Johnstown weekly Democrat. (Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.) 1889-1916, 1889-07-12
BURIED IN A MINE.
THE FEARFUL STORY OF TWO CORN.
ISH MINERS.

Cheered His Older Companion During
Their hours of Misery-Trying 70
Keep Warm While Lying on the Wet
Stones.
Some weeks ago we published, says the
London Daily News, what may be called
the outer world story OF the entombment
of the Cornish miners in the Drake Walls
mine. This is now supplemented by the
pathetic narrative of William Bant of how
it Jared with him and his comrade, John
Rule. during the four days, when night
and day were to them as one, in their dis
NAL prison 230 feet down below the sur
face of the earth.
1t was in the morning that the two men
heard an ominous creaking noise, followed
by tremendous roar of the rushing mass
of loose sand and rock which told them Of
their awful peril. Only moment before
two of their mates, who as we know es-
capped miraculously, had left them to make
their way down the pass to the middle
level some fifty feet distant. 1t was now
the turn of the other two to follow, flying
for their lives but too late. Thousands
of tons of the slipped sand and rock al
ready barred the way, and cut them off
from all access TO the cheerful daylight
and the sight of their fellow men.
81 offered prayer to God, says Bant at
this point, and said: "'Not my will, but
grope their way back to the spot whence
they had started. What fate had befallcn
their two comrades they knew not but
feeling about in the darkness they found
these mems jackets, besides the jacket of
Rule, Bant's having been buried in the
sand and lost. This find was indeed a
piece of'good fortune, for in the pocket Of
each of the garments was pasty and II
'crib," apparently a small loaf which
guaranteed them, at least for while,
against starvation. Some hope they had
of finding a store ofcandles, but, to their
grief, the rushing sand had carried them
away, together with a keg of water,
which, as the writer of the narrative
pathetically observes, ''would have done
us some good il we had had it"
Then they lay down on their bed OF
sand and stones damp with the constant
dripping from the roof, and hour after
hour listened for some sound to break
the dreadful silence. At last Bant whose
companion was deaf, exclaimed, "Jack, l
hear them sounding from the forty
fathom," and Rule answered. "Give
them Il peal" Then it was that the one
morsel of candle which they had became
their way to some spot in the direction of
the knocking and there return the signal.
Thus they were enabled to communicate
from time to time. Then their little
stock of matches gave out, and ere long
"a dark cloud" came over them, for they
could not hear the trammers working for
q while. So the time passed, the inn
prisoned men alternately huddling to-
gether for warmth and jumping about
and beating their hands.
In the deep gloom and solitude of the
Cornish mine it was Bant, the young man
of Il, who first strove to keep up the
spirits of his deaf companion fifteen years
older than himself. On one occasion he
''started to sing" when Jack said,
BILLY, if you have heart to sing have
a heart to laugh" But in a short space
their forced gayety was turned to melan-
eholy. "My mate would say, L am
thinking of the old people at home. What
a sad way they must be in. This will kill
the old man. He was bad before, and
mother is bad by this time, expect he
being the only support the old people
had Now 1t was the turn of John Rule,
who, as his companion observes, was of
stronger nerve, to speak word of com
fort in a graver way, and to remind his
comrade of how they had always been
good friends" but never so much as
then. Still it was the young man who
had to do all the sounding, though, he,
to, had begun to feel deaf on one side
through the dripping of water into the
ear from the roof. His comrade, by way
of keeping up his spirits, observed that
il was "better to be deaf in one ear than
two," which, says Bant, in his simple
way, "of course, was right, though ii
both were deaf it would be poor lookout
for us.
MY mate" continues the narrative,
'would very often ask me If l heard them
nicking away now. l would very quickly
reply, Yes, hear them going at it smart
Then we would be still for about five
minutes, when we would want change
of position. 1 would get one of my legs
under. and he would put one of his on
mine, and so on; we would draw our
breath into each others bosom; would
put my hand under his coat, and he would
put his under mine, ana at the same time
would say, Keep as close as we can to
one another, and it will keep us warm
We would lie like that until tired, and
that would not be long. Then l would
put my arm round his neck, and he would
soon find it wanting, when l would have
to get out of bed to sound" They fan
cied they could tell night from day by the
time when they felt sleepy.
On one occasion Bant said to his com
rade: II think it's Thursday; do you
think it is?" On what seemed to be the
day after this they could hear the rescu-
ers blasting the rock with powder. They
had husbanded their food in vain, for tie
pasties had gone bad, and were loath-
some to the smell. The sounds, too.
seemed further off; and, their stamina
falling, they felt terribly cold, and wer'
driven to tear the sleeves from their
coats and put them round their feet. i
felt" saws Bant, "hungly and thirsty,
thinking at the same time pound OF
candles wonld do good l. | had them;
but not having them l had to do without.
After these thoughts passed through my
mind thought 1heard some one talking.
l remarked it TO my mate, who said, Get
out, man, you don't hear any one lis
tened and heard them again. |, without
hesitating went over to the rise, called
out, and quickly received an answer,
which put new life in me-"
1t was at half-past 9 that lighted lam
tern was let down eighty feet through
the hole above to cheer them with its
welcome ray, together with bottle con-
tanning pearl barley, which they ate,
using the empty bottle to catch the fall
ing water drops. Twenty minutes later
stout-hcartcd Thomas Chapman de-
scended to the rescue and, by the aid Of