The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1910-03-25

death, for 800 men, their husbands,
brothers and sons, were deep in the
mine below the town. Three hun
dred, after all who could reach the
shaft before the fame and gases cut
them off had escaped!
A week later, to the very hour and
minute, twenty-one of the men were
rescued, but who can tell what the
women of Cherry lived through in the
dragging hours of anguish of those
black seven days, Or the sorrow that
settled into despair in the homes of
the other women?
What can a woman do when the
mine caves in and buries her husband
underground? She can weep and suf-
fer and pray and hope, and that is all.
All? Yes, but it saved the rescued
miners of Cherry.
Men fought the fire in the first
three terrible days. Firemen came
from Chicago, and lowered their
lengths of hose, and followed it pres
emily, and dragged it with them. The
fan supplied them fresh air. For
three days there was hope that water
would subdue the flames, but the
mine led off in countless passages,
and the fire subdued in one woke
from it's embers in another, and the
battle waged uncertainty, with the
advantage in favor of the fire
Then on the third day the sharp Or
der was given to stop the fan and
withdraw the firemen. This was done.
Ae soon as the fan stopped the
smoke increased from the mouth of
the mine. The fan that kept the fire.
men alive had supplied oxygen for the
fame, and now, when the blower
stopped, the fame followed the fire.
men, chasing them to the shaft, and
believing after them, and the shaft
in a little while became a roaring fur
mace.
Then a galloping team brought a
load of planks, which were laid over
the mouth of the mine, and after this
came other wagons with loads of rail-
way rails, and these were laid above
the plans, and then came carts of
sand, and they were backed up to the
mine and shoveled over the rails, till
the last fssure was covered and the
last faint wisp of smoke disappeared.
1t was the only way to stop the fire,
the managers explained. They had
been fighting the fire and feeding it
at the same time, and while pouring
water on it in one or two places, had
been blowing it into blaze in many
places. They must smother it out.
And all knew that they did wisely.
But what of the hearts of the wom-
en- who saw the planks laid above
their buried husbands? To smother
the fire was to drive the black damp
into the remotest corner Of the mine.
There had been hope while the fan
ran, but nothing now could live be-
low. They cried out in agony that
their men were being smothered to
death in the mine.
Wise men addressed them, and
told them to go home and be brave.
AS for their husbands, unfortunately
there was no hope for them. The
mine had not been sealed till it was
practically certain that every living
man was out. Three days the fire
had been raging, and no one could
remain alive below. Let the women
go home now, and relief would be
sent to them. Everything had been
done that could be done for their hus-
bands.
But when would the mine be
opened? When would their husbands
be rescued? The women pleaded pit
eously.. They knew-something told
them-that there were living men be-
low.
The experts were divided in their
Judgment, but most of them held
that the mine would never be opened.
The mine was ruined.
But the women would not go to
their homes. They hung about the
sand-covered pit, as the women ling
cred at the tomb of their Lord in the
garden near Jerusalem. They prayed,
they wept, they insisted, they would
not be reasonable. Some of them
were hysterical; some were furious;
more were dumb, with haunting eyes
that looked into them, and then re-
turned to fix their gaze on the mouth
of the mine.
At last they made small holes in
the sand, and dropped lines of hose
= oh 1ot 40
Then, lowering a thermometer and
finding the heat reduced, they uncov-
cred the Fit and brave men went
down. They brought up dead bodies,
alas! very many of them. But as
they worked they heard noises that
meant life, and they worked till they
rescued a score and more of their fel-
low men, who had walled themselves
in and waited, against all probability,
for the coming of their friends.
Now, who saved the miners of
Cherry? Brave men, who took th cir
lives in their hands, and whose for
titude had its reward in the salvation
of their brothers. But not these only.
The women Of Cherry saved their hus-
bands and brothers and sons by their
tears and prayers and unreasonable
insistence and blind faith that would
not be denied.
Even so in the long ago, when the
wisdom of men had done its utmost.
and the disciples huddled, cowed and
helpless, in the Upper Room, the love
and tears of women watched without
at the sepulcher till life triumphed
over death, and love had its answer
from the tomb. Youths Companion.
OVERHEARD IN THE TIGRIS.
From Diarbekr to Baghdad, as a
crow might do it, the distance is about
400 miles. AS the kelek goes-a con-
trivance sacred to the River Tigris
since the days of Adam and Eve-the
distance is nigh upon 1000 miles, and
the time. occupied anywhere between
eight and twenty days. In The
Short Cut to India" Mr. David Fraser