Daily Kennebec journal., 1899-01-19

rock perhaps OF Dut le" ou'Ne'
weight will fan hundreds or ieel
down shaft and striking some un-
fortunate upon the head will XIII MN
as surely as a rifle bullet would. oc-
casionally a stick of timbe. or a mine
drill will fall into the shaft ana woe
batide the men below them. Miners
have been buried for days under hun
dreds Of tons of rock and were rescued
alive. the rocks having so fallen as to
protect them from the mass above
Not infrequen,ly parties OF miners are
cut off by fall o: ground behind
them. leaving them without food OF
water in some dark drift or chamber
in the bowels of the earth. 1t is then
that their fellowmineis show the
stuff they are made of. Cornish. irish.
Swede and Finn-all of the many ma
tjonalities employed about the mines
are as a unit Questions of nationality
and religion are all forgotten and
there is but one thought--how to res
cue the imprisoned men before nun
ger. thirst or another fall of ground
have killed them. The men work in
relays, the narrow drifts rendering il
possible to put but few men at one
time on the mass of fallen rock. Ham,
mer 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 giants and lift with their
shovels such masses of rock as would
seem filter for a horse to draw. Not
tft.t- I.la ..,te.
Dlaced-not a man hut uses the last
ounce Of strength that nature and toll
have given him. AT the end of 10 or
IL minutes the men step 10 the rear.
painting. covered with sweat from
every pore and throw themselves
down upon the Ieares. 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 moments cessa-
ton. Timhermen tread upon the
heels Of the miners and shore up the
openings, for ii not infrequently hap
pens that rescuers are buried also be-
meath 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 a rescuing
party. no matter how severe the toll
or how dangerous the work.
Next TO falling ground the miners
suffer most from their own careless
ness. Familiarity with the dark open
inss OF the mine leads to contempt of
their dangers. Many a poor fellow
has walked into an open shaft. TO he
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 at
circus, in the incline shafts. At the
majority of mines, however, the miners
are supposed to ascend and descend
on the ladders. Climbing quarter Of
mile of ladderWays after 10 hours of
hard labor with pick and shovel is not
a pleasant task and it is not to be
wondered at that the men violate the
standing rule of every mine and ride
up in the sllips, which are great iron
''-NN"' 'i'Nii tie Nht top, bt
Wheels upon the rails resting on the
footwall of the shaft. Many men
nave lost their lives through stealing
rides. At the Lake Angelina mine
lShpeminE. some years ago, one MINER
Of party OF four working In the
''sump" at the bottom of the shaft
was taken suddenly sick and started
to ride to the surface in the skip. Two
minutes later d dark object came
bounding down the shaft and fell at
the feet of the three remaining men
one of them picked it up and with Il
scream fell fainting to the floor The
held his head over it's edge where the
iron-bound timberS of an upper level
came close To the opening of the shaft.
and it was his head that his partner
picked up 500 feet below. while the
headlcss body was dumped in the
shaft-house as the ski, ,vas automati-
cally reversed at the pocket.
Water is the cause of rare but ter
riblc accidents. In the Detroit mine,
at lshpeming. 10 years ago. the miners
were forced to run for their lives from
the contents of an underground cis-
tern. These openings. containing the
water of CrystalliZation. are called
"vugs" by the miners and are usually
small but the one at the Detroit held
millions of gallons. At the Mansfield
iron mine, on September 27 1893. the
Michisamme river broke through the
roof of the mine. which had been
opened under the bed of the stream.
and drowned 2S men within few. mo-
ments. The owners had been warned
of the danger by the men, but followed
the valuable seam of ore foot too far
The lake shaft of the Cleveland mine
at lshpeming. is opened under the
former bed of Lake Angeline. This
lake contained nearly a billion gallons
of water. but was pumped out in
1898 to render safe the operation of
the mine under it. Although the wa
ter was pumped out in few months.
there remained sheet of mud two to
Is feet in thickness. which was too
thick to pump and too thin to shovel
The mud is still there. many years
after tie water was taken, and occa-
breaks through into the mine
and gives the miners a lively chase
1t is watched with exceeding care by
The management of the mine and at
the first sign of danger the men are
warned and come to the surface.
Germany iS hound fo loco M obooo,,