Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-24
HICKS ENJOYING LIFE
Miners Nerves Grow Steadier
Under Medical Treatment.
JOKES WITH HIS VISITORS
Hunger Becoming Satisfied and His
Appetite Normal.
TELLS A THRILLING STORY
Horrifed by the Presence of Dead
Men in His Living Tomb-Laughed
at Sound of Own Voice.
JOKES WITH HIS VISITORS
TELLS A THRILLING STORY

lILi-D. Ndl DeCSiHbei a.
Lindsay Hicks, the miner who was rescued
from living tomb in the Edison mine after
fifteen days imprisonment is enjoying life
as he never did before. His appetite has
assumed more normal proportions and his
nerves are growing steadier under the care
full treatment of the physicians. Hundreds
of men have called to personally express
their qualification at his release and for
each one he has jest
Here is the way he tells his story:
IF l We're able to tell all the things
that went through my mind in that hole
said Hicks, lit would fill million books.
If eternity is any longer and h is
worse. excuse me from both of them.
THE first few minutes after 1 was
buried were terrible. l knew what was
coming, and in a second after the crash it
seemed to be dark in my mind as we'll as
in the hole. I knew that / was still alive,
but / could not help feeling that I was
dead. The world seemed such a long way
off, and the last words that heard just
before the accident kept coming back to
me over and over again. If you've ever
heard the echoes after blast has been
fired in mne-the echoes that come one
after another and each one a little lower
you will understand how those words
sounded to me.
I didn't think at first how it was going
to be to die in that place, because I was
already dead to myself. There was no
light, no sound, no air, that 1 could feel.
l had just let go all holds-evcn thinking
and kind of settled back as if it was all
ever and l was to stay there dead for a
thousand years.
Then Came Rapping.
II reckon I would never have come out
of that trance If I had not heard some
inc iLya
where away of. AT first didn't have the
nerve to even think what it might mean
to me-that far-away noise. Then began
to come to myself. I didn't have any idea
how long was buried. 1t might have
been bee five FIVE minutes 9nr and it might have been
braced me up like a drink Of whisky. / be-
gan to get hold Of myself again, and said
to myself: Hicks Hicks this is you, and you are
still alive. They may be coming after you.
Brace up and stick for the big show.
My own words made me laugh. It was
like somebody else talking to me- Then 1
began. to feel around and got hold of the
pipe. l knew where that pipe went to,
and l got piece of stone and raped on
the pipe. 1 waited for an answer, but there
wasn't any. l tried it many times, but still
nothing from above, but after a spell that
seemed years to me l heard tapping. 1t
was the code some of us had used as a sig
nal, and it was saying things to me.
Il was caldwell, there is no use
in trying to say how felt. It dawned on
me for sure that the fellows above knew 1
was alive and that they were coming down
after me as fast as they could Not having
anything to do but think, 1 began to figure
out plans for rescuing myself-the plans
that / hoped the men above would decide
on. Sometimes L got mad because I
thought they might not be doing it right.
Were you ever in a place where you
can't tell how time is passing 1 didn't
have any idea what a day was. There was
nothing to go by. If l could have got up
and worked at something l might have
tlAn hrre ratf it,sr fraI but n
use.
The Only Living Thing.
"All this time, mind you, there were dead
men lying around me some place and I was
the only living thing. To be alone with
dead men IN the light is bad enough, but to
be alone with them for five days, and mid
night all the time, that's what gets fell
low. There's no use my trying to describe
that part of 1t. l don't even want to think
of it. If 1 could blot it all out forever. 1t
was horrible! Horrible!
Then one day, or one night the pipe
the men drove down came through to my
dirt bunk L could feel the rush of air.
and it was more like whistling. l was pretty
weak by that time with nothing to eat
hardly any water to drink and little sleep
that regular nightmare. l didn't
understand just what the pipe was for at
first, but found out when fresh water and
soft food began to come down. / never eX-
water and food. l began to joke with my
self again, and when heard a mans voice
shouting down the tube to me TO brace up
IT was better than being a kid again at
Christmas. You bet, braced all right. But
how the time dragged. Sometimes l gave
up and cried like a baby. Other times my
mind seemed 20 be wandering and thought
it was not true at all. but all ina ginaton
that somebody was coming to get me out
] didn't know whether / was crazy or not.
The photograph pieces were great, but
I had TO shake and pinch myself TO know
that the music was real. Now, ! come to
think of 1t, the cross words of the men
above were the best things for me. They
made ME mad every time, and then l would
cool down and feel good deal better and
stronger. 1t was a good thing | had sense
enough 10 eat, too.
could Have Died Happy"
They tell me 1 blubbered and talked like
crazy man sometimes. / guess l did. A
man don't know what he does when all the
nerve is taken out OF him. 1 reckon l de-
ciled a thousand times that it was no use.
| wouldn't get out after ALL and might as
we'll lie back and die. L could have died
just as happy going to sleep if hadn't
been joilied and kidded all the time.
Toward the last, though, when I could
hear the digging better and knew they
were getting down where l was, l took a
great brace and-funny thing-when / heard
the picking and jabbing i wanted a chew
above me would fall and kill me. / thought
every thing else was fast l was.
When they got to me at last well, guess
the other fellows know more about what
happened than l do. i am out of 1t and
no more working underground for me. /
think If l ever went down into any kind
of a hole again would go 'daffy.' a COM
mon cellar would give me the shivers.'
Preachers Refer to It.
The rescue was made the occasion for
general celebration and Thanksgiving yes
terday. The men who did the digging had
their own way of commemorating the sue
cess of their heroic labors. Every preach
in the city took occasion to refer in his
sermon and In his prayers to the rescue.