Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1893-03-18
SELECT STORY.
The Wrath on Fourteen Hill.
ATRuEsToRy oEHoFF,rAN MINE.

the contracting parties doing the most
of it.
Not that John Shell wasn't IA sober,
industrious, well meaning young man,
and Mary Dunn Il virtnouS, eomely
gill; but that old difference that has
ever caused bitterness and slrife-re-
ligious opinion-Stood in the way.
John Shell was the son of Protestant
parents, but believed in nothing
Mary Dunn was of a Catholic family,
and was devout However, ( ey loved
and all religious differences We're for
gotten. aud they We're married.
For all the forrbodIng on either side
they were happy. and the years went
by and Other bits of village gossip
made subject for conversation. and
the prophesicd trouble never came.
The mrvrntful lives of all in the
little town went on. the years OF peace
and plenty. the times of strikes and
starving. John Shell built himself IL
home on top of old Pompey mine.
worked. saved and was contented.
His two hovs-.John. eighteen, and
Ernest. SiNtecn-w worked IN the mine.
too. Ernest with his father, while John
dro> e mule and madea mans wages.
The boss liked him. and he had the
comparatively easy task of drying on
the night shift at the time the events
which the writer chronicles. occurred.
| Old Pompcy mine was drlft-that Is.
its entrance from the world outside
went im at dead level. Further in it
WAS in grades and inclines as the
mine followed the rising and falling
/ Of the vein. Old Pompey didn't
amount to much as a mine, and the
night shift only consisted of three
gangs o. two men each, all told.
To bring in the empty cars from out
/ side and take out the loaded ones was
the easy task for John Shell, jr. His
father and brother dug coal together
/ in the daytime and he drove cars in
/ and out for the night shift from 6 p. m.
/ till 3 Il. M, kept his attention on the
/ wicked grade on Fourteenth Hill
whistlcd and was happy.
/ But one night he took out four loads
from Tom Higgins and Pat Blake in
Higgins heading and did not come
/ back. The night shift, after long
1 waiting, went out to see what was the
matter with the boy. They found him
at the bottom of Fourteen Hill. The
mule aud the four loaded cars were
piled upon him and he was dead.
There were seven children in the
Shell family, and this was the first
death.
John had been the favorite son. and
his father was hearth oxen. They
made his grave beneath an apple tree,
place that had been his fayorite
resort when alive, and they buried him
there.
The mother objected, the neiehbors
were ScduudllIcu. ne IL never res
there" they said. John was Il good
Catholic, like his mother. He should
have been buried in consecratcC
ground. But his father is "a hard mar
when his mind is set. He has to have
his way
1t was the most natural thing, ac
cording to precedents at the mine, thai
after the first grief had been deadenet
by excessive vent of emotion Willy
Shell, fourteen. should be taken from
school and get his half turn digging
with his father. while Ernest took hi
dead brothers place and drove for tn,
might shift, making the wages of man
Ernest Shell was dull. heavy -witteC
boy, totally different from the brother
that was killed. He took up the worl
where the tragedy had broken it off
and drove his ears. spragged ant
braked, down Fourteen Hill and out
But he never whistled and sang as hi
brother had.
On the night of the ninth day. tel
minutes to y flor Tom Higgins ha'
his watch in the m ne and marked tn,
timc), Ernest Shell took ont four load
ed cars OF coal and never came back.
The night shift did not wait as lon:
for him as they did for his brother. |
was ten minutes of one by Tom Hi9
gins watch when the night shif
, knocked up the wicks of their lamp
= and went out. saying nothing, bu
peering forward through the dark,
A sigh of relief came from them al
when the bottom of Fourteen Hill wa
seen clear OF wreck and coal, and wit
lighter hearts, though still solemn, tn
night shift went on and on until the
r reached the mine mouth and saw God
stas twinkrng clear in the purpl
darkness.
There wfre lights tWinkling, to'
and the night shift -aw. standing be
side two mine ears and IL mule, th
boy, Ernest Shell, with his father an
:, mother, and the boy was weeping o
his mothers breast. The face of .Ioh