Connecticut western news., 1885-02-04
DOWN IN A COAL MINE.
HOW MINERS CAN DIE BRAvELy.
Calmly Writing aIcssages to Loved Ones
 whiio Death Creeps Upon Then.

whiie Death Creeps Upon Then.
 Sixteen years ago there was a terrible colliery explosion in Saxony, by which large number of miners lost their lives | Of that disaster m old miner in Scran- ton has preserved O most remarkable record in 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 yiblS death by suffocation, as the poi. soned gases slowly destroyed the pure 1 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 O 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 them? 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 calmuess and resignation. Not oRe word in the whole record reveals a feeling of bitterness against the fate they 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 nar. TOW prison. AyouDg man, Janetz by name, had pinned to his coat leaf from a notebook. On it were written his last words to his sweetheart: Darling Rika-My. last thought was of thee. 1 Thy name will be the last word my lips shall speak. Farewell"
 The miner Reiche, when his body was found, clutched in his hand a scrap of paper. "Dear sister" it read, "Meyer, in the village, owes me ten thalers. Itis yours. hope my face will not be dis torted when they find us. I might have been better 10 you. Good-by." Rsiche, 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 evi- dently haunted him in bis death hour.
 The absence of all selhshness, 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 I leave them with God. Farewell, dear wife. Farewell, dear children. May God keep you" The miners who died by sulfocation had evi. iently been driven from one place oI 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. I have given up all hope, because the ventila. ton has been destroyed in three separate places. May God take myself and rela. lives, and dear friends who must die with me, as we'll as our families, under His protection.
 ''Dear wife," writes Moller, "take good care of Mary. In a book in tho bedroom you will find thaler. Fare well, dear mother, till we meet again. Mary was the miners only child, who was blind.
 A miner named Jahne or Jaehn wrote to his brother, who was miner, bu had been unable to work that day "Thank God for his goodness, brother You are safe"
 "No more toll in darkness" wrot, another.
 The uniform spirit of piety tha marked all the messages of the dying men was explained by the custodian O these touching records. He said the miners of Saxony are all reared in ; strict religious school, and that on enter Ing the mines they all petition Heavel for protection through the day, and ol leaving the mines return thanks to Cox for guarding them and bringing then safely through the dangers of their toll "I never read the simple messages 0 those poor men without moistened eyes, said the old miner, and his eyes wer,
 certainly more than moist as he spoke
 'I can picture to myself the scene of tn, , rough-handed but soft-hearted men i. spending their last moments not in wilt cries for mercy and screams of remorse
 nor in repinings against their cruel fate
 but in sending these farewell message to their loved ones, who were even thel :, bewailing them as dead. While m z heart bleeds over the picture, I thanl
 God that, humble miners though the. z were, they ehowed the world how bravel f and nobly they could die"
 A NEW IDEA.-The College and Cli1l < icag Record reports Dr. Bartholow a
 saying that few American stomachs ar : equal to the digestion of oatmeal. "1 :. is trne.n be said. "that the Scotch mar