The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-11-21
ALMOST As BY MIRACLE ARB
MIXERS RESCUED FROM LYING
TOMB AFTER SEVEN LONG DAYS


CONTINUED ON PAGE e.
hand. smoking lanterns casting grotesque
shadows about the dark drift as strange
Above the cracking of the flames that
| gradually were eating their way toward
| the praying men, could be heard the pow
| erful voice of Cleland as he offered up
| q prayer for deliverance.
20, God, we are in Your hands; let Thy
| will be done" said the miner. IF 1t Is Thy
will that we be delivered to our families
once more. please help US"
| Do Profundis.
"Out OF the depths have called unto
| Thee, Oh, Lord. Oh Lord, hear my prayer
and let Thine eyes consider well the voice
| of my complaint"
| These words were sung by the i'm
| prisoned miners when they believed that
| hope was we'll nigh gone. Never In the
| history of the world have the words OF
| the De Prefundis been sung under such
remarkable times Again and again
| throughout the day heartbroken voices
swelled and rang through the darkness
| of the Cherry mine and then Cherry be-
lieyas that the Lord not only answered
the prayer but performed miracle.
Among the men brought out today were
several Americans, who were deeply ~
| lirious and they sought refuge in prayer
| and HYMNS when 1t seemed that no hu-
man aid could reach them and that they
were doomed to die unless help came from
some high power.
| led by William Cleland and Walter
| White the darkness of the mine resound-
ed with:
.Abide with me, fast falls the eventide.
The darkness deepens, Lord, with me
abide.
When other helpers fan and comforts
fee.
Help of the helpless, oh. abide with me-"
Last Hymn Is Sung.
The last time this familiar old hymn
was sung was this morning, when it had
been determined that the strongest ones
! should cut through the wall and try to
reach the shaft for help. When 1t was
finished Cleland preached a little sermon
to the men and urged them to put their
trust In the Almighty. It was not long
| sermon but very much to the point.
Put your trust in Him who sees every
sparrow fall and remember that God is
good''
Picture the grandeur. the solemnity
of this little service. At the farth est
extremity of the mine. a dirty, dingy
| drift in vein of coal was transformed
u
consecrated. 1t had never had the
blessing of the church, but every man
in the party knows In his heart that 1t
| was consecrated from above
Delirious with Joy, Mrs. Walter
Waite flung herself into her husbands
| arms as he emerged from the cage at
the top of the shaft and those in the
crowd who knew her story sympa-
thized with her. for yesterday when
the first of the dead were brought
from the mine, Mrs. Waite and her
sister, Mrs. Dobyns, identified one of
| the bodies as that of Walter Waite.
The body proved to be that of Charles
| Waite.
Wonderful News.
Frustrated with grief at home, Mrs.
| Waite could hardly believe the won
derful news when she was told that
men were alive in the mine. She
rushed frantically to the top of the
shaft and one of the first to be brought
out was her husband whom she be-
lieved to be already dead and buried.
With her this afternoon was little
Leonard Waite, their 10-year- old son.
He is a cripple and walks with
crutches, and the scene when he and
his mother greeted Walter Waite was
such that 1t set the crowd wild with
Joy. He was hurried to a doctor, and
Just as quickly as little Leonard could
got in = word, he Rugged himself close
to his father and said as he drew two
coins from his pocket:
Daddy, you must be awful hungry,
aren't your Don't you want some din
ner? See, Daddy. I have saved two
nickels for you"
George Switch. one of the rescued
men, tells tho most remarkable story
It CHANGED that he sat down to his din
ner on that fatal Saturday, and when
driven back with the others by the
smoke hung tightly onto his dinner
pail. 1t contained four slices of bread,
piece Of pie, pickle. two pieces Of
meat and pan of tea. He knew he
would have to husband it to the last
extremely and did not finish it untl
late Sunday night. He said:
Story Of Privation.
IT stretched 1t out as far as I could
and then began to eat the bark from
the elm logs forming the props Just
the same as the others did, but 1
thought there ought to be something
that comes from an animal In my
stomach, and as I could get no meat.
and as there was no meat, I ate the
leather from the wristbands of my
gloves. had kept the tea until we
found there was water trickling down
the sides Of the shaft and then I drank
the tea, for knew that / could get a
little water. After 1 ate the leath err
went to sleep and when / awoke I
had an awful pain in my stomach and
bad headache. Then I ate some more
bark and about a day later I ate the
leather sleeves. This gave me ter
rible stomachache and ] decided that /
would not try to eat my shoes, so I
tried another plan. I ate all the bark
I could find and then / spied a plug
of tobacco. oh ewsd It for q long time,
swallowing the Juice, and finally swal-
lowed the tobacco, and found that II
2 eased my hunger, SO afterward when
ever I would get awfully hungry I
would take another little chew Of to-
, bacco and 1t kept me going"