The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1908-03-11
BENEATH GROUND.
In 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 ln'
that We thought OF the light summer
suits which most Of us were wearing.
We had left the boat at --obson ana
come on to i,ossland 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. AZ the Centre Star the
slant of the shaft is one Of about oV
degrees and the body Of the skip slopes
back to tie rails upon which it 1alls
into the depths. Which means tnaI
when the eight OF US are packed tight
" in the ipnocents who nave enlereu
first find themselves tilted on their
heels, their backs upon the cold. vet,
rusty iron, and held fast Dy the o1-
erlying strata Of human aVolrdupols
which fills the skip.
It was at the third floor Wlnoo"
that the man stood who heard the Up
tinist, hurrying by on his long IAN
from the roof of the twenty Story
skyscraper, murmur to himself tnat II
was All rign, so far 1t is at ABOUT
that stage Of his downward journey
probably, that the man who descends
mine for the first time beGans TO
take the cheerful view. His earNer
mind is complex, elusive and olnculI
of analysis, but at any rate !. IS hoC
cheerful. Sudden blacklist darkness
the feeling of falling out OF ones halr;
the whirling cable that may snap;
the engine man who may lose control;
an inward glancing of the soul to all
Defending Powers: and then obllVlon
an oblivion cloven as it were, IN
past the openings. one below the otn-
er, of the dimly lit galleries at deep
er 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 OF this
new world we light them proplclator-
ily, as upon an altar. It is world OF
gray. The walls before US and the
roof above, upheld by huge tinbeTlng'
are gray, relieved only at a nearer
view by the simmer Of the i:nprison-
ed metals. The galleries that extend
t6 right and left, the cars which pass
us laden and the men who oend De-
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 one can look
upon thence.
"Ollabo'd." cries our guide. Obedl-
emily we CHAMBER into the little scaare
trucks which have been brought up
in a row to carry us through fhe
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 OF air
the hot wax cutters over onto our nm
oere 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 croucnlng enter
from below little chamber, some 8
by s feet. blasted in the rock.
Here, where the air is still full OF
the odor of e;elignite is driller at
work with his machine. We squeeze
ourselves fat and bend low against
the slor:ng walls and watch.
The heavy IRON arm shoots out ana
in, striking the face Of the rock full
square perhaps fifty times 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 US.
At the bottom Of the shaft we wait
while the men Of the night shift flash
by US. skip after skip, to .neir Work
in the lower depths. and then we
are drawn our Of the void as we came.