The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-03-11
GROUND.
In a British Columbia Gold Mine.

When the manager Of a gold mine
at Rossland offered to take us down
we accepted readily, and it was only
when we were invited to step III
that we thought Of the light summer
suits which most of us were wearing.
We had left the boat at 4.oDson ana
come on to hossland to learn some
thing of that vast mineral wealth up
on which, with lumber and fisheries
and fruit growing, the commercial ana
industrial future of British Columbia
is to be built. At the Centre Star the
slant Of the shaft is one OF about oo
degrees and the body Of the skip slopes
back to the rails upon which 1t falls
into the depths. Which means thai
when the eight of US are packed tight
ly in the innocents who nave entered
first find themselves tilted on their
heels, their backs upon the cold, wet
rusty iron, and held fast ny the oV-
crying strata Of human avoirdupols
which fills the skip.
It was at the third floor window
that the man stood who heard the Up
timist, hurrying by on his long rail-
from the roof Of the twenty story
skyscraper, murmur to himself that It
was "All rign. so far" 1t is at about
that stage Of his downward Journey
probably, that the man who descenus
a mine for the first time begans TO
take the cheerful view. His earlier
mind is complex, elusive n difdcult
of analysis, but at any rate 1t 10 not
cheerful. Sudden blacklist darkness;
the feeling of falling out of ones hair;
the whirling cable that may snap;
the engine man who may lose control;
an upward glancing of the soul to all
Defending Powers; and then oollVlon
an oblivion cloven as 1t were, IN
past the openings, n below the 9TH
err, of the dimly lit galleries at deep
err and deeper levels. The skip slack
ems speed, hovers hesitatingly for a
moment and then comes to a stand
and we step out.
you'll want candles" says the
manager, and on the threshold or TINS
new world we light them propibiator--
lily, as upon an altar. 1t is a world OF
gray. The walls before us and the
roof above, upheld by huge timbsring,
are gray, relieved only at a nearer
view by the simmer Of the imprison-
ed metals. The galleries that extend
to right and left, the cars which pass
us laden and the men who bend be-
hind them are gray as the ore which
they dump between the rails into a
chamber below. The electric lamps
which line the roofs Of the galleries
burn gray, as it seems, and the very
air is gray. On the mountain above
the sun is shining, and thank Goo
for the green world that n can look
upon thence.
"Ollabo'd!" cries u guide. Obedi-
emily we Chamber into the little square
trucks which have been brought up
in a row to carry us through the
mine. Each man has his truck, rides
alone upon his own plank and lights
himself with his own particular can
die.
In a moment we are in the gallery.
AS we meet the sharp current or air
the hot wax cutters over onto our nm
gers and we slant the candles back to
the horizontal.
AT the end of a long gallery. where
a second shaft descends, we Climb out,
penetrate a gloomy, narrow passage
in which heaps Of ore lie waiting to
be trucked away. and crouculng enter
from below a little chamber, some 8
by s feet. blasted in the rock.
Here, where the air is still full OF
the odor Of gelignite, is a driller at
work with his machine. We squeeze
ourselves fiat and bend low against
the slop:ng walls and watch.
The heavy iron arm shoots out and
in, striking the face of the rock full
square perhaps fifty times a minute,
every blow falling with the weight
Of 1000 pounds, twisting as it strikes
as if to bore through what 1t cannot
break away. The man behind the
drill turns on us an impassive face.
No one speaks or would be heard 'or
the echoes of the thrust and thud and
the vibration Of the machine. We
wonder that beneath such blows and
amid such din the sleeping masters OF
gray underworld should not awake
and bring the foundations down up
on MS.
At the bottom Of the shalt we wait
while the men of the night shift fash
by us, skip after skip, to .heir work
in the lower depths, and then we
are drawn out Of the VOID as We came.
London Daily News.