Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-05-11
THE THOUGHTS OF DYING MEN.
What the suffocatine Saxon Miners wrot

What the Suffocating Saxon Miners Wrote.
During the late strike of the miners in
the Schuylkill coal region had occasion
to visit several of the mining towns. In one
of them enjoyed the hospitality of an in
telligent miner who came to America twen-
ty years ago from Saxony, where he had
worked in the mines. He left that country
soon after the occurrence of one of the
most terrible colliery disasters on record,
by which large number of miners lost
their lives. He was one of the force of
miners who volunteered to enter the dam
gerous depths of the exploded mine for the
purpose Of attempting the rescue of such
victims of the disaster as might possibly
have survived the explosion itself, but were
barricaded from escape by walls Of fallen
coal between them and the mouth of the
mine. There had been large number of
such victims, as the rescuing party found
too late, the distractions between them
and the doomed men having been too great
to permit of removal in time TO save them
from lingering and horrible death. Of
that melancholy catastrophe my miner
friend as preserved most remarkable re-
cord in series of manuscript copies trans
lated 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 among those who were
preserved for the no less sure and more
terrible death by suffocation, as the poison
ed gases slowly destroyed the pure 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 recovered. These
last messages from the dead certainly have
no parallel in heart-touching pathos. No
where, in history or romance, is such a
scene depicted as is shown by these simple
messages-a picture of meI, face to face
with death, awaiting its coming with
calmness and resignation which only the
noblest and strongest hearts could summon.
Not one word in the whole record reveals
feeling of bitterness against the fate they
could not avert. There is an intensity of
pathos in some of the lines scrawled by
these death-besieged men in the gloom of
their narrow prison. For instance, one of
them, miner named Reiche, held in his
hand when his dead body was found, a scrap
of paper on which were scrawled these
words:
Dear Sister: Meyer, in the village,
owes me ten thalers. 1t is yours. I hope
my face will not be distorted when they find
US. l might have been better to you. Janetz
forgives me. Good-by."
Reiche, as my old miner friend told me,
having the history of all these poor men
still fresh in his mind was a severe man.
his only relative being sister, young and
pretty girl named Bika who had charge OF
her brothers household. She was loved by
young man named Janetz, and she loved
him in return. Her brother refused to con-
sent to her marrying Janetz, and had COM
manded all communication between them
to cease. Janetz was one of the victims of
the mine disaster. Pinned to his blackened
coat when his body was found, lying near
that of Reiche, Was leaf from his note
book, on which he had written this
Darling Rika My last thought was of
thee. 1t is well with our brother, and my
heart holds no bitterness. Thy name will
be the last word my lips shall speak.
Farewell"
Utter absence of all selfshness, all re-
pining over their fate as it Immediately af-
tected themselves, is touchingly apparent
in all the messages. Lying close to the
body of the young miner Janetz was that
of his friend Moretz, who had wife and
two children. On paper in his cap he had
written these words:
''Janetz has just died. Reiche is dying.
He says: Tell my family I leave them
with God Farewell, dear wife. Farewell,
dear children. May God keep YOU"
Two brothers of the name of Janet were
employed in the mine, working on alter
nate ''shifts." On the day of the disaster
the brother whose turn it was to work was
unable to go, and his brother, although
weary from his own toll, generously took
his place. The poor man was among the
victims. This message was found OH his
dead body:
THANK God for His goodness, brother
You are safe !"
The miner Schmidt wrote: my dear re-
lations. while seeing death before me re-
member you. Farewell until we meet again
in happiness !" One of the doomed men
was man of family named Moller. lis
message, found on the fly leaf of a Tesla
ment III his pocket, was one of the most
touching of all.
dear wife," he wrote, stake good care
of Mary. In book in the bedroom YOU
will find thaler. Farewell, dear mother!
We will meet again"
The Mary he mentioned was the miners
only daughter, who was blind. A miner
named Reiche, whose brother was men
toned as dying in Maretz's message, SIM
ply wrote on piece of paper, which was
found on his breast: mo more toll in
darkness" The story of the terrible strug-
gle these poor men made for life in the
gas choked depths is told in few lines
found in the note book of miner named
Bahr
''This is the last place where we have
taken refuge. 1t is the last we can take.
give up all hope. The ventilation has been
destroyed in three different places of re-
fuge. May God take myself and relatives,
and dear friends who must die with me, as
we'll rs our families, under His protec-
tion."
there are many other passages in this pa
thetic diary, made up of the messages from
the dying miners, all breathing simple pie
ty and unsel6sh resignation. This uniform
ly pious spirit was explained by the old
miner He said that the miners of Saxony
are all reared in strict religious school,
and that on entering the mines they all
petition heaven for protection while they
are surrounded by ever present perlls IN
the Depths and on leaving the mines they
return thanks to God for guarding them
and bringing them safely through the
dangers of their toll.
81 never read those simple messages of
those poor men without moistened eyes,"
said the old miner. ~ can picture to my
tender-hearted men, spending their last
moments not in cries for mercy and
screams of remorse, nor in repinings against
their cruel fate, but of sending these fare
we'll words to their loved ones, who were
even then bewailing them as dead While
my heart bleeds over the picture, I thank
God that, humble miners though they were
they showed the world how bravely and