The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-11-11

Pathetic Words From Imprisoned
Miners

IHtuotic WorOS rrom imprisoned
Miners
How Ito men feel when about TO die
not after being wasted and weakened by
disease nor when the blood is heated by
the strife of battle, but when they see IN
evitable death approaching thom and
know that In cervain number of min
utes IL will seize them? There was col
liory disaster at one of the Scranton mines
recently and one Of It's ten victims seems
to have demonstrated how miner can
face the certain approach Of death, for
with fortitude he wrote with a steady
hand in his grimy notepook words of
consolation. advice and cheer to his wife
and children up to the moment the hand
Of death was upon him. and his message
from q living tomb was ended with
quaverlng sorawl. The question is an
swered also by most remarkable record
preserved by an old Lackawanua miner,
a native OF Saxony. By tho disaster,
which was at a colliery In Saxony, many
miners lost their lives. or those who were
not killed outright by the explosion. but
were preserved for the more terrible death
OF sutfocation, one wrote messages to
their friends. None Of the messages re-
veals bitterness against the fate that the
men could not avert. The old Lackawan.
ma miner IL a survivor of that casualty,
and has copies Of the message which were
found i'm notebooks and on scraps of paper
on the bodies Of the doomed men when
hnx, ~ 1aSt tg
strange pathos In some Of the lines
scrawled by these death -besieRed men IN
the gloom OF their narrow prison. A
youth pamod Janetz had pinned to his
coat a leaf from his notebook on which
were written these last words TO his
sweetheart:
Darling Rika. My last thought WAS
OF thee. Thy name shall bc tine last word
my lips shall speak. Farewell F"
Lying next to young Janetz miner
named Moretz was found. On paper
in his cap was written:
"Janetz has Just died. Reiche is dying
and says: Tell my family leave them
with God.' Farewell. dear wife. Fare
well, dear children. May God keep you 70
The miner Reiche, when his body was
found clutched In his hand a scrap of
paper. On it was written:
Dear Sister: Meyer in the village owes
me ten thalers. 1t is yours. ! hope my
face will not bo distorted when they find
us. J.might have been tetter to you.
Good by"
The absence OF all sclfishness is apparent
in all the messages My dear relatives, "
wrote the Miner Schmidt "whilc seeing
death before me l reinemp Der you. Fare
we'll until we meet again in happiness. -
The miners who died by sutfocation bad
evidently reen driven from one place of
refuge to another, according TO the entry
in the notebook of one named Bahr.
''This is the last place where We have
taken refuge, it read. ~ have given
up oil hope, BECAUSE the ventilation has
been destroyed in three separate places,
May God take me and relatives and dear
friends who must die with me, as well as
our families under his direction.
Dear WIFE, " wrote Moller, "take good
care of Mary In the book in the led
room you will fud thaler. Farewell,
dear mother. till we meet again"
Mary was the miners only child, who
was blind. A miner named Jaehn wrote
to his brother who was miner but had
been unable to work that day:
THANK God for His goodness brother.
Thou art safe.
"No more toll in darkness" wrote
Freitch. "kind wife. rear our unborn
babe to fear God. Bless thee! Fare
wellv'
There ara other messages breathing the
same spirit. The uniform strain Of piety
running through them all is explained
by tho custodian OF the records. The
miners of Saxony are reared in strict
religious school. On entering mine they
petition heaven for protection through
the day. ana on leaving ii at night they
return thanks to God for guarding them
and bringing them safely through the
dangers of their toll.
II never read the simple messages Of
those doomed miners without wet eyes, Z"
said the old Lackawanna miner. 81 can
picture to myself the sYno of the rough
handed but soft-heartsd men spending
their last moments. not in raging against
fate, nor in wild cries for mercy and
screams of remorse. but in writing these
farewell messages TO their loved ones, who
were even thon bewailing them as dead
The sun.