The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-05-12
OUT OF THE DEPTHS.
Thrilling Rescue of a Child from a
Seventy Feet Shaft.
lOmaha Herald

miles from Oakdale, had occasion, ON Satur-
day to draw out the wooden tubing from a
deep bored well on his place, and had drawn
out seventy feet Of it, leaving an unknown
number of feet of tubing set in the we'll.
This left hole about f0os in diameter.
Last Saturday forenoon a three-years-0ld
boy of the family was missed, and search
being made for him, his hat was found near
the hole. The mother called down, and her
child, from an immense depth, finally re-
piled. Appeals for help were at once sent
to Oakdale and Neigh, and though all posi-
BILE haste was made, all the appliances for
sinking a shaft down alongside the bored
hole could not be got onto the ground and
afternoon of Saturday. Stenson y Stratton,
we'll borers and diggers from Oakdale, and a
firm of men in the same line of business
from Neigh undertook the job, and there
supply of air down in this deep, narrow
hole, might be insufficient to supply the
child with air, an iron tube was sunk down
and hand bellows was inserted, through
which fresh air was constantly pumped
down during the 20 hours while digging was
going on.
From time to time the child's cries could
be heard. and often during Saturday after
noon, it called for ''mama," and for food
and water. The process of digging went slow
ly on during Saturday night on account Of
lack of light, and rapid diggers had at times
to give place to slower workers. AT this
time the father and mother were enduring
untold torture OF mind; the former some
times raving, and gray hairs almost momen-
tarily increasing on the heads OF tine dis
tracted parents. About o'clock the child
seemed to lose all patience, and filled his
narrow, circular tomb with his loud crying.
1t was a hard matter for strong men to en-
dure the extremely distressing condition OF
affairs with anything like composure. All
the time, day and night, crowds of men,
women and children were standing around
with faces white with horror and the hearts
of the men digging in the shaft, and those on
the windass on top, were bleeding at the
cries OF the helpless babe below During az
Of Saturday and Sunday night perhaps half
the people who knew of the affair, slept
little or none.
On Saturday morning, an unfortunate ex-
pertinent was made in the way of graphing
for the child with ''wormer." 1t is sup
posed that the wOrmer caught onto the tub
ing below, and raised it a little when its hold
released, and something was heard to drop.
Then there was new distress in the minds
of the waiting crowd lest the wOrmer had
caught on to and lacerated the flesh OF the
child or had inflicted bruises on it, for its
voice thereafter was less often heard, and
much weaker. AS the diggers down In the
shaft went deeper, they heard the child
moaning in pain.
By Sunday noon they had dug to depth
of about 30 feet, and the child yet % feet, at
least, below them. BY nightfall the work
was necessarily going on slower, for more
time was being consumed in hauling up the
dirt Besides, the most delicate and danger
Gus part of the job was now at hand, and
Will Stenson and James Strallen OF Oakdale,
both experienced men in underground opera
tions. were sent down; and they remained
there from eleven O'Clock Sunday night until
8 o'clock Monday morning, when the awful
scene was ended. Stenson, as miner and
well digger, had many narrow escapes in his
lifetime, and as he was now down in a par
TALLY dry shaft, with tremendous walls of
earth above and around him, his situation
was very perilous, for no time could be
spared to construct and sink down wooden
and Strallen went down into the shaft, at II
o'clock Sunday. night, they struck loose sand
and gravel. A few Of the impatient crowd
above urged Stenson to dig down through
the gravel the remaining seven feet supposed
to be yet intervening between him and the
child, but he withstood them and began to
tunnel in toward the circular hole right on
top of this gravel bed, so he could have
firm clay roof to his tunnel.
He was then about eight feet to one side
of the circular hole. He tunnelled in few
feet and then dug another shaft. closer to the
circular hole down to where he thought the
child might be lodged. His object was to
strike spot underneath the SPOT where the
child was lodged, for it would have been IA
tai to have disturbed the earth wall of the
circular hole above the child. Finally he
tunneled toward the circular, and tapping it
was surprised to find himself yet above the
child. He was able then to reach down and
tie q rore around the feet of the child and
by the same device hold him secure there,
but he dared not yet risk an attempt to draw
him up for fear he might break down the
crumbling walls Of the hole and of his tunnel
and thus bury both himself and the child
alive. So he sank another and second small
shaft down few feet further until he knew
he was below the child. Under these cir
cumstanceS the work had to be very slow.
Stenson worked like mole with trenches of
sand all around him, passing dirt out by
handfuls to Strallen in the first small shaft,
and Stralen doing the same to Sheriff FL
wood who was out in the main shaft
All this time Stenson, burr0wed like a
mole and literally working like mole
through so treacherOus an element, could
hear the child moaning family. Whenever
loose board ratified overhead he could feel
the shock, and he did not know but that the
walls of the shaft were coming in on him,
and whenever the furious wind which was
then, on Monday morning, raging over the
earth's surface, ratified down loose earth and
pebbles on top of the child, 1t seemed to feel
it. Indeed, the child seemed to be as sensi-
tive to the least jar as Stenson was, for it
would moan the stronger and more plteous-
ly. The three men, unnerved by the horror
of their situation, worked and wept, and the
sun rose yet on Monday morning with these
men handing out dirt by handfulls-practi-
cally burned ashes, and with no hand but
that of God to trust to, to ever bring them
and the child to the earth's surface again.
Finally, by the most delicate manipulatlons,
Stenson was at last able to grasp the child,
and let himself and his precious burden into
the main shaft.
Atg2O Monday morning, after the child
had been in the we'll As hours about, Stenson
was hauld up to the top of the shaft with the
child in his arms. A hasty examination OF
the child was made. when it was found to be
not only alive, but bright of eye and con-
scious, though very weak. Apparently 1t
had slid down the circular hole slowly, rump
first Int was found with its rump wedged
into the TOP of the circular tubing sent In
the hole. its feet a little above its head, and
its hands extended some six or eight inches
above its head.
When the child was brought up to the sur
face the scene was indescribable. Stenson
staggered unnerved and exhausted, but very
MANY of the 200 people there sank to the
ground prostrated by emotion. There were
no noisy demonstrations: the hearts of the
crowd of lookers-on were too full for ut
Although all the parties who helped so
faithfully are worthy of unstinted praise,
VET. nnder the circumstances, it is natural
that Stenson especially, and his partners in
the depths of what might have been their
tomb. Should now be the heroes of the hour
While Stenson is lying at his home exhaust
.k-.l.