The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1889-02-02

wurr stopp'd betimes, what does pore.
tho'tless Davy do but fill his pipe an
whisk a fire wi lucifer to light il!
TIL fash an roor went roornin' an
echoin' through tn galleries as fur as
tn dep's roon'd back, an W ZEN tn tine
COON that We could get to whurr it
started we dragged from tn toombl'd
coal nineteen shapeless lads as we had
all know'd an gone doom wi monny's
tn time an ag en-, an pore Davy wnrr
one o. them. Only one O tn shift
coom'd DOT to tell how Davy done it
all. An tn pity O. it all wurr that
Evan Jones, new one i tn mine, had
puttit by siler to fetch his wife an
little uns fran across the sea, an had
sent it, an wurr lookin' for them day
by day. An so happens they coom'd
tn day that Davy fired tn damp. an
Evan wurr lynn croosh'd in the de'ps,
wi never sight, lad, o. tn pore wife
an tn BARNS! Loord save us! What
time they coom'd amooug usr'
1t Is remarkable that In the confined
and bad atmosphere in which the coal
miner lives at least half of his life he
contracts but few maladies. He never
suffers from fever. Still; in the course
of time, the bad air works destruction
to his blood, impoverishing it, and
makes him an easy victim for 9nemia.
The dust arising from the coal does its
work on chest and lungs. If the miner
is seen with the CRIME of his labor
washed from his face, his pallor will be
startling to the stranger. His eyes are
protruding, his form stopped, his gait
uncertain, and stumbling. The miner
frequently works in water up to his
knees, and he thinks nothing of it; but
he is in constant fear of taking cold
when in the free. open air. While the
outdoor laborer in the coal regions
congratulates himself that he is not
subject to the hardships nor exposed to
the perils that the miner is, the miner
rejoices that he is sheltered from the
inclemency of the weather, from cold
and wind and rain, unlike his less
favored brother, the outdoor laborer!
The miner, as every body knows, is
superstitious and credulous. He be-
lieves in ghosts, in haunted mines, in
myths of all kinds.
''Ah, lad!" said my old miner guide.
"these mines be well enoof, surely. an
we wurr unlikely bein's if we couldn't
live an wurrik here an be happy in
them, one an all. But think o. tn
mines / be readin' of across tn sea.
Beauties, lad! Beauties! Mines way
doom further in tn dep's than these,
whurr tn toilers have digged THUR
houses out O. tn solid rock, an carved
chapel whurr they goo for prayers;
an theater, lad. an shops, an inns,
an a. that! Think O. tn like O. it! An
tn miners havin' no need o. the gooin'
atop at a.! They live THUR yerr in an
yerr out; tn lads and lasses marry
THUR; THUR tn miners that's to COON
betimes an do tn wurrk are boorn'd.
an THUR tn ones that's done their
wurrk fyr aye are laid away. These
be tn salt mines, lad, way agent tn
seas. All! they be tn spots whurr tn
pore toilers moos' find peace! No
climbin' oop and doom O. shafts, an
spookin' room i tn muck, an doost
an blackness! Why, they moos' be
nigh t tn like O. heaven, lad, SURELY"
The credulous old miner had evil
IDENTIFY heard or read the marvellous
tales that have been told of the rock
salt mines of Wiellicaka and Bochnia,
in Austrian Galicia-tales originating
with the extravagant romances of a
century ago. He believed them, and
it was not my mission to tell him they
were fiction, pure and simple.-Ed
Mott, in ~ y Mail and Express.