The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1885-09-04
busy scene, for all these honest fellows


whose duty it was to push trans OF
coal along here to the horsc-road we
have just left, one day heard footsteps
as of man approaching him from the
opposite direction. He stopped. to
avoid collision. and distinctly heard
the stamping of heavy boots. and
a sound as of some one scrapinS
mud off them on the rails. He shouted
to him to hurry up, but got no reply.
He held out his candle at arms length
but saw nothing. He went on to the
spot whence the sounds had proceeded;
but there was no one there. Incon-
tinently, he bolted to the nearest work
ings and told his weird tale to sympa.
thizing ears. The story has been cor
roborated again and again by strang-
ers, who had never heard of it. Hush.
there it is! Can't you hear it?"
Our lamps had been taken from us
! under the pretense of trimming them.
and at this instant they went out, and
we were in the blackness of darkness.
Few people know what absolute dark
ness is.
"Yes," we faltered; 1--WE do hear a
for itP''
II can't" was the reply. 1T may be
water in the abandoned road there. 1t
may be an unexplainable echo. Sounds
are audible at enormous distances I'M
derground. We had similar scare
years ago." (Here the bailiff succeeded
in relighting the lamps. to our great
relief I'm another part of the mine
the men were constantly hearing mys-
terious knockings, which they quickly
put down to Satanic agency. So took
careful measurements of the spot, and
found it to be just under an iron
foundry, where steam-hammer was
at work four hundred yards overhead.
But the golfers stick to their own
theory still. /"
A little further on we were told to
climb on ail-fours 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, fastened
by chain to rope round his waist.
At the top he filed it with the coal
which a collier was hewing; at the bot
tom he emptied it into tram such as
we have described.
This was the work which the last
woman who worked underground had
to do. Her son is employed here now.
just think what change has taken
place in the last thirty or forty years.
At the present time. thereis not. so far as
l know. single woman at the collicry-
work either underground or at the sur
face in the west of England, 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 there to watch some
swarthy giant-the dim light makes
them look immense drive IN his pick
with dull thud and bring down ava
lanches of ''black diamonds" or to
notte how, with sledge-hammer and
drill. holes in the rock are bored to re-
ceive the charge of powder; or hurry
past, half choked by the pungent
smoke, where the shot has just Teen
fired, and the pleased workmen are
shoveling up the copious results of their
SIX llful blasting.
We have already noted some of the
fossils of the vegetable life of long past
ages Here we catch sight Of living.
and apparently thriving. spiders;
though they are colorless and diaphan-
Gus, presumably from lack of light,
and perhaps also through insufficient
nutriment-for what can they find to
eat? Not SO the fungi, which hang.
like huge puf-balls. from long threads
rooted in the roof. But they, too. are
pale and almost substanceless. SO that
II you hold q candle, or even clap your
hands against them. they crumble
to powder. Looking at this strange
growth. we think Of that imprisoned
miner. who. when he was rescued, af-
ter many days of starvation, well-nigh
dead, was found to be covered all over
face and hands and all-with q kim
bred plant. Oh. the horror of the
qu,etness and stiffness in which afungus
could thus root itself, and flourish on
living man!
..NOw for an adventure, if YOU are
venturesome. our guide cries, as we
reach the top of long steep incline
worked by steam-engine and an end
less rope Ibid you ever try .tobog-
gaming on snow? This is q good SUBJ
stitute-these bits of plank have had
made with . groove to run on one of
the rails. Sit on it so. and of we go"
'Of we CO." exactly described what
happened; for we kept tumbling over,
either on the rope ct one side, or else
against the rough. rocky wall of this
narrow passage. II the charm of Ito
bogganing' consists in . judicious mix
ture of speed and danger, this method
Of gong down . coll cry incline doubt
less resembles it closely. But for all
that l should prefer to walk another
time.
Arrived at the bottom, bruised and
shaken. we find ourselves in sort of
dome of coal. Its height 10 perhaps
fourteen or fifteen feet; and. in our in
experience. we at once exclaim: '.Ah,
this is more like the real thingP'
.'Nor' the manager answers; you
are mistaken. This Is only fault
and will som narrow down again to its
normal thickness Of i've or six feet.
You fancy it is easier to hew the coal
here; quite otherwise. There are mar
row bands Of sskale, every here and
there in these walls OF coal; and IL re-