The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1912-07-11

of them can tell interesting expert
ences that caused their hair to change
color. Here is the story, toll by an
old miner now retired and living in
Chicago of how his hair turned from
a deep brown to almost white in a
night. 1t happened when he was a
young man and working in silver
shaft:
Barney Doyle and 1 worked the
two shifts of the small holding of the
company down in Western Mexico, y
the narrative begins, Barney being
foreman of one and of the other.
Neither of US had ever been in the
shift worked by the other, and we
were unfamiliar with the workings
except for what we would tell each
other as the days passed and we drill
I'd deeper and deeper into the ground.
lone evening, just about time for
us to quit work, Doyle fell from the
mouth of the crater he had worked,
800 feet to the bottom. I had just
come to the surface when the accl-
dent happened. There was crowd OF
poems at the mouth of the pit and
they were gesticulating wildly and
shouting at one another as though
the whole pack had suddenly gone
crazy and deaf. thought then and
still do that one of those greasers had
topped Doyle into the hole, for none
of US was any too popular with them,
but they all insisted that the poor
fellow had simply fallen in.
None of my men or of Barney's
either would attempt to go down the
shaft in the bucket arrangement we
had, for they were the most super
stitious lot of men I ever have heard
of. They have the southern States
negro beaten to a frazzle.
Finally the manager of the COM
pany, having heard the yumpus, came
to the pit and he and I agreed to de-
scend into the pit after Barney's re-
mains.
.tThe boss saw to it that the lift
was manned by men we could trust
and we were slowly settled down into
the black, black depths. The buckets
were of the trap bottom type, so we
halted the cage just before we reach
ed the bottom, and, slipping the catch
on the bucket, dropped to the floor.
We had to depend for light in the
mines then on candles and we used
them in connection with the queer,
sticky clay that is found in that sort
of mine. We could take handful
of the mass, slap it on the wall or
girder and stick a candle into it.
1--WE lit up and found Barney dead.
We started back to the lift, but
found that the engine would not car
ry more than two men. / insisted
that the boss go up first with the
body and send the cage down later
for me. I helped him into the cage
with what was left of the miner and
helped to close the trap. A minute
later, at the rope signal, the men at
the top began hosting the cage.
Except for the four candles we
had stuck on the walls and girders
Immediately under the shaft there
was no light, and even those four
lights shone with the most ghostly
glimmer I ever had seen. With Bar
ney falling into the pit, the extreme
darkness and all, it was no wonder
/ began to be afraid, and as I could
hear the bucket scrape along the
sides of the shaft as it ascended high
er and higher my fear did not abate.
.Then, to make matters worse, one
of the candles fell from the wall with
a soft 'plop.' Then another, and
soon all four of them dropped into
the blackness. I was entirely alone
without light and without match or
the means to make light. In addi-
ton, I did not dare to wander off
from where I was for fear of fall
ing into another side working, for 1
was entirely unfamiliar with the
ground there.
''About time for the cage to reach
the top 1 heard a shout, much muf-
fed by the distance and I just got
away from below the mouth OF the
pit when a heavy object dropped
close to me. I guessed the bottom of
the bucket had proved insecure, and
l since learned guessed right, and
had let one of the occupants drop.
Whether it was the dead man had
fallen or the superintendent had no
means of learning. l was afraid to
20 near the object to determine.
Il waited and waited, with the
fear gradually taking firmer hold OF