The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1908-05-22

would be ready with an answer to
the question: What is the earliest
recorded description of mining opera
lions 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 it happens, the passage in question
does not occur in a technical book
or indeed in an out-of-the-way and
obsolete volume at all, but in poet
zeal 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 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-
tanned detailed account of the pro-
cesses by which the miner earns his
livelihood. The first two verses, it 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 foods 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 q de-
post worth working.
The key to the whole interpreta-
ton is in the meaning of the word
@he" in the third verse In the old
version it appeared to denote God;
the Reyisers apply it to man. Ac-
cordingly, the passage refers not to
: Divine omnipotence but to human en-
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 a 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
I to and fro" This is severely scien-
tific, but it is poetical also. AS DR..
I Samuel Cox has said, the writer
brings out, in few deft strokes, 1.-The
! pathos of the miners life and occupa-
tion-its peril, it's loneliness, it's re-
( moteness even from those who stand
! nearest to it," The ancient poet had
Z probably in his Imagination the will
derness of Arabia Petraea, but the
same feature of distance from crowd
ed cities has usually been a charac-
7 teristic of the beginnings, at any rate,
of 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
casual passenger goes on his way ig-
/ norant or oblivious of the burrowing
I 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 a
/ suggestive parallel. The earth, on its
/ surface as we'll as in its recesses, con-
/ tributes to the welfare of man and
supplies a sphere for his industry.
/ "As for the earth, out of it cometh
bread; and underneath it is turned up
! as it were by fire." Man, the worker
I 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 fire setting" i. e.,
by lighting 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 it hath dust of gold, +"
or, as the marginal rendering gives it,
she winneth Jumps of gold"
There follows 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 it, 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
I spoil excels that of the tyrants of the
| jungle or the forest. For she putteth
forth his hand upon the finty rock;
he overturneth the mountains by the
roots"
The last phase of the description
reminds us of the cleverness of the
underground explorer in preserving