Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-10-06

hands to quit work, and the enginee, came in. and placed the dynamite cartridge and the machine for settn' it off.
 We ali got at safe distance, and stood there awaitin' the explosion. Denny was almost beside himself with delight, and, steppin' out little dis tance in advance. he called out for his pal, Jim, to join him and see the snakes come wrigglin' out of the shaft. But Jim didn't answer, for he wasn't there.
 The enginer, who was a-holdin' his watch. seein' that things went off on time. turned round when he heard this, and got awful white. It didn't take no time for us to find we were four shy, and them four the ones that had been so drunk the night before. Not a man spoke, 'cept the engineer, and he said: My God!' We all knew them fellers were still in the mine.
 Then it was that Denny made the SO of us out to be towards, and him 8 hero. Without a word, he ducked his head a'tween his shoulders and set off for the shaft as fast as his legs could carry him, the green ribbon a-dutterin' over his shoulder.
 "One or two of us made move as If to foller him, but the engineer threw out his arm to stop us. and his voice sounded mighty strange when he yelled: Its death-40 seconds We all knew then that the car 5tridge would so off in 40 seconds. and that we had seen the last of Denny. It sort of paralyzed the boys, and they just stood round like so many statues. To me 1t seemed as if there was somethin' closin' in on all sides of me "a sort of interferin' with my breathin' '-and for the life of me couldn't take my eyes off the engineer, as he stood there holdin' his watch. He was as white as piece of paper, and the sweat was runnin down his face just like it was midsummer.
 Forty seconds ain't much, MT. Hop kins, but it seemed like year to me. was just beginnin' to think that maybe Denny had got there in time, after all. when the engineer let go hia watch, and sort O slipped down prayin' like The time was up, and the cartridge exploded.
 They say that drunken men has luck, and reckon it's so, for then, four drunken Irishmen weren't hurt at all. They were lyin' fiat in the side tunnel when the cartridge went of, and aside from bein' nearly smoth- cred, got off without a scratch. But 1t wasn't that way with Denny. He must have been right by tha machine when the explosion took place, for he swas all sort O caved in, and his green ribbon was as black as piece of coal.
 Men had been killed in the mines afore, but never like this, and for the first time there was complete shut- down-all in the honor of Denny. Hc had the biggest funeral that ever took place in Red Dog.
 we all felt as though we should like to do somethin' for him, for, you see, we hadn't treated him just right when he was with us; but we didn't know just what to do, until the en gineer proposed that we plant grass on his grave. There wasn't no grass in the graveyard, you know, and we thought 1t would please him to have somethin' green growth over him. You see, it was green he was a-wearin' when he died tryin' to save the boys.
 "So we had the engineer send to Chicago for the best grass seed that could be had, and when spring arr rived we hauled dirt from the valley, and planted 1t.
 Ever since then. on the night be- fore St. Patrick's day, committee one man from each workin' gang goes up and shovels away the snow, and makes things ship-shape. So when the sun comes a-peepin' and a-smilin' over Balden's ridge, a-lightin' up St Patrick's day, there1l be one little spot of green in that big white will derness, and the ribbons will be a-fiut- terin' from the stakes as mark our Denny's claim.
 That's what the boys be a-doin' aow.'