The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1898-06-26
A MINERS LIFE.


u private llAe with adventures anu esCdptS
as thrilling as those that fall to the lot
of the soldier or sailor battling for their
country's' flag.
OF all the callings that men follow min
ing is recognized in all countries as the
most dangerous. With all the safeguards
that can be provided by stringent laws,
rigid inspection and the utmost care on
the part of those in charge, many men
are killed, while in the newer mining
fields which lack these precautions, the
loss of life is many times greater. Within
the ten years since the state law has pro-
vided for mine inspection, over 600 miners
have been killed in Michigan alone. ADD
to this the loss of life in the coal helds
of Pennsylvania, Ohio. Indiana and LIMOS,
the fatalities in the southern iron and coal
fields the men killed in the iron mines OF
Wisconsin and Minnesota and the acci-
dental deaths in the coal iron, cop
per, lead, silver and gold mines OF the
eleven western states and 1t is safe TO as
sumo that within the past decade many
regiments of stalwart workmen have been
killed in the performance of their every
day duties about American mines.
The dangers that threaten the miner are
many and require eternal vigilance to even
partially avoid. In the coal mines there
are two dangerous gases, choke-damp,
which suffocates, and fire-damp, which ex-
plodes with fearful violence and causes
terrible loss of life. In the iron and cop
per mines, with which this article more
especially deals, these two gases are ab-
sent and the ventilation is usually OF the
best but even So men are sometimes SUI
located by the dangerous gases generated
from the dynamite used in blasting down
no ba min often manned
killed outright, through premature explo-
sions or other accidents coming through
the use of high explosives. missed holes
are fruitful sources of accident. In these,
where the charge of dynamite has failed
to explode, for many reasons, the removal
of the dynamite and the "tamping' of
sand placed over it in the drill hole, Is a
dangerous though necessary operation
Miners have had steel drills driven through
their bodies by such explosions, while
others, holding the drill which rested on
the dynamite, have had both hands torn
off at the rists, so sudden and so terrible is
the power of the deadly giant powder.
The sticks of dynamite are cylindrical an
inch to an inch and quarter In diameter,
and eight inches or so In length. wrapped
In white brown oiled paper. To fire these
a copper cap and fuse are inserted in one
end of the package. These copper caps,
barely an inch in length and a quarter of
inch in diameter. each hold single
drop of illuminate of mercury, which is ex-
pioded by the fire from the fuse and in
turn fires the dynamite. A woman, at Re-
public, Mich. picked up one of these caps
few weeks ago, at a mine which had
been idle ten years and attempted to pick
the dirt out of it with a hat-pin. 1t ex-
ploded and the power of the single drop
of illuminate of mercury tore off her thumb
and three fingers-yet many miners carry
these caps about in their pockets, loose
perhaps a handful of them, each capable of
manning or killing the strongest man.
The greatest danger threatening the iron
or copper miner Is the fall of ground as
the men term the caving of ore or rocks
into the mine. Millions of dollars are spent
annually by the Michigan mines in timber
ing their underground openings, yet with
all precautions, scores of miners lose their
lives annually under rocks that fall upon
them. Sometimes many tons will fall at
once, crushing the men under the mass
like flies and again a single rock, perhaps
of but few ounces weight, will fall hun
dreds Of feet down a shaft and striking
some unfortunate upon the head will kill
him as surely rifle bullet would. Oc-
casionally stick of timber or a mine drill
will fall into the shaft and woe betide the
men below them. Miners have been buried
for days under hundreds of tons of rock
and were rescued alive, the rocks having so
fallen as to protect them from the mass
above. Not infrequently parties of min
ers are cut off by fall of ground behind
them, leaving them without food or water
in some dark drift or chamber in the bowels
of the earth. 1t is then that their fellow
miners show the stuff they are made of.
Cornish Irish, Swede and Finn-all of the
many nationalities employed about the
mines-are a unit. Questions of nation
ality and religion are all forgotten and
there is but one thought-how to rescue the
imprisoned men before hunger thirst or
another fall of ground have killed them.
The men work in relays, the narrow drifts
rendering it possible to put but a few men
at one time on the mass of fallen rock.
Hammer and drill pick and shovel, the
men go at the work. Stripped to the waist
that their great muscles may have freer
play these heroes strike the blows of gil
ants and lift with their shovels such masses
of rock as would seem filter for horse to
draw. Not an instant is lost-not blow
misplaeed-not man but uses the last
ounce of strength that nature and toll have
given him. At the end of ten or fifteen
minutes the men step to the rear painting,
covered with sweat from every pore and
throw themselves down upon the nearest
plank or even the rocky floor to gasp for
breath. Their tools do not touch the
ground--they are taken from tired hands by
willing workers and the titanic labor goes
on, perhaps for hours, maybe for days,
with never a moments cessation. Tim
bermen tread upon the heels of the miners
and shore up the openings, for it not in
frequently happens that rescuers are buried
also beneath the treacherous rocks. Alive
or dead, the work continues until the last
man or body has been removed 1t is not
on record that a Michigan miner has ever
refused to join rescuing party, no mat
ter how severe the toll or how dangerous
the work.
Next to falling ground, the miners suffer
most from their own carelessness Famil-
iafity with the dark openings of the mines
leads to contempt of their dangers Many
poor felloY has walked into an open shaft
TO be dashed to death hundreds or even
thousands of feet below. In some of the
deeper mines the men are lowered and
hoisted in cages at vertical shafts and in
especially constructed "skips," which have
seats in tiers, like those al a circus, in the
incline shafts. At the majority of the
mines, however, the miners are supposed
to ascend and descend on the ladders
Climbing a quarter of mile of ladderways
after ten hours hard labor with pick and
shovel is not a pleasant task. and 1t is not
to be wondered at that the men violate the
standing rule of every mine and ride up in
the sklps, which are great iron boxes, open
at the top. running on wheels upon the
h. oil Of fIn haf