The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-19

a HAUNTED COAL NINE.
The Murdered Lover Returns TO Stay
the Rival Who Killed Him.


Ghosts in coal mines?" said a Western
Pennsylvania mine operator. We'll, I new
er saw any myself, but if 1 should go
among my miners, especially the old-tim-
ers, and say didn't believe there were any
such things in mines, and make light of
the subject they would be reluctant to
continue work for me. fearing that some
Vindictive. disembodied tenant of under
ground chambers might waylay and punish
them for labOring for one who regarded it
with such reverent scepticism. Conclu-
sive demonstration of the deep-grounded
superstition of old bituminous coal miners
in this respect is furnished by the regard
in which they hold what is called Haunted
TestsHole Mine on my property. haven't
had any other than newly hired miners
from other fields working in thar mine for
years-men who never heard what the pre-
vaillng belief is among hcme miners as to
the character of the mine.
THE bitumnous coal mines, as you may
know, are entirely different in their work
ing from the anthracite mines, the coal
from which is reached by deep shafts and
mined in tunnels that dtverge from the
shafts on all sides and at various
from the shafts on all sides and at various
depths. The bituminous mines, in which
the coal lies nearer the surface, are work
ed by digging into the sides of the hills in
slopes or drifts-often called pits or banks
These excavations frequently extend
miles underground, running in Irregular
galleries and passages here and there, I'M
til the EARTH after years of working
mine, has become a vast honeycomb or
network Of subterranean channels. When
any OF 1se are worked out they are sim
ply abandoned and left manifestations
where perpetual darkness reigns, except
when some struggling miner his supposed
know a
doned chambers having been at fault, wan
ders among them with his feeble lamp
seeking deliveranee from them.
zone great danger that lies in the I'M
known way of d miner in such a mine is
the test-hole of a chamber A test-hole is
a shaft sunk in the mine to test the depth
or thickness of a coal vein, and these
shafts are always deep and frequently fill
ed with water. There are also vast lakes
in the furtherest depths of these deserted
passages, which yawn for the bewildered
Wanderer, These lakes are where vein
has been followed in its dip, that is, its
obique descent from its horizontal plane
in mine. \ dip is always followed by the
miners until il either ceases to be a dip
and the vein resumes its horizontal posi-
ton again or goes so far into the depths
that further working of the vein becomes
either impossible or unprofitable In this
latter case it is, of course, abandoned. Wa
ter gradually enters the chambers until il
reaches it's level, and the working becomes
lake. Some of these underground bodies
of water ere of unknown depth, and it re-
quires a stout heart in man for him to
( stand on the gloomy borders of one of
these and peer out upon its dark waters
lying in The eerie glimmer of the light a
miners lamp can shed upon it, Then think
of the staring, CHASTITY face of a drowned
miner floating there, and coming slowly
within the faint line of that vision. 1 have
seen it more han once and if there is any
thing that might bring the most scepucal
and stolid of men to the belief that ghosts
haunted these aWesOme depths, l think
such a sight with such surroundings might
do it. l don't think it strange therefore,
that ignorant, impressiOnable men. passing
more than half their lives amid such sur
roundngs, should be grounded in a like
belief beyond the power of reasoning to
change It.
Years ago among the men working in
one of my mines, We're two likely young
fellows one an Englishman, the other an
Irishman. They had been good friends
enough until they both fell in love with
the same girl, the daughter of a miner who
was new to the working The girl, it seems
had shown more favor to the young Irish
man, who was in consequence much elated
the Englishman becoming detected in Ike
degree. There never had been any open
quarrel between the two but the English
man showed in many ways his jealous ha-
tired of the other. They We're at work one
day in a remote part of the mine, and ear
ly in the day the Englishman came out to
where a group of other miners were work
ing and shouted to them to hurry back
with him, as his companion had been bur
iea beneath a fail of earth and rock The
young Irishman was crushed beneath il.
They bore the dead body outside. There
was sharp, deep wound in the center of
forehead besides
his body made by the cave-in. The marvel
of it all was that the Englishman who
had been working on the same bank. should
have escaped without having even been
touched by any of the falling mass.
THE Englishman continued working in
the mine, but many of his fellow-laborers
quit, declaring there was some thing wrong;
that there was n mystery about poor Bar
ney's death of which something terrible
would come They believed that the min
er had been killed by the wound in his
forehead, and that the wound had been
made before the fail of earth covered
and crushed him. a palmer charge of
foul play could not have been made than
that, but we paid no attention to it, and
the Englishman remained al his work but
1t was noticed by those who worked with
him that he never would go into the part
of that mine where the Irishman was
found dead beneath the cave-in.
"One day, month or more after the
tragedy in the mine, while the miner and
a number of others were at work in a
new drift not far from the main gallery.
using one light which was a torch such
as is used in political night parades, a
sudden draught of wind, so the miners
said, extnguished it. 1t was not only a
strong draught, but chilly one, such
as none of them ever felt before although
they thought nothing of it at the time.
only to wonder what had caused the sud
den blast. The darkness became Instant
~ impenetrable and one of the miners.
who knew the workings WELL started to
another part Of the mine to get new
light. He had been gone but a few min
utes when one Of the workingmen ex-
claimed:
"'Yonders a light down by the gallery
opening
The voice was the Engishmans. The
others looked in the direction he had in
dicated, but saw no light.
"A man went by the opening with one.
at any rate, and III 80 and fetch him !
back insisted the Englishman.
with that he hurried along the drift |
as fast as he could in the darkness TO. |
ward the main gallery which vvas opI,, |