back
into the crowd, ont of danger. lest the
dreaded second explosion should como
even while they were getting ready 10
go down. and Mr.. Jeffcock and his
eight companions (heroes every, one Of
them-and this they would equally have
been had they all returned alive) got
ready and went down. They had not
been down long before another explo-
sion took plSce. and they, too, were
numbered with the dead