Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1892-02-13
Burned in sllnEks sAAE

Willing TsigistsoF~ isisil u ssrn tsnt az .
Sand pIi fter -Four Eoar-' WORK.
While gang Of laesi from Sandwich
were at work on Chamberlain L Sons
cranberry bog one Of them. james Dali
ton, shoveiing in Il sand pit. was thrown
and buried to his shoulders by a land
slide on a face of sand some thirty feet
high. In spite of very exact and en-
phatic warnings the man was standing
with his back to the bank and his bar
row between him and the exit. The fall
ing sand buried the barrow, and the
mans right leg was bound fast over the
left handle. The other bog hands ran to
the rescue, but aside from uncoyering
the barrow and delivering the mans
right leg, could not move him an inch.
The danger was that more sand might
slide and bury its victim alive, for there
were already cracks in the sand visible
and one or two huge boulders which
might come down any moment. The
boblders had just been disclosed by the
sand slide.
1t was soon apparent that without
more and wiser help, the man would
certainly perish by exhaustion or be
smothered. The neighbors were raised.
Among the new corners was Daniel Lee,
of the beach who afterward said he had
once seen man buried in well and by
common consent, as the only man who
dared to have a plan where an error
might cost the trapped man his life and
perhaps the lives of others, he was al
lowed to direct. First of all he called
for long plank. One was brought
from the bog. and carefully placed some
three or four feet above the man below,
and between him and the sand face, and
across the sand bank.
Then he ordered planks to be sawed
some five feet long, and these to be
placed upright inside the horizontal
plank and facing in and toward the
bank and a man to hold each plank
steady and to stand to it if another slide
came. He then ordered short oak and
pine limbs to be cut and put in the sand
above the upright line of planks, to
catch and stop the sand which momen-
tarily was sitting down. The whole
structure was then braced at each end
by joist and plank, and served as rude
sort of shield. Then, with the men
holding the planks, the others tried to
dig the man out. His left foot and
lower trunk seemed held as in wise. A
shovelful of sand taken out seemed in
stantly replaced by the sand sitting down
from the hill. Hands were then used
instead Of shovels and some stones I'M
der him removed. But it was slow,
hideous work for the strongest nerved.
And now came the crisis.
The rifted earth bank above with the
pine trees on it was moving-was slid
ing down. A shout among the men to
hold fast-a second or two of the terri
bic drift of earth-a second shout-and
the deadly mass stood still. The plank
barrier SO far had saved But the man
in peril had now been some four hours
in situation, the peril of which he
knew, not expecting, as he afterward
told 'the boys" but that he was to be
carried home in box, and though bear
ing up bravely, was very much ex-
hausted. He must be released speedily
or perish. OF all traps, sand under such
conditions is the most relentless we ever
set eyes upon, Every attempt of strong
men to pull the man out failed. A new
way was suggested by Mr.. David Ellis.
A strong rope from one of the bog
screens was brought. A stray woman's
shawl, left by some cranberry picker on
the bog, was found and used to muf1e
The sharpness of the rope against the
mans flesh in hauling, the rope was
fastened tight under his shoulders and
then, as God willed, with strong men
assisting and others holding at the plank
barrier, and the sand hill settling down
every moment, the man was pulled out
pf his sand grave-not bone broken,
not scratch! The place where the man
lay four hours in deadly peril was the
next day found covered with four feet
of sand.-Cape Cod Independent.