The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1906-06-05


darkness of the pit would make men
miserable and morose. Instead the
men whose lives are spent in perpet-
ual gloom are bright, light-hearted and
eminently content with their lot. In
winter time they see the light or
heaven only on Sundays, for during SIX
days it is dark when they go to their
work and dark when they return;
that is, if thy return, for from the
moment they step into the cage that
is to take them down into the dark
mine they put themselves within reach
Of death in a million forms.
What particular dark hole death
may spring from, of course no one
knows. The rope may break, let the
cage fall a thousand feet down and
smash 166 human beings into unrecog
nizabe pulp. Or, while still merely at
the beginning of the days work, some
thing might go wrong with the center
guides-these things happen rather
often-then the upcoming cage catches
the down-going one, and the men and
boys are cut up into small sections
AS man walks slowly along the
tunnel to his work slight fdgetiness
on the part Of nature loosens the stones
in the roof. The stone that drops may
only Just touch the mans cap. But the
touch is enough. His comrades carry
him home on a rough stretcher of wood
with some tar canvass over him. The
poor mother and her children weep,
and their own lives are made joyless
with the memory of it.
The dangers in the "face'-that is,
at the actual work of cutting the coal
are so many that it would be quite
impossible to mention all.
But the notorious danger is the Red
Death.
All the scientists have been at work
trying to discover and thwart this
source of Wholesale slaughter. They
know that two things and two things
alone are responsible; large accu-
mutation Of gas and a small artificial
light AS the work of getting the coal
itself produces gas, that the evil is in
evitable; and as artificial light is nee
essary to do the work, why that evil
is also inevitable. Taken separately,
these things do no harm. But the
moment they come together it is the
signal that few hundred simple souls
are sent for by God,
Red Death fills the black roads. 1t
goes raging, blazing round the long
galleries. seeking whom it may devour.
1t comes out of the darkness with
a roar. Its fury shakes the earth.
The roof trembles, breaks, and donwe
come the mountains in myrials of
pieces. The dust mingles with the
great flames: the volumes of fire be-
comes too vast for the narrow tunnel.
The sides walls crumble brust out and
give the blaze more room. The ground
crooks under the mems feet; they tot
ter and fall; and the appalling fire tor
rent rushes over them
Every man and boy in the pit cries
out with terror. They know that the
rolling thunder they hear is the roar
of death. Even the horses-there may
be 300 or 400 of them-understand why
the roads and sides are trembling.
Then men, boys and horses rush out.
The only way of escape is where the
light of day comes down the shaft.
That is far away from where they are,
and they scream with the horrors that
is unpon them.
Just as they turn the corner of their
little roadways to get to the main arte-
ry they see the fire. 1t fills the whole
road IT is a great river Of red, blue
| and green. The gases and dust of the
roads give it many colors.
The long, narrow tunnel becomes a
tumble of human beings and animals.
horses neigh and snort with terror and
trample on the weaker things. The
dust rises in black clouds. BY and by
that dust will help to make the flames
| more fierce and strong. Then it will
gain on the living mass rushing be-
fore it, and men, boys and horses will
lie down, quiet and the fire dragon will
devour them ALL
Even if they escape this monster of
Red Death he has behind him more
terrible power than himself. For be-
hind the fame comes a perfect whirl-
wind of furnance-hot dust-the scorch-
| ing blast that follows In the track of
everything explosion.
A man may escape the fire, In his
| fright he falls fiat upon the ground.
The fire in it's fury rushes over him
without being able to harm him. But
| the moment he rises he feels about his
face something that is at torture heat.
| 1t blisters and tears the skin from his
| cheeks-peels it off-as if he had sud-
denly thrust his head in a caldron of
molten lead. The agony makes him
fall writhing upon the ground again.
The second fall to the ground may
prolong his life for a moment. 1t is
| the freak of the molten blast to rush
along the roof and leave the air at the
bottom of the road cool and pure. He
discovers this. He breathes joyously
The air is pure! But it remains SO
only for the flash of a minute.
Along comes the wost enemy of all
the poisonous "after-damp." 1t steals
invisible, through the roadways, at the
| tail of the blast, 1t can neither be
| seen nor heard nor felt. 1t is myster-
ious. But it is terrible. 1t brings in
| to the air its invisible dilution of death
| Far ahead of him in the darkness
I the man sees a faint red tinge along
the roof. That is the blast. Its
! strength is demoniacal 1t sweeps be
| fore it horses, trans, men and boys
] and brushes them all into one great
| heap of wreckage. 1t rushes out with