Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-02-06

The horror of the Nanticoke mine dis.
aster is fresh in the public mind, and the
world, confident OF the terrible disclos
ures, awaits the completion of the work
of weeks vet to come necessary to reach
the subterranean spot where the % miners
are imprisoned. The situation is horrible
to contemplate, yet it is but one of the
numberless awful incidents of mining life
and has legion of parallels. The recol-
lections of any miner who has survived
years of perilous experiences in his craft
are always interesting, says the Omaha
Bee, and that such a 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 ear
lv years of his life and met the first eX-
periences of bread winning in the mines
of Cornwall. Everyone has read of those
great labyrinths which undermine 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 a
Cornishman lives not but to be a miner.
81 can tell you,' said Mr.. Keeffe in the
,
zone of the most remarkable mining
stories, to be an absolute fact, that ever
learned in my experience or read of in
fiction or the chronicles of facts. AL
though the first chapter occurred before
was born, remember very we'll the Sec
ond.'
Pressed for a recital of the narrative,
Mr.. O'Keeffe yielded, and took up the
thread of the tale with the cleverness of an
experienced story-teller.
This is strictly a one-man story. and
does not deal with wholesale sacrifices, al
though the facts are painful enough. Not
far from Lands End which is the south
ernmost 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. 1t is called the Dolcoth, and is
the largest mine in all England and per-
haps then, in the world. II yields tin now
at a depth of some three thousand feet,
but in 1888, when my story begins, it was
a copper mine, on a level of twenty four
hundred feet. In that year the copper
played out, and the mine ceased to pay. it
was Knocked as the miners call it -
closed up and the company dissolved. On
the very day OF the close a man whose
name have forgotten was shut up in his
chamber. You see that in mining copper
Il man in striking vein of mineral fol-
lows it to the end. In the course OF time
a miner moves away from the main pas
sagewav, and digs an Independent tunnel,
in which he works alone. This man had
made room about twenty feet deep, when
..-lL
| shot blew down the mouth of the cham
Der 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. 1t was known that he
was left in the mine, and as the days
| limiting human endurance under total
privaton 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 end
ed 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 bonanza. One dav in '59
speculative miner wandering on the de-
serted copper level struck thin streak OF
mineral, and with a pick started to follow
it. A few strokes sent the pick through
loose mold and disclosed cavity in the
earth. The miner soon cleared away the
obstructing debris, and made an aperture,
through which he entered. Lifting his
lamp its light fell directly upon the body
of 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 81
years before. By some strange preserva-
tive power of the close atmosphere of the
chamber. the body remained intact and
bore the aspect of man but few hours
dead. The body was borne to the surface
and the free air and the sunlight quickly
reduced it to dust 1t was remarkable
phenomenon, and one which witnessed
with my own eyes. The remains were
carefully transferred to coffin and buried
in the cemetery with all the ceremonial
offices of the church. At the grave stooc
the widow and five children of her seconC
marriage, the eldest almost grown"