Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1905-08-14
IN ABANDONED MINE IS HOURS
Perilous Fall Down a Disused Shaft in
the Transvaal

II is doubtful II any of the competitors
at Bisley rifle meeting has experienced an
adventure more gruesome or perilous than
one that befell Mr.. Menzies, one Of the
members of the Tiansvaal team.
AS nest people know who live or have
lived in or about Johannesburg. there is
disquieting large number Of deathtraps
on 1.-THE FIELDS" in the shape Of abandoned
mine shafts, which have been left with
out cover and without being rallied off.
Il was walking from the mine to my
home, said Mr.. Menzies. in telling the
story, about half past s on dark even
ing 1 thought l was keeping to the road,
but must have turned aside a few feet.
1 was going along briskly enough, when
/ lost my foothod. l felt fearful blow,
and then another. ! had fallen down a
dsused shaft l fell first down an in
clined shaft, seventy feet as I afterward
measured Then came second incline,
twenty feet more then a third section,
this time vertical twenty feet more. FL
nally, ] landed a-straddle couple Of
pieces of waffle staging, laid across the
last section of the shaft
About one hundred feet below this
again was the bottom part of the work.
ings. fun OF water. Had fallen 10 either
side instead of in the middle onto the
timbering / must, Of course, have fallen
into the water and been drowned.
As far as ! thought at all. wondered
what had happened and what would hap
pen next. When / came 20 myself lit
tie / put my hand to my head. where
there was an overwhelming pain. and my
hand became sticky whence 1 concluded
that I had struck my head against the
side in falling and was bleeding.
"Fnr a long time / renamed there.
clinsiug desperately to the staging. and
not knowing whether 1 should become so
weak and giddy as to fall again 10 my
death ] had no matches and Of course.
was in total darkness; but felt my way
to the side timbers and TO some piping.
and by these l managed that night to
climb up TO where the second section Of
the shaft began. twenty feet above
How I got through the next day I
have scarcely notion. know 1 chung
there and listened desperately for any
sound which might hint OF coming help;
but as the hours passed and nobody came
1 had TO recognize that nobody was likely
to come near the workings, much less
down them. and that unless could save
myself there was no prospect of my being
saved.
Several times I heard people pass within
a shorI distance Of the mine. and then
cried out as loud as 1 could; but 1 got
no reply. once I felt sure I heard my
little daughter calling TO me and / call
ed back with all my might; but nobody
came / found out afterward that my
little girl had been there. bur though I
heard her she could not hear me. I
suppose my voice was weak and that the
sound, when it reached the surface. was
dissipated in the upper air, and so could
not be made out
Early the next mornng-the second
morning Of my imprisonment-partly by
shining up pieces Of timbering, partly
by clawing and digging into the sides
with my hands-for I had not even a
knife with mel managed to Chamber &c
the top. l. was half-past 1O-thirty-eighi
hours from the time when had fallen.
Il shall not forget my first look at tn,
] upper world again. ! was. Of course
shaken all &c pieces, and when ! got home
1 felt more dead than alive"