Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1885-03-28
THREE WEEKS BURIED.

loud, but to the miners, who knew
what they meant, they were terrible.
There was low, crushing sound, and
now and then slight cracking noise,
while the bottom of the mine heaved a |
little and trembled. 1t was not an
earthquake, but something quite as
terrible to men who were in the long,
dark galleries underground. The roof
of the mine was falling in !
There was an enormous weight OF |
rock and earth above, and the pillars
of coal which had been left to support |
it were being crushed to powder by |
the pressure.
The miners ran quickly toward the
shaft through which they were in the
habit of entering and leaving, but its
walls had already tumbled in. They
ran next to shaft through which coal
was lifted out of the mine, but that,
too, was blocked up. Then they stood
and stared at each other, while the
crushing and grinding noises continued
and increased. The part of the mine
in which they stood showed no sign of
falling in, but what of that ? They
might as we'll be crushed as imprison-
ed in the depths of the earth, without
food, water or air, to die of slow
torture. Indeed it would be better to
suffer death at once than to be buried
alive in this way. Yet there seemed
to bono way of escape.
At the supreme moment one Of the
miners remembered that there was a
small tunnel which ran from the mine
to stream half q mile away. 1t had
been cut nicely to serve as a drain,
and was very small but the miners
believed it possible to escape through
it if they could make their way to it,
which was doubtful.
Just as they were setting off to try
this forlorn hope, old John Brown, a
miner &c years of age, who had once
before been shut up for days in fall
ing mine, remembered that he had left
his coat where he had been at work
He wanted to go back and get it, but
his comrades refused to let him take
such risk. Suddenly he broke away
from them and ran back down the
gallery before they could prevent him,
and as he did so the 1oof between him
and them came down with q crash,
completely filling the gallery.
The roof over the gang of miners
still held firm, but they could do
nothing for John Brown. Whether
he had been crushed under the falling
mass of rock, had been shut up in the
end of the gallery beyond, they had
no means of knowing, but in either
case they could do nothing, and so they
set about saving themselves.
Finding the end Of the little tunnel,
they worked their way through it very
slowly and with great difficulty, and at
last reached the upper world in safety.
There a strange sight met their eyes.
The surface Of the earth heaved and
sank in places, topping houses over,
rocking others like ships at sea, and
frightening the people not little.
Great seams in the ground We're open
ed. sometimes to stay open, sometimes
to close again with a snap. 1t looked
like the doings of an earthquake, but
was in fact only the result of the grad
ual falling in Of the mine as one after
another of the supporting columns
gave way.
This continued for three or four DAYS,
and until it ceased nothing could be
done toward recovering the body of
poor old John Brown, who had been IL
general favorite among the mining
folk. At last the ground ceased to
rock and sway about, and work was
begun at the shaft. 1t was first hoped
that Brown might be alive still, and
that he might be saved, and so the mi
ners worked day and night. But the
hard granite which had filled up the
shaft was difficult to cut away, and at
the end of a week the work was only
fairly begun.
At the end OF fortnight tie shaft
had been clo0ip,! out. but the mine hc-
low was chokol up with the rock, and
the work of driving It gallery toward
the pointat which Brown had been left
still remained 10 be done. There was
no hope Of finding him alive, Of course,
for he had now been buried there for
two weeks. Still the miners worked |
on determined to recover their com
rade's body.
They drove q narrow gallery for /
ward, working day after day as fast as
they could, but at the end of the third |
week there was still a wall of rock in |
front.
On the twenty-third day the man in
front broke through into an open
chamber, the roof of which had not
fallen, and as he did so he distinctly
heard groan.
This frightened the sunarstitiouS