The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1908-03-13
BENEATH GROUND.
In a British Columbia Gold Mine.

IN 6TIIISn SOIuttibid SOiu "b'S'
When the manager of gold mine
at Rossland offered to take us down
we accepted readily, and it was only
when WE were invited to step n
tLat We thought VI ,h1 :lsnt Sul!ii!"!
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 tisneEles
and fruit growing, the commercial ana
industrial future Of British Coluhola
is to be built. At the Centre Star the
slant Of the shaft is one OF about W
degrees and The body Of the skip slopes
back to the rails upon which 1t 1alls
into the depths. Which means that
when the eight of US are PACKED tis"V-
ly in the innocents who Lave entereu
first find themselves tilted on their
heels, their backs upon the cold, wet'
rusty iron, and held fast Dy the oV-
erlying strata of human avoirdupols
which fills the skip.
It was at the third floor w!nuo"
that the man stood who heard the up
timist hurrying by on his long fall
from the roof Of the twenty story
skyscraper, murmur to himself that II
was "All rign. so far" 1t is at about
that stage Of his downward Journey
probably, that the man who descends
a mine for the first time begans to
take the cheerful view. His earlier
mind Is complex, elusive and ditticult
Of analysis, but at any rate It. is not
cheerful. Sudden blackest 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 obllVlon
an oblivion cloven as it were, IN
past the openings. one below the 9TH
er, Of the dimly lit galleries at deep
er and deeper levels. The skip slack
ems speed, hovers hesitatinsly for a
moment and then comes to stand
and we step out.
You'll want candles, says the
manager, and on the threshold OF this
new world we light them propitiator-
lily, as upon an altar. 1t is world OF
gray. The walls before lis and the
roof above. upheld by huge timbering,
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
tho sun is shining, and thank Gou
for the green world that one can look
upon thence.
"Oilabo'd!" cries our guide. Obed-
entity we Chamber into the little sqeare
trucks which have been brought up
in row to carry US through tho
mine. Each man has his truck, r'des
alone upon his own plank and lights
himself with his own particular can
die.
III a moment we are in the gallery.
AS we meet the sharp current Of air
the hot wax cutters over onto our fn-
gers and we slant the candles back to
the horizontal.
At the end of a long gallery, where
a second shaft descends. we cnmD out.
penetrate a gloomy, narrow passage
in which heaps Of ore lie waiting to
be trucked away, and croucn.ng enter
from below little chamber, some 8
by 8 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 sloplng walls and watch.
The heavy iron arm shoots out and
in, striking the face of the rock full
square perhaps fifty times q minute,
every blow falling with the weight
of ]. 600 pounds, twisting as it strikes
as if to bore through what it cannot
break away. The man behind the
drill turns on us an impassfve 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 shalt we wait
while the men OF the night shift flash
by us, skip after skip, to ,neir work
in the lower denthS. and then we
are drawn out Of the vo.d as we came.
ondop Doi1v NnwS