The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-01-31
IN THE CONTSTOCK.

II don't mean that ever had leg OF nm
arm blown off by n blast-you can see that
for yourself-but l was injured so that
couldn't work underground any more, and
that is the reason got this place as watch
man on tho surface. y doctor can't always
lind the place man is hurt, and when
man is done up by n ghost guess it amt
any use to try and patch him up ut the hos
pital. Tell you about it? Why, amt
stuck on talking about that night, but as
you say you have heard something about it
and want the real facts I'll tell you the
story-tell you first what we afterward re-
membered about Tom Askew and then
about my night with the ghost, for that
makes the story the same as they write
them.
1T was years ago when every mine on
the Comstock was laying on as many men
rs could DO worked-from the Utah on the
north to the Justice on the south. 1t was
nothing out of the way then to see new
man or two in the dressing room and moth
ing much was thought one night, when we
werc changing to go down on the IL o'clock
Shift, for II new man to report to the time
Keeper. Mostly men were put on with the
morning shift, but this man gave his name,
Tom Askew, and that was the name of one
OF the new men given to the timekeeper.
He was youngish, smooth faced man,
Cornish by his speech, though he talked but
little. saw nothing of him after we left
the dressing room, for was in the gang
who were cleaning out the 1,sOO-foot level,
which had been flooded, and he was sent
down with the gang who were repairing
the pump rod near the incline sump. The
water in the incline stump was nearly boil
ing and as the timbers were all slippery
from the flooding it was Il nasty and dan
gerous place to work.
when we reported off at o'clock tho
next morning Tom Askew was missing.
The station boss who had charge of the
sump gang told the shift boss that about
O'Clock in the morning Askew had asked if
he might go to the cooling room on the sta
ton above, and rs he was new man the
boss thought he might be sick from the
heat, so had not wondered about his not re
turning to work. Tho morning shift were
told to make Il search for the missing man.
and at 10 o'clock the foreman reported to
the superintendent that n new mnn-Tom
Askew-had fallen in the incline sump on
the night shift. If they got the water out
of tho incline they might find enough of
his boiled bones to hold an inquest on. The
foreman had just naturally supposed that
Askew was i'll the stump because they could
not find him.
The man was not n member of the Min
ers' union, so nothing much more would
have been heard of poor Tom Askew if Tom
himself had not reported on for work on the
O'Clock shift that afternoon. This was the
sure enough Tom, for he had brought a let
ter to the foreman n couple of days before
who recognized him. The real Tom could
not do much to clear up the muss. He said
he had been ordered by the foreman to re-
port OH the night before. He had gone to
his lOprf1iptp bOuca 70 OF clo
at about 0 o'clock of that evening man
had come to him and said he had orders
from the foreman to tell him not to report
OH until the next afternoon The man who
gave him this order was n youngish, smooth
faced Cornishman. OF course there was n
big fuss for IL while trying to find ont who
the man cooking in the stump could be, but
there were big developments and plenty of
accidents in those days, and the other Tom
Askew was soon forgotten.
1.-Two or three weeks after that the men
on my level had something to talk about
that drove all thought of the other Tom out
OF their heads, for the ghosts that are in
every mine were getting mighty trouble
some i'll ours, and particularly on our level
I've had more book learning than most
miners, and while l know we'll enough
there are ghosts, don't believe every yarn
heard in the cooling rooms or on the sta
ton when the men got together for their
meals. The men talked heap about
strange noises and shadows and tools that
were changed from their places All these
things could be explained without going to
the ghosts for it,
Down in the hot mines, where the earth
swells with such force that great timbers
are crushed to little splintcrs by it, there
are sure to be noises; where the air is so hot
1T burns your lips as you breathe there are
sure to be vapors that make strange shad-
ows; where loosened rock falls without
warning tools can be knocked out of place.
Besides, there were rats in the mine The
miners eat but little of the big pals Of din
ner they take down with Them and there
is enough meat and bread scattered around
to feed an army of rats, and they make sud-
den noises that give u man q SILVER even in
n hot drift
well, we were running II crosscut from
the main north drift on our level and most
OF the firing was left to me to do You know
that when you are ready to fire blast all
the men out one working OH that face 20
to u safe place and the man who remains
makes the shot.
81 know we'll enough that none of the
men on my gang wanted to be left alone in
the face of that crosscut to do the firing,
for the ghost had actually been seen ON an
upper ieVei lately, ana there was good
deal Of q scare all over the mine That
crosscut was not very likely place to be
left alone in even with no ghosts about. 1t
was in about forty feet, and ms it was start
ed off from very near the end of the main
drift there was no passing of cars or of men
to keep you company
Back about n hundred feet from where
our crosscut started, Wine had been
sunk from little chamber cut off from tho
drift. That winze-a Wine is just shaft
sunk from some level underrronnd instead