The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-12-21
Anaconda MONTY Standard.


and he says that he can bring one man
now living in Butte up to the bar to
swear that his story is absolutely, entire
ly true in every particular and detail.
Usually the Old-Timers' don't exact from
story teller an oath that he wouldn't
tell the story unless all of the members
Of the club took his word for 1t that 1t
was true. So his story Is regarded as
gospel truth.
LAS you all know" began the speaker
of the evening, II am and have been for
wears miner. have worked In NUM-
Der of mines In this camp and I know
about the workings under this big copper
mound. My story Is laid in the time
when the big leads In the camp were
merging from silver into copper produc-
ing ore. / need not mention the name Of
the mine in which 1 was working.
1T was at work on the day shift. They
were ten hour shifts in those days, and
we went to work at 7 O'Clock and quit
at o'clock. There were four of US
working in the face of q drift on the
L0O0-foot level. Along about o'clock In
the afternoon the time keeper came into
the drift. and we all got mixed up In a
discussion of the silver question. we
were all silver men. all right, but the
tjme-keeper and one Of my partners took
the negative side OF the debate Just to
make the discussions moro Interesting all
around
II was thirsty. and excusins myself! I
loft the four men in the midst of the ar
gument to go out to the station. where a
keg of water was kept. In order to reach
the station had to pass a crossout. and
when I reached this I met one OF the
men from the east end Of the crosscut.
He said they had just fired a round OF
holes, but that he didn't know where his
partner was. After splitting the fuse the
two men had started for the main drift,
one walking ahead Of the other, neither
paying any particular attention to the
other, until one had reached the drift
when he looked back to see if his part
ner was coming. He had heard the re-
port Of the shots, but his partner was
nowhere to be seen.
"I ran back to the face Of our drift and
told my partners what ! had heard, and
they returned with me to the crosscut.
The timekeeper had gone up to the 200.
The crosscut was a narrow tunnel ex-
tending about 100 feet west and 800 feet
east from the drift, and there were no
passageways leading from II.
1.-THE miner feared that his partner had
turned back for some reason and was
blasted fatally. He said they had fired
four fuses. but he thought that he heard
afraid to go back until he should hear
the fourth shot. We concluded that 1t
was a missed hole. SO I suggested that we
go into the tunnel and search for the
missing man.. Perhaps he may be
msngled man In the face Of the blasts
and we ought to do something ut once
Ia the way l argued
1.-THE other miners were tirnid and they
hesitated. Finally 1 said I would go IN
1A1n
with smoke, but not so dense that one
could not breathe in it pretty well, as
breathing goes in a bad place like that.
About twenty-five feet from the face OF
the crosscut were q few sets of stulls ana
some tagging poked over the cape. IL
was q kind Of broken horse In the FOR
nation. some tale and loose rock which
1t was necessary to prop up. l hao JUST
cleared the tilnbered section ana hao
reached a point only few feet from the
face OF the tunnel when bomb went the
missed hole and was blank. Sucn a
sensation comes to a man but once
was dead as dead as a mackerel but
was not hurt. 1 was blind, yet l could
see. All of my senses had left me, yet
I stood in the midst of whirling sea OIL
blood, and could see the mountains when
encIrcls Butte, could see men ana Wo-
men walking on the streets OF the cily'
and watched the cage descend into the
mines and ascend with their loads of ore
and miners. / could see every dritt' Slope
level crosscut, VIM and shaft IN the
Damn from tho surface to the sumps
and could see the men at work.
saw the four men / had left in the
drift and the expressions on their races
changed. and l noted every changs.
II saw them cautiously walking INTO
the crosscut and watched them as they
carefully picked up the broken rock mace
nv the blasts and laid them aside IN their
search for my body, and tnat Oh INC
missing miner. 1 heard every woro tney
uttered, and they were woros OF SAuhess
and full of agony.
Sweetest music came to my ears anu
,he melody swelled until it fairly rang,
and heard sweet voices singing In the
| hallelutah chorus from The Messiah.
and the Ave Marie came as most
enchanting finale to the grand concert
1t was a sacred concert being held IN
| one of the churches. / could hear the
| priest chanting the mass. and also
heard the coarse and vulgar voices thst
came from the beer nails down town.
"AlI the while the miners were toiiing
in a vain endeavor to find my dead body
and that Of the other miner. l saw one
of the men going out Of the drift and
heard him give the alarm to other min
ers on the hill l saw them from dog
en- mines hurrying to the spot where L
Law dead and I heard the word as II pass
ed from one to another in the city, ana
l heard nquisitive reporters asking how
| Il happened and heard men saying that
l was a good man, and that the com
munity had lost a good citizen when
| died.
After a while the miners succeeded in
removing all of the broken rock from
the face Of the drift and 1 heard them
| saving that there was no dead body
there I saw myself that there was no
dead body.
"AlI was quiet The men had left and
were talking up town about the strange
| occurrence I relapsed into a cold quiet
and 1 didn't know how long / remained
in that state, but have since learned
Like a thunderbolt, as If a meteor had
descended from the sky and crushed me
into the earth, shock came to me which
restored to my spirit all of my senses
and faculties My eyes opened against a
wall of black. my arms refused to respond
to the call Of mind. my legs were pinion-
ed my whole body was held in wise
| like grip.
THE shock experienced was produced
by a vicious kick on my ankle bone
| Every muscle in my body squirmed and
shrek, for the first physical effect of the
blast was now, quite apparent. The
shrek was in concert with another and
similar Shrek which came from some
where very close to me. I said something
| Il don't know what-but no sooner has
I said it than reply came.
| Where are we?