The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-10-18
AN AWFUL EXPERIENCE.
Trapped In Mine With u Blast Euse
LIGHTED.

Lighted.
A MIN with an empty sleeve told q
curious story in one of the hotel lob
bics. "In 1889 [ was prospecting in the
Jop!tn lead district" he said, land with
two partners had sunk Il shaft about
&c feet deep Oh promising claim. At
the bottom Of the excavation we start
ed to 'drift'-in other words to drive
tunnel at right angles. One afternoon,
when the tunnel had progressed some
II feet, it became necessary to put in
a blast. I was below at the time and
my two companions were at the top,
working the windlass. 1 drilled hole
in the formation, which was very hard,
put in a dynamite cartridge, tamped it
we'll with broken rock. lit the fuse and
stepped into the bucket. At the first
turn of the windlass the rope broke at
the top and dropped down into tn"
shaft The bucket fell only yard or
so, but plunged head first against the
side and it was perhaps couple OF
minutes before I could collect my
Benses.
Then in a fash I realized my situa-
ton and jumped back into the tunnel
to extinguish the fuse, but it had al
ready burned down to the tamping and
all I could see was little smoke ooz-
ing out through the rocks. could hear
my partners yelling to me from above,
hut knew there was no other rope in
our camp and the only thing I could
think of was to pick out the tamping
and get at the fuse before it reached
the dynamite. For all I knew the ex-
plosion might take place at any instant,
but grabbed drill and began to claw
at the tight packed rock. In few
seconds realized that it was a hope
less task, so dropped the drill and
as q last resort ran back to the shaft
and crouched against the far wall.
"If I live to be thousand contin-
ued the story teller, Il will never for
get my agony while l waited for the
blast to go off, knowing full we'll that
my chances for escape were almost too
small for computation. 1t seemed as II
the explosion would never occur, and
all the while q horrible panorama of
death and mutilation was rushing
through my brain. Now! Now!
'Nowr Kept saying out loud, think
ing each tine uttered the word that
the roar would follow, but it didn't. l
could have sworn that 10 minutes
elapsed and I was beginning to feel a
wild hope that the fuse had gone out
when an awful thunderclap came and
everything disappeared
"N1y partners had secured new rope
and were pulling me out when l recov-
cred consciousness. My left arm had
been crushed and I was peppered all
over by flying rock, but suffered most
from the poisonous gases Of the nitro
clycerin in the dynamite. Next day
they took off my arm at the elbow and
it was six months before got out Of
bed. Strange to say my hearing wasn't
affected and, as you see, have no
scars on my face. So I may consider
myself very lucky on more counts
than one.
"By the way, there was one very
strange incident connected with the af-
fair. AS said before, it seemed to me
that 1 lay there an interminable time,
waiting for the blast to go off. After
ward, when I was convalescent men
toned the matter to one Of my part
ners and he looked surprised. He told
me that he was at the shaft mouth
when I crouched down and that the
explosion occurred Immediately after
ward. He was intending to drop his
coat over me, but didn't have time to
take IT. off."-New Orleans Times-Dem-
ocrat.