The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1885-11-20

| scraping mud off them on the rails,
! He shouted to him to hurry up, but
got no reply. He held out his candle
at an arms length, but saw nothing
He went on to the spot whence the
sounds had proceeded; but there was
no onethere. IncOntinently,he bOIted
to the nearest workings and told his
weird tale to sympathizing ears. The
! story has been cOrrObOrated again
and again by strangers who had never
heard it. Hush, there it is. Can't YOU
hear it?"
Our lamps had been taken from lis
under the pretense OF trimming them,
and at this instant they went out, we
were in the blackneSs of darkness.
Few people know what absolutedarE-
ness Is.
yes" we faItered; 1--WE do hear a
strange noise. How do you account
for it?"
"Ican't" was tn ereply. ct may be
water in the abandoned road there. 1t
may beanunexplainable echo. Sounds
are audible at enormous distances I'M
derground. We had q similar scare
years ago" Here the bailitf succeeded
In relighting the lamps, to our great
relief. I'm another part OF the mine
the mel were constantly hearing mys-
terious knockings which they quick
" put down to santaniC agency. SO |
took careful measurements OF the
spot, and found it to be just under an
iron foundry. where a steam hammer
was at work OOyaris overhead. But
the Golfers stick to their Own theory
still"
A little further on We were told to
climb on all tours up a steep, low and
narrow cutting, technically called a
''gug," up and down which small boy
was dragging, apparently with the
greatest ease, a wicker basket, fasten-
ed by a chain to q rope round his
waist. At the top he filled it with the
coal that a miner was hewing; at the
bottom he emptied it into a tram such
as we have described.
This wasthe work which the last
woman who worked underground had
to do. Her son is employed here nOw.
Just think what d change has taken
place in the past thirty o%rforty years!
At the present time there is not, solar
as l know, a single woman in the col
liery at work, either under the ground
or at the surface, in the west of Eng
land, though in other parts of the
country female labor is still used at
the pit top" Such was the managers
comment.
Again we march on in Indian file,
stopping here and thereto watch some
swarthy giant-the dim light makes
them look immense-drive in his pick
with a dull thud and bring down ava
lanches of "black diamonds" or to
notice now, with sledge-hammer and
drill, holes in the rock are bored to e
ceive the charge of powder; or hurry
past, hall choked by the pungent
smoke, where the shot has just been
fired, and the pleased workmen are
shoveling up the copious results of
their skillful blasting.
We have alre&dy noted some of the
fossils of the vegetable life of long-past
ages. Here we catch sight of living,
apparently thriving spiders, though
they are colorless and diaphanous,
presumably from lack of light, and
perhaps also through insufficient nu-
trIment-for what can they find to
eat? Not so the fungi, which hang,
like huge puff-balls, from long threads
rooted in the roof. But they, too, are
pale and almost substance less, so
that if you hold a candle, or even clap
untrr n a n1d - net 4haYo 4haxy ~ -
BILE to powder. Looking at this
STANCE growth, we thinkof that impris-
oned miner, who, when he was rescu-
ed, after many days of starvation,
we'll nigh dead, was found to be cover
ed AL over-face and hands and all
with a kindred plant. Oh, the horror
OF the quietness and stiffness in which
a fungus could thus root itself, and
flourish on a living man!
Nov for an adventure, if you are
ventursome," our guide cries as we
reach the top of q long steep incline
worked by a horse and an endless
rope. did you ever try tobagganine
on snow? This is a good substitute
these bits of plank have had made
with a groove to run on therails. Sit
on it SO, and off we gol"
"Off we CO." exactly described what
happened; for we kept tumbling over
either on the rope on one side, or else
against the rough, rocky wall of this
narrow passage. Ii the charm of to
bogganing consists in a judicious mix
ture of speed and danger, this method
OF going down a colliery incline doubt
less resembles it closely. But for al
that, / should prefer to walk, another
time.
Arrived at the bottom, bruised ant
shaken, we find ourselves in a sort o
dome OF coal. Its height is perhaps
fourteen or fifteen feet; and, in on
inexperience, we at once exclaim: "Ah
this is more like the real thing!v
mol" the manager answers; you ar
mistaken. This is only a fault an,
will soon narrow down again to it's MOI