The Wadsworth dispatch. [volume] (Wadsworth, Nev.) 1892-1899, 1899-01-11
WEDNESDAY. JANUARY IL. 1899
TRIBUTE TO THE MINER.

In war days tie brave man is made a
hero. Alive he has the victor's wreath
of laurel dead he is covered with cy-
press aud his grave is wet with a nations
tears. We build monuments to him. He
has the seat OF honor in public gathers
Jugs and in legislative halls. But the
brave man in peace is unknown. Alive,
he has no wreath; dead no nations
tears, no monument and 10 honor. In
the excitement of battle when all the
c%onlbative devil in a nan is wide awake
and eager, when the roar OF cannon,
shrek OF shell, whiz of bullet and crack
OF rifle work every ierye TO a breaking
pitch, it is easy 10 do and dare. a mar
IL but following nature to be brave then.
But In The darkness OF underground life,
says the Mining Reporter, where q loose
scale, a falling rock, a rotten spreader,
poor timbering, rotten ladder, delayed
shot, poison gas or unlocked for fire
may bring death or suffering in az horri-
BILE forms as are found on the battle
field, to do a heroic act is another thing.
Excitement, the innate love TO combat,
noises of hattie, the inspiration OF duty,
patriot FIN, pride and honor are absent.
Ii tnan is brave there it is LrcS uee he
is brave by nature. Aud there are tens
Of thousands who prove their Drawer,
in these places ever, day.
Every day the miner, either at the
coal banks or al the ore mine, takes his
lilc III his hands, and day by day lie
risks it Tor another. In every mining
town Or camp sometiiue during the year
"a bruised, bloody, shaleiess corpse is
| raised nom the shalt. All 100 often a
great accident fills the region with hor-
ror, when wives and children weep, and
| wives and children who are white and
silent in woe, gather around the shaft
mouth, down whirh death has reaped
u harvest. And such events always tur-
nish illustrations OF bravery EQUAL to
I any ever seen where the flag waves and
the yell OF the charge is heard.
We STOOD by y Comstock shaft when i,
was necessary fur some n TO 20 down
on the u x to save the lives Of fellow
worknen below. Going down on that
cage MAS almost cer'a in death. There
were plenty ready to go. Said one
Here John, you've got a wife; l haven't.
Let me go down in your place." Were
Drawer words ever said on the battle
field? He went, and said: .'If don't
ring up in five minutes. III be dead and
dont take amy lisk for me-" What a
long five minutes they we're. No ring
came. But he closed the bulkhead he
went to close, and died before returning
to the shalt. He gave his lie for others.
The other day two men in a shalt lit
the fuse TO a 2n-inch hole and pot into
the bucket and rang hoist. The bucket
went up To the lower thinkers aud caught.
One miner fell back to the bottom. The
other rang stop, hen loaer, and went
back to the bottom and pulled the fuse.
and saved his 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 their lives in irving to save
others from snowslides. The miner is
as brave as the soldier. Peace hath her
victories nc less than war, aad they,are
nobler, ~tecause cone without the in9u-
ences winch 'orce a soldier to do well.