The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-07-16
CHAPEL IN A COAL NINE.
Welsh Disgers Who Worship $50 Feet
Under Ground.


Swansea. Wales. Letter. in Kansas City
I have just returned from a place of wor-
ship $50 feet underground, in the heart of a
coal mine. This strange Christian chapel is
at Mynydd Newydd, near Swansea, in West
Glamorgan. My way TO church was up a
steep hill; then down in a wet and dirty iron
cage to the bottom of a shaft, and through
a series of may labyrinths, lighted by the
glimmer Of the miners candles, to the
chapel. The walls are formed. in part, of
small, rough pine logs. through which. the
thick coal seam "out-crops" to view here
and there. 1t is not an attractive place and
suggests to those unacquainted with coal
mines a speedy death from want Of oxygen.
The roof is menacingly close overhead, but
1T is hard and smooth and has been whitened
with lime, so hat it looks like an artificial
ceiling. AS you enter you observe that the
side and furnished with rude plank seats,
placed at equal distances between the
props. To be exact. there are eight of these
seats on either side, with room for six per-
sons on each, while at the entrance and at
the desk. or pulpit. there are what Welsh
Nonconformists call set fawrs"-or big
seafs-fn which the miners face one another.
These would hold. at a pinch. perhaps. a
dozen each, SO that there is sitting accom-
mediation for over one hundred in this little
1t is not much like a church, this little
chamber, and yet there are points of re-
sem5lance TO the %fanciful. The double rows
or pine logs supporting the r~oof-what are
they but the columns of this minister? The
pathway leading between the seats and the
pillars forms the nave. and the seated por-
ions inside the columns are the aisles of
the building. There is no altar. but the high
wooden desk at the end certainly suggests a
pulpit.
AS the colliery is worked with naked
lights there is no risk in Illuminating this
little chapel in the depths of the fossilized
forest; indeed, the miners subscribe regu-
lariy Tor candles, which are stuck on the
pillar. an allowance of two being made for
tne pulpit. There is no regular officiating
1nna ! a Leader calls on persons at ram
at the early hour offs, before the men go to
WorK. Ine leader gives out a hymn and the
voices OF prayer and praise ring out in this
nlied and outside men are squatting with
lamps by their sides-for lamps are not al
smoke they emit. 1t is only as the ewes get
accustomed to the gloom that one sees all
the shadowy forms assembled. They have
taken their seats noiselessly.
The service Is entirely in the Welsh Ian
guage and almost invariably consists of a
chapter from the Bible. two hymns and two
treasured in a tin case, is carefully taken
out and one Of the miners, with emphatic
measured information, reads a chapter. Then
another miner offers prayer. and surely the
surroundings are well adapted for com
muning with the Deity. The dead silence.
unproken even by an echo. the remoteness
or the occupation, the common sense of
need and protection which must exist in
tne minos or the worshipers all tend TO
accentuate the generation and DEVOTION In
herent In the Welsh character. The Welsh
man Is always eloquent in his own language
ana dumb as an oyster in any other. IT Is
the way the Celt has.
Another prayer, another hymn and the
meeting, which rarely lasts more than half
TO three-quarters of an hour, comes to a
close. The miners separate and go 10 their
working places impressed by their depend
ence on the protection of Providence. A
sooner is unknown at this little chanel. and
IL Is admitted that the Mynydd Newydd
pit contains an unusual proportion of sober.
upright. thoughtful workmen. No special
reference is made in the prayers to the
colliers life. There is no thought Of sect or
creed, and people who think OF Wales as
being. rent by Nonconformist dissensions
VIII be surprised TO learn that Baptists.
Calvinists. Methodists. Congregationalists
ana others here take turns at prayer, while
the hymns used are such as are known In
wales by all denominations alike.
AFTER the service 1 learned that although
Mynydd Newydd Chapel is probably the
only one existing, IL is not without prece-
dent. AT another old colliery known as Tyr
away. there was for many years a larger
chapel in which the workmen regularly as
sembled for worship. But the pit has been
hooded and abandoned and the chapel. too.
Mountain"-enjoys. so far as is known To-
cally. the distinction of being the lowest
church in the land. At the Pentre pit. in
the same district. worknien for years did
together before work. but they did IL on a
piece OF vacant ground near the pit bank.
| The Mynydd Newydd Chapel has been I'm
use for hfty-four years. II was opened and
dedicated on Aug. Is. 1S45. two or three
years after the opening OF the ~colliery.
There are one or two men stin working In
| the colliery who were present at the first
: service. They were boys at the time.