Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-03-24
SUSPENDED IN A SHAFT.
PeriIous Position From Which Goodness
Saved Mine superintendent.

PorIIous Position From which Goodness
Saved "A Mine superintendent.
Amador county owns the nerviest
man among the mining superintend-
ents in the person of Prescott, who
has charge of the Kennedy shaft and
quartz lode. Trescott is not much OF
q talker, and among the boys between
shifts or when the works are closed
down for repairs is simply good sort
of fellow, but the San Francisco
Chronicle says that when such an
emergency arises as that few days
ago he develops a very considerable
amount of grit. The shaft of the
Kennedy mine is LOO feet deep, and
practically clear drop from the
mouth to the lowest DRIFT, nearly a.
third of mile down in the earth.
Every day for months it has
been Superintendent Trescott's
habit to inspect the timber
ing of the mine by going down in
the "cage," which is merely plat
form hung Ia drum at the mouth Of
the shaft by wire rope. The cage
is at best a frail affair in appearance
but is really strong enough to carry .
ton or more of gold-bearing quartz
and does so many times a day. Last
week Prescott, at the lunch hour, de-
cided to look over the mine, and
jumped onto the cage and signaled
to the engineer to clover away" slow
ly. The cage dropped foot by foo%
down the dark shaft dripping with
mine sweat" and every little way
Prescott pulled the signal rope and
stopped the elevator, so that he
might closely examine timbers that
seemed to be rotting or note particu-
larly any tendency to swelling of the
walls of the shaft, which might. if
not at once stopped by new timbering
result in a cave that would bury o
hundred men.
Prescott had gone down about 400
feet and found the shaft in good con-
dition, and after stop had signaled
the engineer to continue the descent,
when the superintendent felt himself
held by the catching of his Jumper
on projecting spike, and the cage
dropped away from him. There was
rope from where Prescott hung on
the side of the shaft. The numbering
cage ratified its way down, and the
noise reverberated in the shaft.
Prescott knew nothing of the strength
of the spike which had caught his
canvass "jumper" and he could not
tell at what instant he would be COM
PEELED to follow the cage and reach
the bottom a mass of flesh and broken
bones. The frightful uncertainty as
to how long he might hang was UNI
endurable. Prescott decided that any
death was preferable to long suspen-
sion under the conditions, and decided
TO break away from his hold and at
tempt to grasp some of the cross tim
bers on the opposite side of the shaft.
He gathered his strength and by
superhuman effort tore his ''jumper"
from the spike and leaped with ex-
tended hands ready to grippe anything
that might stay the fall. He caught
the sill of the drift and held it with
the energy of despair. When he
found his hold was firm he worked
his body up to the floor of the drift
ard was safe. Then he reached the
signal rope, had the cage brought up,
got aboard, went to the surface, told
the story of his appalling danger and
then went down the shaft and finished
his inspection. His hair is a little
grayer, but that is all the change
noticeable in the superintendent