Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1894-07-05

world, according n ny 81
thinking, than cveF cG talkad b Ii
the newspapers, or have the Victor
ia Cross presented 70 them, Or have
books written about them after they
are dead and gone.
All the same, I've never been able
TO make up my mind as to whether
one man I've knewn was hero or
not. Maybe I'm a heavy kind o.
chap, and things don't strike me so
clear as they do others; but If / tell
you the story just as it happened,
you can put what reading You like
on it.
I'm a miner down Staffordshire
way, have been a miner all my life,
and recond I'm likely to stick to
the pick till some explosion comes
along and makes an end Of me.
l worked with a gang in the Nine
Pits colliery about fifteen years
back, and there was one man there
who hailed from South Wales as I
got pretty friendly with.
I've called him . ssman," but l
don't know il the title comes right.
He was more like a astnnted boy than
man, and more like some sort Of
queer animal than either. He was
dwarf. He had d monstrous large
head and shoulders, and pair of
little, bowed twisted legs no bigger
than child's of nine years old.
His back was crooked; he had a
lot of hair on his face, as those
Welshman have, and his eyes had a
look IN them as ! never could get
at the bottom of -Eh6T wcrc deep
set in his head, as black and bright
as a bit Of silkstone, and sometimes
there would come d cloud into them
and duh them. and he would stare
out before him as stupid as if he
was tranced; it was sad look, too,
as well as dull, and l never could
make out what he was thinking of
then.
I've said we were pretty friendly,
but / don't know as / was anything
more than civil to him. I have al
ways been cautious with them
dwarfs, for though he seemed gentle
enough. | had heard they could
be spiteful and vicious If you crossed
them in any way. He was clever,
as they often are, and could speak
English as well as any of us. He
had been two years and more at the
Nine Pits, and he brought some
money with him when he came, for
he had cottage of his own and a
tidy piece of garden, which was
above what the rest Of us had.
You might think that, being so
misshapen and little, he wasn't
much good in q coal miner, but !
can tell you there wasn't man of
six feet among us stronger than he
was. To have seen him swing his
pick would have made you hold
your breath; he went at the work
like steam, and he could walk, you
see, down some Of the narrow, low
galleries, where chapsaike me would
have to crawl.
/ lived aloag with my father and
sister then. We we're precious poor,
and father used to say he hoped
Hetty would marry some one able
to keep her, and SO give us lift
that way.
Hetty was powerful pretty. I've
seen a sight Of women, rs you may
suppose. in six and thirty years, but
/ have never seen one that could
come near her for good looks.
Bright and light she wss as sun
shine. and she had bit Of temper,
too, but only what ron may call the
froth atop . jug Of cider, making
it all the spicier.
When me and ny mates left work
Of an evening, she would come along
the road TO meet us sometimes. and
put her arm through mine and talk
as gay as . bird.
One day new hand came to the
pit, Jim Marwood By name. Not
q pleasant fsnae when ron think ol