The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1908-05-29
A Pit Story.
How Old Mogg Ignored the
Fre-damp to His Advantage.

According to the experts it was
pure fire.damp explosion and the roar
OF it terrified every man, horse and
boy in the Glyn Pit--except Mogg.
Mogg was very anxious TO be ready
when the haulier brought him another
empty tram so that he should not miss
the chance of earning the one-and-
three-ha'pence per ton plus the per-
centage above that huge standard
price.
Il must finish this DRAM said he.
All over the pit his colleagues were
running toward the shaft bottom
Some were reaching safety. Others
took wrong roads, Some saw the Wis
ible red death, ran away down another
turning to avoid the fire, and went
with a rush into the invisible black
death Of the poisoned air. The horses
were mixed up with the men and
boys, and the long tunnels We're quiv-
ering with the noise of their terror.
Mogg went on cutting his coal to
I'LL his dram" He had a big iron
bar in his hands, smuggling the end
of it in behind face slip. If he
could force that out he would have
plenty of coal to finish filing. 1t was
the four-foot seam, and Mogg was
working in it quite by himself
When the gas fired and burst down
in one of the lower roads the explo-
sion announced itself in various ways
Mogg felt the bottom thrilling I'M
der his feet, and his experienced SEN
SEES noticed check in the air which
was passing through his stall up to
the next This made him lean on his
iron bar.
"A fall back in the road, suppose"
said he.
He was middle-aged very deliberate,
and naked to the waist He took his
lamp from its nail in the post and
strolled back to look for the fall of
roof that had shaken the floor and
checked the air. The passing light
illumined the half-flled tram which
he was so anxious to finish and flashed
on the cogs and timber that held up
the stones and formed the sidewalks,
"Ah!" said Mogg TRANQUILITY.
Sure enough, he found fall The
shock of the explosion was bringing
down the roof in more places than
one just then. He swung his light
over the heaped up stones and brok-
en- timber. If he had been less de-
liberate he would have seen the lights
of the other Golfers as they ran out
shouting past this fall
AS it was, Mogg only looked up at
the black hole in the top and went
back leisurely to his stall, his face
slip his bar and his half-filled tram
The fall would not interfere with his
work. That was all the information
he wanted He hooked his lamp to
the nail in the post and put his hands
and his mind to the long bar that he
had left sticking in the face-slip.
The check to the air had been slight.
A little dust cloud came along on the
new current of air and half blinded
Mogg. But that passed and he worked
away The fall would naturally raise
a dust, ana by and by MoSg sacrificed
moment to so up to the next stall
TO mention it to the other collier. But
he saw no Tight in that road
Gone out early today" he remarked
and came down again.
In nearly every other part of the
workings the blast and dust and FIRE
were chasing people. But the air
currents Of one or two districts were
not yet poisoned. Very soon the
freshness of this air would feed the
fire and bring it round: or the black
damp, which is so mucn more subtle
aad vicious, would find the current and
come riding in on Il to kin OFF any one
who had the audacity to-be still alive.
The one thing that annoyed Mogg
was that While ~ was out looking al