Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-11-05

lhaps, twenty or thirty feet wide and
from seven to eight feet in height. A
section of. salt some thirty feet in
thickness is left between each
room as a support to the solid mass
above. A thickness of five or six feet
Is left above as a roof, and substan-
tial roof it makes, as the salt in its nat
ural state is almost as hard as rock.
There are no other supports than the
columns OF salt that are left.
'Of these rooms mentioned there are
fifty or sixty at the present time. and
the worzmen are distributed about,
working in several srooms at a time.
There is no necessity of foreman in
each room, as the. number of carloads
of salt delivered ut the shaft tells the
tale as to whether the men are shirk-
ing their duty or not. A railway runs
through the main tunnel and branches
exte nd in all directions. The cars are
hauled from the several rooms by large,
powerful mu les, and there are some
thirty of the Sc in the mine.
'"There is a blacksmith's shop in the
mine where the tools are repaired and
the mules are shod, and there is also
large stable where the mules are shell
tered during the night. OF course they
would be well sheltered in the mine,
anyway, but if allowed to roam about
they could find nothing to eat but salt
and the railroad track, and the average
mule cannot exist on diet of this kind.
This stable is far ahead of the ordinary
stables about the country, and there is
every convenience and luxury for his
muleship. The stables are some forty
or fifty feet in length and twenty or
thirty feet wide, with wood floor and
wooden stalls and managers. This is
the only mbustible substance there
is about the mine, and there are no ex
posed lights anywhere about it. Di-
rectly in the rear of the stables is what
is known as the barnyard. This is
large room cut in the solid salt, and
here the mules are turned out for re-
cuperatiou.
zone may imagine that a salt mine
is bad place to work, but aside from
the fact that it is a little dismal there
are no bad features about it. Unlike
coal mine, it is clean, and there is
almost an even temperature the year
around, ranging from fifty-eight to
sixty degrees, winter and summer.
The ventilation is perfect and the sys-
tenn for supplying fresh air is not ex-
celled by any mine in the world. In
some Of the passageways the air rushed
through with such velocity as TO ex-
tinguish the lights.
THE experience in going up the
shaft is somewhat different from that
while going down. The signal is given
from below after you have been safely
stationed in the car, and away she
goes. Your hat sinks down fifty
on your head and your clothing seems
to sit right down tight where it
belongs. A person who is a lit
tie weak in the knees would also have
a tendency to sit right down tight on
the bottom of the car. The roar of
the wind as you hustle up toward day
light is about all that can be heard
When near the top the speed is
lessened, and it is then that one i'm
AGNES that he is going down again at
the rate of about thousand miles a
minute, but finally the daylight begins
to peep down at you aud you are landed
safely on top, only a few seconds hav-
ing elapsed since you walked upon the
car below"