Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-10-13
4 t0m>tOch Hero.

u VEiN'bth ii'iVs
The reporter had an interview with
Mr. Van Du,cn. He i Il rather SIM
man. about five feet seven inches tai.
with thin, dark beard. promn"n,n
and lantern Jaws. Indeed. h could
stand very we'll for reduced photo
graph of brother jonathan. But
Van Du>rn i not Yankee. lie is 2
native of Michigan. and l. years Of are.
Inc repOr,"r 1OInd the hero of The day
in the wa-hroom Of Fitzpatrick board
ing-huu,e in Lower Gold Hill. rubbing
soap on hi, hands, and wholly absorbed
in the occupation. He looked NJ with
some surprise from his basin in tn"
wooden sink when the reporter spoke 10
him and said he wanted 10 interview
him. Van nusen i not u talka.ive man,
and ii was only in response II the Jour-
nalist's constant questions that the story
OF his adventures was drawn from hlln
piecemcil Al. While giving n bit of lnt"r-
nation as to his pcrilou' journey, Van
Dusen would pause between spla>he' in
mis- basin, turn up his dripping cnunte-
nance for moment, and then industri-
ously resume his additions. He was
rather amused than otherwise that a
newspaper should think il w';yth while
to send 4 reporter to ASH him about such
a trfle as going into Il drift Loo feet
long, 2, 30 feet below the surface, filled
in part with almost scaldlng water over
three feet deep and loaded with poison
Gus gases that hal slain two men who
had made the attempt before him.
There was no affectation about his I'M
consciousness of his having done any
thing heroic. 1t was absolutely real.
"Oh, no; I'm not eXhauSted,' said
Van Dusen, as he rubbed his face viGor
ously with the towel on the roller.
"I'm feeling chipper--never better in
my life"
He encountered the bodies of Bennett
and Callahan. Both were lying on their
backs. He merely paused as he came
to each corpse and pa sed on. "Thcn,"
said Van Dusen, &" got to the cooling
house and saw the boys"
He seemed to think that the statement
O. lis fact furnished all the information
tn was necessary.
They were glad to see you, of
course" suggested the reporter.
"Yes, but they were Il darned sight
gladder to see the ice in my machine"
lie had to leave his lantern out in the
DRIFT, as there was a tremendous draught
in the cooling-house.
'sIt was pretty dark in the cooling
house," said Van Dusen, "and when |
went in the first thing l asked was how
m my of them were alive. They said
the whole seven, and said was mighty
glad to hear it. 'What do You fellows
want most?' says, and they said grub
and ice. They did 90 for my ice. Mr..
Van Dusen chucEled at the recollection.
One chap-it was SO dark | couldn't
place him-laid his arm across his
breast and began hauling it out of my
machine and piing it up on his arm. |
guess they knew what had happened to
the two boys that went down in the
morning, for they asked me if there
were any dead bodies in the drift. l
said there wasn't, for it wouldn't have
done 'em any good to know. They had
seen the lights that the bows carried, and
they went out kind of sudden when they
fell, of course, so it wasn't hard to guess
what had happened.
"They had fixed things in the cooling
house and were pretty comfortable, man
aging to get tolerably cool air and
water. They wanted all the air they
could get, of course, and one of 'em
sings out to me as 1 was going to tell
'em on top to work the compressor. l
thought, perhaps, that there might be
one or so in the crowd that was near
giving in. and | asked if any one wanted
my knapsack to try to make the rifle
for the shaft, but they wouldn't hear of
it, so started back. Bennett walked
down the drift ways with me. He had
his head on him and wasn't scared or
anxious bit, SO far as l could see"
On the return trip one of the rubber
air tubes of his knapsack got loose, and
he had to depend upon one. Then the
foul air put his lantern out, and his only
guide as he floundered through the last
800 feet of hot water was the faint
CLEAN of the candles of the men at the
station. One of the doctors at the mine
said that not one man in q thousand
would have achieved the feat accom-
plished by Van Dusen, and that it was
marvellous that he should apparently
suffer so little physically and mentally
from SO terrible an ordeal. Van Dusen
at O'Clock was back in the hoist
ing-works, standing around with his
hands in his pockets, taking keen but
calm interest in all the work that was
being done toward the rescue of his fell
low miners.-FUy;aa city (Ner. } En-
terprtSe.