St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1888-08-09
NINE DAYS BURIED IN A WE'LL.
Terrible Experience of a Farmer.

John Anderson of Johnston, Nebras-
ka, was buried in we'll which he was
repairing two weeks ago, was not res
lating the story of his work and the
caving in of the we'll which was at a
depth of about SO feet, he relates his
experience thus:-
"FOr the first few minutes of my i'm
prisonment words cannot express my
feelings. That my time had come !
did not doubt in the least, and the
thought of such horrible death as |
would have to meet was terrible. AT
ter collecting my thoughts a little, l
discovered was held fast in the buck
ct by two or three boards, but by a
hard struggle l managed to extricate
myself from this position and dropped
down into the box. From the bottom
of the box it was three and one-half
feet to the boards above, which in fall
ing had formed themselves into an
arch and protected me from the sand.
The box was so crushed in by the pres
sure of the wall that it was only about
two feet square. Thus in the space al
lotted to me there was not room enough
to stand erect, get on my knees or sit
down, but l had to stay in crouching
position the whole time I was in the
well.
"The first three days of my prison
life | got along very well, but after
that | began to want water badly. The
fourth day when it rained heard what
| thought was water slowly dripping.
Feeling around l found it, and holding
my mouth open, l managed to get
about dozen drops of water, which
gave me great relief. 1 had no diff
Guilty in breathing until the we'll be-
low me began to fill up by sand that
caved in as the diggers above worked.
| had breathed this air over so much
that it had become impure, causing me
to feel a smOthered sensation, but about
this time the rescuers got near enough
to me to let in air from above. By
having good supply of chewing to-
bacco l did not suffer so much for food
as might be expected.
''FrOm the beginning | could hear a
good deal that was said and done
above. | heard the wagon when it
started to town for lumber and heard
some one say "the man is dead" and
the order given to try to pull my box
out. When they began pulling on the
ropes l knew that unless the ropes
broke there was great danger of the
boards above giving way and crushing
me. For my own safety, and to give
evidence of being alive, cut the ropes
and heard the excitement that prevail
ed when it was discovered by the cut
ropes that I was alive. 1t was music
to me, and from that time on | was
hopeful of being rescued.
"About the sixth day | felt some
thing crawling on my hand and found
it to be a blue-bOt fly. l inferred
from this that an opening had been
made from above. l was correct, for
soon Henry Archer had the opening
large enough to pass wet rag to me.
In reaching me it was all covered with
sand, but no honey ever tasted better
to me than that wet rag. Soon a bot
tie of water and a piece of bread were
given me, and 1 was truly thankful.
From this time ON | began to gain
strength, and by helping my rescuers
the time passed quicker than one
would suppose. When my feet, which
are badly swollen, are better and L
dare to eat square meal 1 will be all
riphtn