Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1886-01-21
A MINERS FATE.
ENTOMBED FOR TWENTY-ONE
YEARS IN A MINE.
His Body Found in Wonderful State
of Preservation-Red to
Dust by the Air-The
Second Burial.

The recollections Of any miner who has
survived years Of periIous experiences in
his craft are always interesting, says the
Omaha Nebraska) Bee, and that such
one is found here in the person of
prominent and respected citizen must be
locally Of double interest.
Mr. Richard O'Keeffe, senior commits
sioner Of Douglas county, passed the
early years of his life and met the first
experiences of bread-winning in the
mines of Cornwall. Everyone has read
of those great labyrinths which under
mine the southwest shores of England
and penetrate miles outward beneath the
sea, half way toward the coast Of France.
Cornwall is given up to the traffic Of the
mines, and Cornishman lives not but to
be miner.
81 an.tell you, said Mr. .O'Keeffe, in
the course Of conversation with the re-
porter, zone Of the most remarkable min
ing stories, to be an absolute fact, that I
ever learned in my experience or read of
in a fiction or the chronicles of facts.
Although the first chapter occurred before
I was born I remember very well the
second"
Pressed for recital Of the narrative,
Mr.. O'Keeffe yielded, and took up the
thread of the tale with the cleYerness of
an experienced story teller.
f'This is strictly one-man story, and
does not deal with wholesale sacrifices,
although the facts are painful enough
Not far from Lands End, which is the
southernmost extremity Of England, and
the last seen of the British shores on the
transatlantic passage outward, there is a
big mine which runs in part out under
the sea. It is called the Dolcoth, and is
the largest mine in all England, and, per
haps, then, in the world. 1t yields tin
now at depth Of some three thousand
feet, but in 1888, when my story begins,
it was a copper mine, on level of
twenty-four hundred feet. In that year
the copper played out, and the mine
ceasing to pay, it was knocked, as the
miners call it-closed up and the COM
pany dissolved. On the very day of the
close man whose name l
have forgotten was shut up
in his chamber. You see
that in mining copper man in striking
vein Of mineral follows it to the end.
4 In the course Of time a miner moves
away from the main passageway, and
digs an Independent tunnel, in which he
works alone. This man had made room
about twenty feet deep when neighbor-
ing miner fred a blast. The shot blew
down the mouth Of the chamber in which
the subject Of my tale was working, and
closed him in. Although the man was
missed, his exact location was unknown,
and the dissolution of the company left
no one in authority to search for him. It
was known that he was left in the mine,
and as the days limiting human endur-
ance under total privation passed, it was
conceded that he was dead, and he was
left to his tomb in the depths of the
mine. Years passed, his widow mourned
for him, and then ended her widowhood
days by marrying again. Children were
born to her second union and grew up to
advancing youth. Twenty-one years
brought the time up to 1859. Nine years
before another company had reopened the
mine, and sinking lower struck tin bo-
nanza. One day in 80 speculative
miner wandering on the deserted
copper level struck thin streak Of
mineral, and with a pick started to fol-
low it. A few strokes sent the pick
through the loose mold and disclosed a
cavity in the earth. The miner soon
cleared away the obstructing debris, and
made an aperture, through which he en-
tered. Lifting his lamp its light fell di-
rectly upon the body of a man lying as in
repose near the mouth of the chamber.
The discoverer summoned other miners,
and one Of the old hands recognized the
features Of the dead as those of the man
imprisoned twenty-one years before. BY
some strange preservative power Of the
close atmosphere of the chamber the body
remained intact and bore the aspect of a
man but a few hours dead. The body
was borne to the surface and the free ali
and the sunlight quickly reduced it K
dust 1t was remarkable phenomenon
and one which I witnessed with my owl
eyes. The remains were carefully trans
ferred to coffin and buried in the Gem
etery with all the ceremonial offices Of th'
church At the grave stood the widow
and five Of the children Of her second
marriage, the eldest almost grown"