The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1894-08-29

could see that one was busy drilling
into the coal with long thin bar.
The low roof ominously pressed his
shoulders as he bent at his toll. The
other knelt behind him on the loose
Jumps of coal.
We came upon other little low
rooted chambers, each containing two
men, "miner," who makes the blasts,
and his "laborer," who loads the coal
upon the cars and assists the miner
generally.
AT THE MAIN SHAFT.
From this tunnel of our first mine
we went with our guide to the foot of
the main shaft. Here we we're in
the most important passage of mine,
the main gangway. The wonder of
these avenues is the noise-the crash
and clatter of machinery as the ele-
vator speeds upward with the loaded
cars and drops thunderingly with the
empty ones. The place resounds with
the shouts of mule-boys, and there can
always be heard the noise ofapproach-
ing coal cars, beginning in mild rum
bles and then swelling down upon one
in tempest of sound. In the air is
the slow painful throb of the pumps
working at the water which collects ill
the depths. There is booming and
banging and crashing until one won
ders why the tremendous walls are not
wrenched by the force of this uproar.
And up and down the tunnel there is
riot of lights, little orange points
Pickering and flashing. Miners stride
in swift and somber procession. But
the meaning of it all is in the deep
bass rattle of blast in some hidden
part of the mine. It is war. It is the
most savage part of all in the endless
battle between man and nature.
These miners are grimly in the van.
They have carried the war into places
where nature has the strength Of
million giants Sometimes their enc
nv becomes exasperated and snufs
out ten, twenty, thirty lives. Usually
she remains calm, and takes one at a
time with method and precision. She
need not hurry. She possesses eter-
nifty. After blast, the smoke, faint-
ly luminous, silvery, floats silently
through the adjacent tunnels.
MINE MULES.
Over in wide and lightless room
we found the mule stables. There we
discovered number of these animals
standing with an air of calmness and
self-possesssion that was somehow
amazing to find in mine. A little
dark urchin came and belabored his
mule China until he stood broadside
to us, that We might admire his in
Vulnerable fine qualities. The stable
was like dungeon. The mules were
arranged in solemn rows. They
turned their heads toward our lamps.
The glare made their eyes shine won
drously, like lenses. They resembled
enormous rats.
1t is common affair for mules to be
imprisoned for years in the limitless
night of the mines. Our acquaintance,
China, had been four years buried.
Upon the surface there had been the
march of seasons, the white splendor
! of SHOWS had changed again and again
to the glories of green springs. -Four
times had the eal tn been ablaze with
the decorations of brilliant autumns.
But China and his friends had re.
NAMED in these dungeons, from which
daylight, if one could get view up a
shaft, would appear tiny circle, a
silver star aglow in a sable sky.
Usually when brought to the sur
face these animals tremble at tie earth,
radiant in the sunshine. Later they
60 almost mad with fantastic Joy. The
full splendors of the heavens, the
grass, the trees, the breezes break upon
them suddenly. They caper and
career with extravagant mulish glee.
After being long in the mines the
mules are apt to duck and dodge at
the close glare of lamps, but some OF
them have been known to have piteous
fears of being left in the dead dark
ness. They seem then, somehow, like
little children. We met a boy once
who said that sometimes the only way
he could get his resolute team to move
was to run ahead of them with the
light. Afraid of the darkness, they
would trot hurriedly after him and
so take the train of heavy cars to q
desired place.
NINE DANGERS.
Great and mystically dreadful is the
earth from a mines depth. Man is in
the implacable grasp of nature. 1t
has only to tighten slightly and he is
crushed like bug. His loudest shrek
of agony would be as impotent as his
final moan to bring help from that fail
land that lies, like heaven, over his
head. There is an insidious, silent
enemy in the gas. If the huge fan
wheel on the top of the earth should
stop for brief period there is certain
death and panic more terrible than
any occurring where the SUN has shono
ensues down under the tons of rocks.
If man escape the gas, the floods,
the "squeezes" of falling rock, the
cars shooting down through the little
tunnels, the precarious elevators, the
hundred perils, there usually comes to
him an attack of miners asthma and
slowly racks and shakes him into the
grave. Meanwhile he gets So per day