Arizona republican., 1904-05-01
 WET COMPANY IN A MINE SHAFT.
A Tale of Good Luck in Fallng-As
 Told il Jersey.

ing as firmly believing that there would be no more winters, says New Jersey dispatch to the New York Sun. On Tuesday afternoon three men got wet in trying to cross one of the canals where the ice was only three inches thick in places, where 24-inch ice had been cut before the last spell of cold weather. The S-inch ice was softened by the sun and was leathery and "teet- cry" as the boys used to say.
 Terry Maloney was one of the trio that broke through the spongy ice, and Terry was sitting by the big pot stove in the barroom of the inn when the field boss came in and said: How are you now, Terry?"
 None the better for seeing you, Billy Degragh. Does me time go on whilst 1 was drying me clothes and wetting me insides here?"
 Don't worry about that" said the field boss. Just have another nip on the company. You are too tough to be hurt by a wetting in or out. If the time keeper says anything send him to me and I'll have it fixed up for you"
 Then turning to the two visitors from the city he said: There is a man who will probably outlive us all II Ue Has lO Cle Dy dCCIuGil anu ltOl by sickness. He bears a charmed life. Maloney let's have the story of the abandoned mine. There are few among us that ever heard it.
 Me pipes out" said Maloney.
 Have a cigar?" said one of the visitors, and Terry lit up and this is the tale he told:
 Its an owld and oft told tale of the mine. It happened twinty years agone down between Hibernia and the Copperas Mountain and it would be a job for three men to tell it right in as many different tongues. l was walk ing sprightly in the middle of the road on a night as dark as the inside of a black cat when I stepped into hole in the ground. Now for a bump! I said to meself as I went down Tor a minute or more. But there was a splash instead of a bump and a friend lyf hand reached out and grabbed me. ''I didn't know whether it was the imp of darkness that had me or not, but I had me poipe in me mouth, and I said as l was pulled into a drift: Have yez a loight me poipe is out? Divil a word of answer did l get, and felt for me flask, to see if it was broke. It was not, and after taking a swig from it I blew me breath at the imp and held it out to him.
 Now, mind you, it was dark as a bit of charcoal wrapped in black broad cloth, but, wan way or another, a hand met mine and l handed over the bottle. There was a gurgle all too long to suit me and then reached out with fine sense of direction and grasped the bottle.
 ' Me matches are wet said I. And yet no answer that I could understand, but just heather tumble of words. 'I got out the little penny box of l parlor matches and found the box soaked and giving out a ghost light 1 like a bunch of glow-worms, but it was not light enough to show me whether me friend had the split hoof and spiked tail or no. l coaXed one of the matches by rubbing it gently in | the lining of me hat for five minutes | or more, and then whiskt it smartly ! across me thumb nail.
 "The head of the match came off. 1 Then l tried another wan in me hair for tin minutes or so, and looked about | for a place to scratch it. It was then I heard a humping behind me, and | in a second the match was snatched from me hand and blazed up. In an | other second we had a light, and found me comrade in misery was a 1 miner with a lamp in his cap. He l had knocked two rocks together to gi | dry bit to scratch the match on | in the damp hole.
 He was a big Hungarian miner with not a bit of command of me ! l I get out of him understandingly ex- l cept boss and I was more the boss ] of him than he was of me. We was ir a timbered tunnel sloping away from the shaft of an old mine, and no ladder
 to climb the fifty feet or more.
 was discussing with meself the pros | pect of me eating him or him eating | me, when we heard a. yell and a splash
 and had a third man in the pit "I said to meself as I dragged hin
 cut of the water: If enough of then
 come we can climb out on each oth CTS shoulders
 "The wind was knocked Out of hin
 enteirely and 1t was an hour or les.
 before he could speak, and then it wa:
 nothing but Dutch for while, and was left out of the conversation. B! l the light of the lamp I recognized hin
 as Charley Gott, tthe Dutch highbind
 CT. He worked for the agent at tht
 company's store and converted tn Hun, Slav and Sweedy talk into some
 thing like English for the benefit oi
 the bosses. l says 10 meself: If Ii
 comes to starving it's him I'll eat
 When Charley came to his senses
 he asked how long we had been in the
 hole and I found that the miner was
 ahead of me not more than ten min
 utes. Charley seemed to know what
 had happened and said that we would
 be out all right in the morning. Il was his opinion that an ovid shaft haC
 been covered up and later on, the
 road had been changed to go over
 not knowing that the mine was there
 In time, he said, the timber that COW cred the hole had routed away and
 gone down into the water at the bot