Arizona republican., 1906-08-02
HUMAN POWER OF RESISTANCE.


 The tragedy of those fourteen min CTS of Courrieres who for nearly three weeks were living in the depth of the mine. feeding on decayed carcasses, bark. etc, is still agitated in mining circles, as it again demonstrated the extraordinary power of resistance of human nature. and shows the aban- doning the efforts for the rescue of people inclosed in a collapsed mine after three or four days to be utterly perhaps, criminally wrong. The Jour nal, of Paris tells that in the year 1852. during the siege of Metz. the sol diers of the duke of Guise, for lack of other food. prepared soups from boots and leather belts.
 The inhabitants of Paris once lived under Henry ", during a siege, on still more repugnant meals. All grass which could be found, even that grow ing between the stones of the pave ment, was cooked into soups. In a field oven erected especially. for this purpose delicious pastries of ground bones were made up during a period of three weeks, and the necessary bones were obtained from a nearby ceme- tery. While Genoa was besieged in 1799 people there lived for months on carriOn of every description. Bread was made of linseed, cocoa and gum. and in addition other meals were eaten which could scarcely be cooked, much less digested.
 What occurred during the siege of Paris in 1871 is still in mind. People ate almost all the animals of the ZOO logical garden. One of the butchers sold monkey and urchin meat, and ! canal rat as well as dog meat became classical" A bakers family consum- ed during the siege their entire shop i. e., all their goods-and an aged tradeswoman stayed in her basement for 143 days, living during all that time on nothing but cheese. The pol ar explorers knew even worse meals. The pioneers of the pole considered raw fish and polar bear meat delicious, and Nansen is authority for the state ment that he and his men were ex- ceedingly delighted when they suc- ceeded in making cakes with ilIumi- mating oil. From tarred rigging of the ship and from the lfchens which were found on the desolate rocks not infre- quently the strangeset soups were made.
 in the year 1901 the well digger simon of BonnevaI, near Chartres. was entombed by fallen sand and remain so for five days. having nothing to eat or to drink. Tn 1897 some miners in Wales were rescured from an entirely flooded mine after ten days. still alive. The water had already risen to their chfns. There are, however, still more remarkable cases: The London Phil osophical Transactions told of a man who had stayed in a cellar, covered by the debris of the building. twenty four days without eating and drinking. Italy, too. presents an instance: if Is reported by Somio, the physician of the king of Sardinia: Tn Piedmont three women had been overtaken by an avalanche and had been living when they were rescued on March 19 1755, under the debris of a stable for thirty-seven days. The stable was covered by a layer of snow sixteen feet deep. but some joists of the build ing had resisted the snow burden. and beneath these joists the three women were covering with the corpse of A. two-year-old child that had died shortly after the fall of the avalanche. One of the women had fifteen chest nuts, and the stable contained hay and goat. The goat had not been in Jured by the accident, and the women lived on her milk for three weeks.
 In Messina some men who had been inferred by an earthquake were found llVlng after twenty-three days. During this whole time they had had nothing 10 eat. The same thing happened to two girls of Is and If years of age who likewise were inferred in conse- f.f
 brought to light, still alive. a fort night after. Not long ago one wouId have deemed most of these cases ex- aggerated, but now after the happen- ings of Courrieres, all are credible or at least not improbabIe.-Harp Weekly