The Wichita daily eagle., 1894-03-03
SAVED BY A RAT.
Thrilling Experience In Caving
Arizona Mine.
The Rodent Burrows His Way to IN In
pr.soned Mine Surveyor. In This Man
nor Supplying Hip with the
Needed Air.

"Youwere asking about that stuffed
rat in my ROOM" said Prof. Churchill.
the mining expert. to New York Sun
man. '.The story concerns an expe-
rience hat made my hair curl Twas
once retained to report upon the work.
ings Of = mine called the Little Whoop
Up, in southern Arizona. On an ad-
Joining claim was another mine called
the Atlas A dispute arose. The Atlas
people claimed that the lower tunnel
Of the Whoop Up had been bored into
their ground and half million in
ore taken out. The first thing to Go
was to make survey of the Whoop
Up. and, of course. the Whoop Up peo-
pie objected. Finally an order for the
survey was secured from the court and
DR.. John R. Parks and l were sent to
make the survey. There are tricks in
all trades, and the Whoop Up superin-
tendent knew few. When we reached
the mine he said the tunnel we
wished to explore was in q dangerous
condition. There had been cave, the
timbers were rotten, and SO on. It
meant ten to one chance that we
would be crushed if we tried it. OF
course, we classed him as liar, though
he turned out to be right.
eve worked our way in the tunnel
until we ran against jam of fallen
timbers which were sound and were
plainly arranged to stop our progress.
Parks went back for an ak, while I
worked at the roof with pick to dis
lodge the center pieces / succeeded
and had climbed half way over into
the other side of the tunnel when there
came terrific crash of loose ore from
the roof. 1t fell on both sides of the
timbers. pinning me in hole which
would have been a grave right there
but for few sticks which held the
mass Of ore above. The place was
barely large enough to move in, and
knew it was certain death in few
hours unless Parks could dig me out
Even then believed l was gone, for
did not know how much ore had fallen.
In a few minutes the air got heavy,
and my eyes began to feel drowsy, and
it seemed like the roof and sides of the
hole were closing in on me. This op-
preston and drowsiness increased until
/ was forced to hammer the sides of the
place with my fists and head to keep
awake. Still not a sound could l hear
from the outside, and only the slow
crumbling of ore from above. The
foul air was getting into my brain, and
I think was actually insane with the
fearful dread of being buried alive.
Anyhow, l remember of dropping to
the floor of the hole, and giving few
faint shouts which echoed back into
my ears. had given up all hope, and
was almost swooning when heard a
strange scraping sound above me. 1
yelled, but received no answer, and
then threw my body against the walls
and tried to pick out the ore from be-
tween the lodged timbers- Still came
the queer, scraping noise which seemed
to come nearer and nearer and sounded
not unlike the steady grinding of a
saw. It seemed to last for hours,
though it could hardly have been a
minute after when a bit of earth
dropped to my feet from the upper end
Of the wall, and along with it came q
big gray mine rat, who saved my life,
for he had left clear hole for his trail,
and through it came breath of fresh
air that gave life to me. The fellow
had bored his way from the shaft side
Of the cave. 1 stayed there two hours
after that, until Parks found the cave,
got help, and got me out without
breaking the air hole. caught the
gray rat, too, and kept him well fed
until he died, and wouldn't take lot
Of money for his skin now"