The Irish standard., 1894-02-17
SAVED BY A. RAT.
Thrilling Experience in a Gazing
Arizona Mine,
The Rodent Burrows His Way to an Ina-
prisoned Mine Surveyor. In This Man
ner Supplying Him with the
Needed Air

"You were asking about that stuffed
rat in my room" said Prof Churchill,
the mining expert, to q New York Sun
man .''The story concerns an expe-
rience that made my hair curl. was
once retained to report upon the work
ings Of a mine called the Little Whoop
Up, in southern Arizona. On an adj
;oining 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 a half million in
ore taken out. The first thing to do
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 were sent to
make the survey There arc tricks in
all trades. and the Whoop Up superin-
tendent knew a few. When we reached
The mine he said the tunnel we
wished to explore was in q dangerous
timbers were rotten, and SO on. 1t
meant q ten to one chance that we
would be crushed if we tried it. OF
course, we classed him as a liar, though
he turned out to be right.
eve worked our way in the tunnel
until we ran against a jam Of fallen
tinbers which were sound and were
Dlainly arranged to stop our progress.
Parks went back for an ak, while
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 a terrific crash Of loose ore from
The roof. It fell on both sides OF the
rimbers, pinning me in hole which
would have been Il grave right there
cut for a few sticks which held the
mass of ore above. The place was
barely large enough to move in, and
enew it was certain death in q few
Aours unless Parks could dig me out.
even then believed | was gone, for
did not know how much ore had fallen.
in few minutes the air got heavy,
and my eyes began to feel drowsy, and
it seemed like the roof and sides of the
preston and drowsiness increased until
was forced to hammer the sides of the
place with my fists and head to keep
awake Still not sound could ! hear
from the outside, and only the slow
crum bling of ore from above. The
foul air was getting into my brain. and
/ think l was actually insane with the
fearful dread of being buried alive.
Anyhow, I remember of dropping to
she floor of the hole, and giving few
flint shouts which echoed back into
nay ears. had given up all hope, and
was almost swooning when I heard
strange scraping sound above me. |
ve1led. 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
Sae queer, scraping noise which seemed
10 come nearer and nearer and sounded
oot unlike the steady grinding of a
Jaw It seemed to last for hours,
Enough 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 a
big gray mine rat, who saved my life,
or ne had left clear hole for his trail,
ind 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. stayed there two hours
& fter 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 we'll fed
until he died. and wouldn't take a lot
of money for his skin now"
MApOC,EON WAS IN SING SING.
I.ocked Up by = Keeper White on Visit