Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-12-26

long steel ladder. Only by keeping
very close to the wall could be avoid
contact with the still heated pipes.
The running water had cooled them 10
! some extent, but the narrow tunnel
was filled with sitting fumes, with
whiffs of dissolving steam, and, above
all, with the dull, sullen heat radlatea
from the heated metal.
What Vic Morris suffered in that
long descent can never be known. He
has not thought fit to tell at any
length.
1T was tight job" Or, perhaps,
in moments of great expansion: "A
little more and I should have slept
in the 'sump' that night" These
came the nearest to any description
of his experiences. But he reached
the bottom, though more than half
roasted. He found that the miners
were gathered waiting-most of them
| up to their knees in the water which
was already collecting at the bottom
of the "dook"
Better get away at once" he cried.
Come, boys, follow mel"
1T is impossible" the men cried.
Peter Sharp, there, who won the
wrestling belt, was up about thirty
fathom and had to come back"
81 have come down, boys, all the
way" shouted Vic, and am going
to show you the way back. Where is
Miss Bryan? Let me have Miss Bry-
an"
Even then he did not say Vida -
They handed Vida, as it We're, over
head to him passing her upon their
palms daintily as IL they knew they
were handling something precious.
Vida was soon on the ladder. VIC
Morris setting her feet on the rounds,
| while. with his outstretched left arm
he clasped the girls belt to keep her
well away from the heated pipes.
Time after time, Vic Norris called
out encouragingly for the men to fol
low him He seemed to them hardly
less than messenger from heaven.
They were content to follow, hating
when he halted, then, half baked. go
ing on again, the youngsters support
ing the elders, and SO in time all the
men in the west workings of No. Q pit
reached the surface. Vic Morris was
first man out. holding Vida almost un-
conscious in his arms.
He put her under the care OF DR.
Calmont, and they had her all safe at
the pit head in ten minutes. The per
pendicular cage was still working
steadily. ut the men In the east
workings, living mostly in blocks K
and l., had not been able to gel
across. Between them and the bottom
!, of the 'dook" was long decliyity
! and then steep ascent, where a fault
had rendered difficult the search of an
elusive VEIN
rt~ 10 a
gines had even caused the water tc
: collect at the fathom of this declivity
Y as in great capital U. There wal
$ nothing for it, therefore. but to re
, treat before the waters. searching fo1
ever higher and higher ground. Blu
for every man of them the end wa!
J. sure. The fire in the shaft had stop
ped the pumps. The water was gain
. ing every moment and all the pure
e air was being driven into the corner
t The men followed it. Chief Of then
/ was Christie Penman, Joint surveyo
t Of the ways with old Dick Finnar
}. and a man of simple and natura
e piety. Christie knew well that 1t wa
! impossible to lead his men to safety
S They were shut in on every side. BIZ
J. called the roll. There were sixty
r taree of them--men and boys. AS tn
p waters mounted he asked them t
l. kneel he himself praying aloud IN tn
e midst-not after the fashion Of HECTIC
u McKill.
e And so they were found. after se'
n en- months under water, their bodie
e almost perfectly preserved by the iro
Y which the water held IN solution
S They made two great circles. darl
e indistinct shapes, worshipping Got
h Some had fallen forward. Some ha
e simply sunk down, but all were sti
J. kneeling, and one of the little boy
who had run to warn the men," wa
# found with his head on the parents
1t knees. He at least had found hi
D. falner! Who shall say that the other
N had not also?
At In the foreign churches I have see
70 pictures Of the perpetual alteration
1t angels and archangels, winged an
g glistening, prismatic and gloriou
circling about the great throne itsel
N But what is that to these sixty-thre
: nthe black pit deeps far under W
n ter, kneeling for seven months wit
j. hands devoutly clasped. even as tt
is waters had caught them, making the
le homage prayer to lie God of all TO
ly giyeness.
Yes the boys had warned the mer
ly No Victoria cross was theirs. but lor
lie after strong arms lifted them tende
III ly one by one--the first {as | ha'
~ told) from across his fathers knee
We another prone on his face as the dea
ct ly reek had caught him hurrying {
tn his mission the third so deep in tt
is stump that even the glare Of Il
IN search lantern could not reach hill
Is and it was the graphing irons Whit
or brought to the surface his poor lit
wasted body.
en- It was a quite, Sabbath when 4
to first fruits of death we're laid In the
m final resting graves on the bree
bit hilltop, looking down on the slop
of under which they had been enton
wv ed more deeply. There was servi
ut on the green between blocks K a
Of l.. There the windows and the cid
he orphans sang the psalm in the versi
re of Francis Roos And the lift Of thu
voices nearly broke the hearts of