Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1905-04-27
49,, nm green fac over tho Office

run up q green nag over the once.
"The boss was for humorin' him.
and says: And we are goin' to cele-
brate. At ten o'clock we be a-goin' to
fire of a blast. in honor Of old St.
Pat, that will blow all the snakes out
II Ireland
"'At tenn says Denny.
ayes. at ten, replies the boss.
''That sort of satisfied him. With =
out another word he grabbed his pick.
and went after the boys, a-singin'
some Irish song.
"The boss wasn't jokin', for just
about the time he said, he called all
hands to quit work, and the engineer
came in, and placed the dynamite
cartridge and the machine for settin
it of.
1--WE all got at safe distance, and
stood there awaitin the explosion.
Denny was almost beside himself with
delight, and, steppin' out a little dis
lance 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 engineer, who was a-holdin' his
watch, seem that things went off On
time, turned round when he heard
this, and got awful white 1t 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
60 of us out to be towards, and him
hero. Without a word, duched
his head atween his shoulders and
set off for the shaft as fast as his legs
could carry him, the green ribbon
a-hutterin' over his shoulder.
Zone or two of us made a 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: It's death-40 seconds
eve all knew then that the car
fridge would go off in 40 seconds, and
that we had seen the last Of Denny.
1t sort of paralyzed the boys, and they
just stood round like so many statues.
To me it 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 a piece of paper,
and the sweat was runnin' down his
face just like it was midsummer
Forty seconds amt much, Mr.. Hop
kins, but it seemed like a year to
me. was just beginnin' to think that
maybe Denny had got there in time,
watch, and sort O. slipped down
prayin' like The time was up, and
the cartridge exploded
They say that drunken men has
luck, and l reckon it's so, for them
four drunken Irishmen weren't hurt
at. all. They were lynn fiat in the
side tunnel when the cartridge went
off, and aside from bein' nearly smoth-
cred, got off without scratch. But
it wasn't that way with Denny. He
must have been right by the machine
when the explosion took place, for he
was all sort O. caved in, and his green
ribbon was as black as a 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. He
had the biggest funeral that ever took
place in Red Dog.
1--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 it would please him to have
somethin' green CROWN over him. You
see, it was green he was a-wearin'
when he died tryin' to save the boys.
$50 we had the engineer send to
Chicago for the best grass seed that
could be had, and when spring ar
rived we hauled dirt from the valley,
and planted it.
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, there'll be one little
spot of green in that big white will
deFness, and the ribbons will be a-fut-
term from the stakes as mark our
Denny's claim.
That's what the boys be a-doin'
now"