Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-12-05


lever was worked and we started.
Just a succession of heavy timbers
and once in a while drop of water.
Then a flash of electric light and we
were by one level. Shadows jumped
about ahead and bobbed on the walls.
Lichens, wonders of fflagree, gray
bearded the wooden work. Shirtless
figures doomed eerily in the f1ickering
light and the cage came to stop.
twenty-five hundred feet down."
said one of the two Captains. Wen
get out here"
Heat smote our faces as we step
ped on the solid rock. A narrow pas
sageway was followed and an engine
room was entered. To one side we're
great transformers, cooled by oil. To
the left a gigantic motor whirring
noiselessly. This was drawing water
from the vitals Of the mine.
A sloping shaft has levels or drifts
every 100 feet These follow the veins
Of copper until they are worked out.
At intervals holes are mined through
to the upper levels. These are called
"stopes" Tracks are laid on the
floors, and over these the cars of ore
are pushed by trammers.
Once again we boarded the car and
the cable slipped along behind us-s5,-
600 worth of cable, tested and tried.
In a twelvemonth 1t would be on the
scrap heap, worn out and worthless.
The tremendous weight of incompre-
hensible tons of earth was shown. The
roof timbers bent downward as though
they would sweep the car.
.I hope they last until we get back"
said the man from Grand Rapids.
.sThey have to be renewed every
three months" said one of the white
clads. .erhe heat and air get in their
work quickly.
The increase in atmospheric pres
sure was noted also. Our ears clog
ged up and panied. This was due
to a greater pressure on the outside
of the tympannum than within.
Hold your nose and blow hard"
said the old Captain.
We did and there was relief.
A big white "52' doomed up ahead.
Fifty-two hundred feet below the
earth! The car stopped.
Mind the shaft" said the man who
lowered the chain and the General
and the Major skirted the black hole
carefully. So did the other two.
over loose rock we walked for many
feet. pausing now and then to gar
ner a specimen twhile the miners
| ,auphed) that glittered in the lamp
| light. Then we toiled upward short
! distance and came to a stop in dull,
| red chamber.
! A drill was started and the bit ate
/ into the earth. This was a water
! liner"-not the deadly butterfly, or
rather "widow maker" as the miners
nrefer to call it. A small hole runs
! through the bit and water Is injected
into the rock.
The miner drills these holes all day.
! Then he lamps in his dynamite anu
/ fires them just before quitting time
/ The explosive rends and breaks the
rock and exposes the precious copper.
In his mine the copper Is interfningied
with gravel, holding the mass toseth-
or In fine wire-like formation.
/ The drill ceased it's clatter and we
bepan our backward journey. Next
drep to the very bottom, $500 feet
intn the foundation of the earth.
1 Beyond the efforts of our lights was
i darkness. Not the darkness OF the
night. but darkness without the sus-
/eestion of a star, the darkness Oh
senseless sleep, the darkness even Oh
death itself.
Something seemed to Cypress u.s. ah'
our voices sank to whispers by ana "
we ceased to talk. Somewhere drop o.
water fell with splash Then that 81
I lence-that silence so intense II seethee
} 10 pulsate. Above was busy village
I peonle were walking and driving, eatine
/ and drinking, working and sleeping
! Armed men were in brown tents. other'
rode steel-shod horses. Trolley cars
4 hanged their uneven way, and locomo
/ lives shrilled or pulled in hoarse ex
houst Above, yes-more than mill
above. -,
~. of churches, schools, habitations
1 commerce and all things attendant OF
humanity And more, the weight o.
more than mile of Mother Earth fiti
full mutes we with our little carold
lights. our white faces and our specimen
/ of copper!
/ They showed us what might happen
! The 34-year captain, sure OF foot ah'
/ agile. climbed through narrow opening
We followed for few feet and stoo'
while his light cleaned higher an'
higher. Before us and behind him
maze of tangled wood, of fallen rock,
forest of destruction brought about b!
Natures attempt to heal the wound in
flicted by man. 1t was only "eavefn,
a. common thing, but emblematic OF tn
Titanic power of destruction conceaie'
within those everlasting rocks.
When the copper is all out OF veil
the working Is abandoned. Rocks drol
and the sides crumble. BY and by /
ceases to exist. 1t fills up and the sur
face is not disturbed. Sort of consoiini
thought, more than mile below tn
surface, to know that If the roof of tn
world came down. those above woul'
never know of your passing.
These leaves" do not occur In tn
! abandoned workings alone. Sometime
they come down about the ears or TN
men as they labor. Before the fall Their
is d whispering and grooming, warn
! ing that something Is coming. Mayb
| the noise of the drills browns this out
! rszx.l. H. x,arlar 10 on contract and II