The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1908-05-21

school who has specialized in mining
would probably be eble to give sat-
isfactory list of the most important
recent publications on his own sub
ject. II is not so certain that he
would be ready with an answer to
the question:: What Is the earliest
recorded description of mining opera
tions In the literature of the ancient
world? He would naturally excuse
his ignorance by the plea that the
scientific portions of the ancient
classics are of no practical service
to-day. and that, such as they are,
they belong properly to the domain of
the philologist or the antiquarian.
AS II happens, the passage in question
does not occur in q technical book
or indeed in an out-of-the-way and
obsolete volume at all, but in a poet
ical composition which is easily ac-
cessible, which is still read by large
number of persons, and which is sup
| posed to be more or less familiar to
every man possessing a fair general
education-the Book of Job.
The fact that this most interesting
| passage is so little known is largely
| due to the obscurity of its translation
in the Authorized Version. One
might easily read through the twenty
eighth chapter of Job in that version
without the least idea that it con-
tained a detailed account of the pro-
cesses by which the miner earns his
| livelihood. The first two verses, 1t is
true, point to something of the kind,
but at the third the writer appears to
diverge into a not too Ineligible
| panegyric of Divine omnipotence as
shown especially in floods and earth
| quakes. Turn to the Revised Version,
and the puzzle at once becomes pic
ture. From the first verse to the
eleventh inclusive we are now able to
follow an exact description of the
methods employed by the ancient
miner, and still pursued in the main
wherever there is discovered a de-
posit worth working
The key to the whole interpreta-
tion is in the meaning of the word
"he" in the third verse. In the old
version 1t appeared to denote God;
cordingly, the passage refers not to
Divine omnipotence but to human en-
terprise. Man" we read, "setteth an
end t. darkness, and searcheth out
t. the furthest bound the stones of
thick darkness and of the shadow of
death" Here we see the miner with
his lantern bringing light into q re-
gion hitherto sealed from mans gaze
and searching not only near the sur
, face, but, as "stones of thick dark
ness" seem to indicate, the very
gloomiest recesses of the earth's in
terror.
He breaketh open shaft away
from where men sojourn; they are
forgotten Of the foot that passeth by;
they hang afar from men, they swing
to and fro" This is severely scien-
tific, but it Is poetical also. AS Dr.
Samuel Cox has said, the writer
brings out, in few deft strokes, "the
pathos of the miners life and occupa-
tion--its peril, its loneliness, its re-
moteness even from those who stand
nearest to it," The ancient poet had
|
derness of Arabia Petraea, but the
same feature of distance from crowd
ed cities has usually been a charac-
teristic of the beginnings, at any rate,
/ of a great mine, whether in Cali
| fornia, or in Nevada, or in Australia
And even If it is not so utterly re-
mote from human habitation, the
| DO aar
, norant or oblivious of the burrowing
far beneath his feet, where the miner
"hangs" or swings" at his work, hav-
ing been lowered to the desired spot
by some primitive cross-bar slung be-
tween ropes or chains.
The picture is now relieved by n
suggestive parallel. The earth, on it's
surface as well as in its recesses, con-
tributes to the welfare of man and
supplies a sphere for his industry.
LAS for the earth, out of 1t cometh
bread; and underneath it is turned up
as 1t were by fire." Man, the worker
and magician, both cultivates the soil
that it may yield him his food, and
pierces far below In quest of hidden
treasure. The second clause of the
verse is generally interpreted as a
reference to the Egyptian method of
removing ore by "fre setting" 1. e.,
by lighting a fire at the base of the
rock to be removed so that the heat
might split the harder portions and
make cracks in which chisel or pick
could be inserted. The value of the
miners finds is next indicated. "The
stones thereof are the place of
sapphires, and 1t hath dust of gold, "
or, as the marginal rendering gives 1t,
she winneth Jumps of gold"
There follows a graphic contrast
between the boundless ingenuity OF
man and the limited sagacity of the
brute. THAT path"-the road which
the miner hews out for himself-"no
bird OF prey knoweth, neither hath
the falcons eye seen it; the proud
beasts have not trodden 1t, nor hath
the fierce lion passed thereby" "
Mans detection of the secret gems of
the earth Is keener than the acutest
predatory instinct of hawk and vul-
ture. His strength in pursuit of his
spoil excels that of the tyrants of the
jungle or the forest. For she putteth
forth his hand upon the fiinty rock I;
he overturneth the mountains by the
roots"
The last nhase of the descrintion