News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-02-26
DOWN In A COAL NINE.
How MINERS CAN DIE BRAvELY

sow MINERS CAN DIE BRAvELY.
Calmly writing MESSAGES TO Loved Ones
while Death Creeps Upon Them
Sixteen years ago there was terrible
colliery explosion in Saxony, by which
large number of miners lost their lives.
OF that disaster an old miner in Scran-
ton has preserved most remarkable
record in a series of manuscript copies,
translated into English, Of messages
written to their friends by such OF the
doomed Saxon miners as were not killed
outright by the explosion. but were pre-
served for the no less sure and more ter
rible death by suffocation, as the poi
soned gases slowly destroyed the pure
air that remained in the mine. These
messages were found in notebooks and
on scraps of paper on the dead bodies Of
the poor men when they were at last re-
covered. The manuscript copies Of
these touching notes were made in
Cornwall by a relative of the old miner,
and were sent to him shortly after the
disaster. They are interesting outside
OF their pathos, as answering the fre-
quently asked question, How do men
feel when about to die-not after being
wasted and weakened by disease, or
when the blood is heated by the strife
Of battle, but when they see inevitable
death slowly but certainly approaching
them, and know that in exactly so many
minutes it will seize upon themp Do
they rage and struggle against their
| fate, or do they meet it with calmness
and resignation These messages show
that the poor miners awaited the COM
ing of death with singular calmness and
resignation. Not one word in the whole
record reveals feeling of bitterness
against the fate hey.could not avert
There is a curious pathos in some of
the lines scrawled by these death-be-
sieged men in the gloom of their mar.
row prison. A young man, Janetz by
name, had pinned to his coat leaf from
notebook. On it were written his
last words to his sweetheart Darling
Rika-My last thought was of thee.
Thy name will be the last word my lips
shall speak. Farewell"
The miner Reiche, when his body was
found, clutched in his hand scrap OF
paper. "Dear sister" it read, "Meyer,
in the village, owes me ten thalers. tits
yours. hope my face will not be dis
torted when they find us. might have
been better to you. Good-by." Reiche,
according to the old Scranton miner,
who seems to have the histories of all
the unfortunate Saxon miners at his
tongues end, was a severe man, and
though just to his sister, who was his
only relative, gave her no liberties The
thought that he had not done right evil
IDENTIFY haunted him in his death hour,
The absence of all selfshness, all re-
pinings on account of themselves, is
touchingly apparent in all the messages.
"My dear relations" wrote the miner
Schmidt, "while seeing death before me
I remember you. Farewell until we
meet again in happiness" Lying next
to young Janetz, whose message to his
sweetheart is quoted above, a miner
named Moretz was found. On paper
in his cap was written: "Janetz has Just
died. Reiche is dying and says, Tell
my family 1 leave them with God
Farewell, dear wife. Farewell, dear
children. May God keep you." The
miners who died by suffocation had evil
IDENTIFY been driven from one place of
refuge to another, according to the fol-
lowing, found in the note book of a
miner named Bahr: '"This is the last place
where we have taken refuge. 1 have
given up all hope, because the ventila-
ton has been destroyed in three separate
places. May God take myself and rela.
tives, and dear friends who must die
with me, as we'll as our families, under
"Dear wife," writes MoIIer, ''take
good care of Mary. In a book in the
bedroom you will find a thaler. Fare
well, dear mother, till we meet again.
Mary was the miners only child, who
was blind.
A miner named Jaime or Jaehn wrote
to his brother, who was a miner, but
had been unable to work that day:
"Thank God for his goodness, brotherl
You are SAFE"
"No more toll in darkness" wrote
another.
The uniform spirit of piety that
marked all the messages of the dying
men was explained by the custodian of
these touching records. He said the
miners of Saxony are all reared in a
strict religious school, and that on enter
ing the mines they all petition Heaven
for protection through the day, and on
leaving the mines return thanks to God
for guarding them and bringing them
safely through the dangers of their toll.
81 never read the simple messages of
those poor men without moistened eyes"
said the old miner, and his eyes were
more than moist as he spoke.
81 can picture to myself the scene of the
but soft-hearted men,
spending their last moments not in wild
cries for mercy and screams of remorse,
nor in repinings against their cruel fate,
but in sending these farewell messages
to their loved ones, who were even then
bewailing them as dead. While my
heart bleeds over the picture, 1 thank
God that, humble miners though they
were, they showed the world how bravely
and nobly they could die."