The age-herald., 1897-09-14
MYSTERY OF A MONTANA MINE.
People Who Enter It Fall Asleep and Their Bodies
 Become Rigid.

From the Butte, Mon, Miner. >-.-.'
 ''In this line of work we come across some curious incidents and narrow es- eapes," said Deputy Mine Inspector Frank Hunter the ether might ''one th.lg struck me lcng ago. and that is how much it takes lao kill man some times and how easily the thread of life is often snapped.
 Down in Colorado I knew a fellow who plunged down 800 feet i'm a sirg,e compartment shalfs He went to the bot tom brla did not bresIk a bone. Of course he was pretty badly 5arred up and a good deai frightened, but was all right again dn "a day or two. When he fell he went down feet first, and big oil- skin thal. he wore opened at the bottom and acted as a parachute. He said the last part of his descent was so much slower than the first that he hardly thought he was dropping at all and half expected to remain suspended in the shaft like Mohlsmmsd's coffin.
 Nearly always when man falls any otjfance he turns over if he starts feet downward, and finishes his plunge hsad first. l have seen 8 number of cases where the man fell with his boots on and was found barefooted when he was picked up. I suppose this is because the blood goes to the head, making the fest smaller, and besides lhe pressure of the air upon the heel and counter acts as a boottack.
 ''I had ito go over to Sand Cculee to investigate an accident in which one man was killed and another had three ribs broken. Speaking of Sand Coulee, lt FtmlC1< Hulhido T if l wanted to commit suicide I would go there and do 1t. I don't mean that life becomes such burden in the coal coun- try that the ties that biLld are moro easily severed than elsewhere, but that it affords unsurpassed facilities for a. cheap and happy despatch. It's wonder to me That some of the people who launch themselves into eternity from Butte do not take the Sand Coulee rollc.
 Down dn the coal mines there is one passage tfslt is three miles long, and iE some of the chambers air does not seem to cincuja.te. Upon the walls there is gathering of moisture, and if you puff cigar in one of these chambers the smoke will seek the walls where 1t cling'5 with an undulattag movemerl. like a spray of weeds under IunLing water. The dew on the walls is white damp, and the dead air of the chamber where it is found Is poisonous. In a few min utes a feeling Of drowsiness steals over. a man who Ibreathes 1t, and before long he Is asleep and dreaming del5cbously, so these say who have been resuscl.at- ed. But the sleep is akin to thalt of the lost traveller over whose numbed limbs the arctic snow eddies and drifts, for unless help comes soon there is no awakening. If, however, the venture some explorer of these underground death traps realizes his danger in time and manages to stagger out in the fresh air, he has an experience To undergo which may cause him to wish that he had remained inside. Every bone ard muscle aches with the .ntolerab,e poign- ancy that is known to convalescerlts eff yellow fever. The treatment Is simple, but effective. Being nsarly dead, The sufferer is nearly buried. A hole is dug in the soft earth and the victim is made to stand up in it while the dirt is thrown in abound him until only his head is seen above ground. This draws orJ the soreness, and in a shoilt time the pa- Gerlt has recovered.'