Arizona republican., 1898-09-10
MINING NEWS
THE MINER AND HIS VICTORIES.

In war days the brave man is made 2. hero. Alive, he has the victor's wreath Of laurel; dead, he is covered with cypress, and his grave is wet with a nauon's tears. We build monu- ments to him. He has the seat Of hon. or in public gatherings and legislative halls. Bu: the brave man in peace IS unknown. Alive, he has TO wreath; dead, no nations tears, and no monu- ment and no honor. In the excitement of battle when all the cumulative devil ill a man is wide awake and eager, when the roar of cannon, shrlek CT shell, whiz of bullet and rattle of rifle work every nerve to breaking pltch, it is easy to do and dare. A man IS but following nature to be brave then. But in the darkness Of underground life, where a loose scale, falling rock, a rotten spreader, poor timberlng, rot ten ladder, delayed shot, poison gas or unlooked-for fire may bring death or suffering in as horrible forms as are found on the battle field. to do heroic act is another thing. Excitement, the innate love of combat, the noises Of battle. tiia inspiration of duty, patri- otism, pride and honor are absent. If 8 man is brave there, it is because he is brave by nature. And there are tens Of thousands who prove their bravery in these places every day.
 Every cay the miner, either at the coal bank or in the ore mine, takes his life in his hand, and day by day he risks it for another. In every mining town and camp sometime during the the year a bruised, bloody. shapeless corpse is raised from a shaft All too often a great accident fills the region wi.n horrcr. when wives and children who weep. and wives and children who are white and silent in woe, gather around the shaft mouth, down which death has just reaped a harvest. And such events always furnish illustra- tionS Of bravery equal to any ever seen where the flag waves and the yell Of the charge is heard.
 We stood by a CCmstock shaft when it was necessary for some one to go down OF the cage to save the lives Of fellow WOrkmen below. Going down on that cage was almost certain death. There were plenty ready to go. Said one: Here, John, you've got wife; I haven't. Let me go in your place y Were braver words ever said on battle field? He went, and said: If l don't ring up iii five minutes, I'll be dead, and don't run any risk for me-" What a long five minutes they were. No ring came But he closed the bulkhead he went to close, and died before ra- turning to the shaft. He gave his life for others.
 The other day two men in shaft lit the fuse to 20-inch hole and got in the bucket and rung hoist The bucket went up to the lower timbers and caught. One miner fell back to the bottom. The other rung stop, then lower, and went back to the bottom and pulled the fuse, and saved his partners life. Two seconds more and both would have been killed.
 There never was a winter since the settlement Of the country when men have not risked, and sometimes risked and lost, 'tEair lives, in trying to save others from snow slides. The miner is as brave as the soldier. Peace hath her victories no less than war, and they are nobler, because done without the influences which force a soldier to do Well-Mining Reporter.