Sierra County advocate. [volume] (Kingston, N.M.) 1884-1960, 1892-09-09

Stop, Dut TO our CONSERVATION "
Q discovered that it had woun
q round nail some distance abo,
s and was useless. The enginee
t far above, of course knew nothin
: of our trouble, and continued [
Z lower away. There WAS no static
4 near, aud the closely planked side
: of the shaft we've unclimbablt
We were stuck several hundre
feet above the bottom of the shat,
r Down upon us came the heav
! cable-down and still down it cam
| piling to our great terror. At an,
moment the platform might turl
over or might be pressed through
the tight place and drop from
under us. All we could do was tt
get hold of the line part of thu
cable and keep the dead coils ol
it under our feet as it came down
In case of the platform giving
way 1t was our intention to try to
hang on to the cable. All the
time we were shouting up the
shaft, but no one heard a sound.
The weight of cable run down was
immense--it was piled up to the
depth of several feet-and we
already felt that we were little
better than dead men; still hand
over hand we grasped the great
rope as it came down and coiled
about our feet.
AT last to our great relief, the
cable ceased to descend. Then
for long time we waited in
suspense, not knowing what
would be the next move above.
The cable might next start up, or
it might again begin to descend
Finally, however, we heard the
voice of man. lie was shouting
down from the. nearest station
above. We answered, and then
explained our perilous position.
The nan SAID he understood the
trouble and then left to climb to
the surface.
After what seemed to as a very
long wait, the big cable began to
crawl slowly mp the shaft Still
We were obliged to keep hold of
the rope as it assembled, dancing
about on the coils as they un-
wound, for the platform might yet
give way,
"The hauling up of the rope was
a tedious business seemed to us
almost interminable and all the
time it was the flip of copper
whether we got ont or went crash
ing to the bottom of the shaft
But when the slack of the cable
was reduced to only two or three
coils We began to breathe again,
and when the platform frightened
up under us and began to ascend,
rs with one voice we cried, Thank
Iodp
"On our arrival at the surface
We found that the engineer, think
ng it strange that we were going
10 far without halt, had conclud-
ID to stop his engine and investi-
yate. Then the man was sent
lown to the station to find out if
had gone amiss.
In concluding his story my
miner friend said: 81 may have
'een in more dangerous places in
he mines, but was never in a
lace where the danger lasted 80
ong, aud all the time up to fever |
eat. 1t was too long time for {
ny mans hair to stand on end"
len WHO HAD TO BE CHOPPED OUT ,
OF A SHAFT.
In 1875, cage with six men on v
oard became SO tightly wedged in v
le old shaft of the Caledonia i
line, Gold Hill, that it was i'm a
lovable. Before tne mishap be- n
anne known to the engineer above, "
large pile of cable came down 8
pom the party. There being so n
lany men on the cage there was I,
cry little room for tho cable, but ii
pom had to be made or all on il
Dard would have been buried 81
n1er the rapidly accommodating b