Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-09-22
A CURIOUS EXPERIENCE.
Waiting in u Mine for n Blast to Go
OFF.

From the New Orleans Times Democrat
man with an empty sleeve told curl
Gus story in one of the hotel Hobbies last
right in 1889 l was prospecting In the
joplin lead district" he said, land with
two partners had sunk n shaft about thirty
feet deep on a promising claim AT the
bottom of the excavation we started to
'drift-in other words, to drive tunnel
at right angles. One afternoon, when the
tunnel had progressed some twelve 1eet, IL
became necessary to put In blast. was
below at the time and my two companions
were at the top, working the windlass L
drilled a hole in the formation, which was
very hard put in a dynamite cartridge,
tamped it well with broken rock, lit the
fuse and stepped into the bucket. At the
first turn of the wind'ass the rope broke
at the top and dropped down into the shaft.
The bucket fell only a yard. or so, but l
plunged head first against the side, and 1t
was perhaps a couple of minutes before L
could collect my senses. Then in a flash |
realized my situation and jumped back into
the tunnel to eXtinguiSh the fuse, but 1t
had already burned down to the tamping
and all I could a little smoke ooz-
ing out through the rocks. | could hear
my partners yelling to me from above but
/ knew there was no other rope In our
camp and the ouly thing / could think of
was to pick out the tamping and get at
the fuse before it reached the dynamite.
For all | knew the explosion might take
place at any instant, but | grabbed drill
and began to claw at the tight-packed rock.
In a few seconds l realized that it was a
hopeless task, SO 1 dropped the drill and as
last resort ran back to the shaft and
crouched against the far wall.
IF l live to be thousand continued
the story teller. II will never forget my
agony while I waited for the blast to go
or knowing full we'll that my chances for
escape were almost too small for computa-
ton. 1t seemed as If the explosion would
never occur, and all the while a horrible
panorama of death and mutilation was
rushing through my brain Now: Now!
Now l kept saying aloud, thinking each
time I uttered the word that the roar
would follow, but it didn't. l could have
sworn that fifteen minutes elapsed, and l
was beginning to feel a wild hope that the
fuse had gone out. when awful thunder
clap came and everything disappeared. My
partners had secured new rope and were
pulling me out when l recovered conscious
ness. My left arm had been crushed and
1 was pcppered all over by flying rock, but
suffered most from the poisonous gases of
the nitroclycerine in the dynamite. Next
day they took off my arm at the elbow, and
it was six months before l got out of bed.
Strange to say, my hearing wasn't affected
and, as you see. have no scars on my face.
So 1 may consider myself very lucky on
more counts than one. BY the way there
was one very strange incident connected
with the affair. AS l said before. 1t seemed
to me that lay there an interminable time
waiting for the blast to go off. Afterward,
when l was convaieScent, I mentioned the
matter to one of my partners and he look
ed surprised. He told me that he was at
the shaft mouth when I crouched down,
and that the explosion occurred Immediate
his coat over me, but didn't have time to
take 1t off,"