The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-05-07
BY ALFRED SCADDING

- mn ANh~D ROfhD
HALIFAX, n. 81 am
so sorry to have been
so i'll that | could not col
laborate more fully in the
splendid straightforward
story of our experiences
which DR.. Robertson has
told.
Owing to my feet being en-
cased in glass boots for six hours
a day, with suction pumps slowly
helping the blood find its way
back through the lost veins of
my feet, it is not altogether easy
for me to relax into a story-tell-
ing mood.
l first wish to express my re-
spect for the courage and man.
hood of the two men with whom
I was entombed those 10 days.
They were unfamiliar with the
mine. l, at least, had had three
months around the mine to learn
its ways and become fairly famil-
lar with the geography of it, and
what is more important, to be-
come familiar with the character
of the men of Nova Scotia. Al
though for the first four days our
greatest fear was that the men
above would assume we were dead,
and not make fast enough eff
fort to rescue us, must say l had
faith from the very start that
whatever it Was possible to do for
us, those men I had got to know
around Moose River mines would
do it.
The instant the crash happened
realized I was in a difficult sit
uation in that I first had to per-
suade two men, who were my en-
ployers, that what I thought wise
TO do was right; and then 1 had
to bear the responsibility for
whatever course l advised. My
first thought, after the terrific
crash up the shaft answered my
heaVe on the signal wire, and
after the violent belch of air down
the shaft blew my cap right off
my head, was to get at once along
the eastward drift toward the
solid rock at the far end of the
property. Alongside the solid
rock there, untouched by miners,
was less likelihood of collapse
than anywhere in the neighbor-
hood of the shaft. where slopes
had been cut out in past years.
NTE got to that eastern end
w of the drift and waited.
while / steadily argued the point
that we should hold still until the
mine should cease it's terrible
falling.
One of the things I shall re-
member to my dying day was our
effort to work upwards through
the slopes from that eastern end
OF the drift. We clambered up
slopes and over cribs and timbers.
the lantern lighting our way. I
was leading. We had just nego-
tlated a very awkward timber crib
which leaned outward at the top.
and had started across the broken
rock above it, when to my horror
L saw a huge upright timber. a
solid log perhaps two feet thick.
slowly and with a busy cracking
sound bulge and burst in the mid
ole. The hanging wall above it
seemed to be oozing slowly down.
l wheeled and shouted, making
AS good time as 1 could. Mr..
Magill and the doctor went down
over that broken and tangled
timber in fashion that would
do credit to varsity Rugby play
erS. will never forget the
sight of them in the leaping
light of my lantern as we raced.
plunging down the steep slop-
ing cavern filled with ruin.
A few hours later, when the
mine grew somewhat quieter. we
crept back to investigate this
avenue of escape more fully.
The Slope we had been in was
crushed fiat.
| recall curious thing Mr..
Magill said there, as we stood
looking up in the lantern light at
the place we had been.
DO YOU realize the date?" ne
asked us.
1t was now April the 18th.
/ have gone over in my mind
carefully to discover what part of
the whole 10 days was hardest to
bear. And I think it was those
first four days of uncertainty
as to whether they thought we
were alive or dead. We could de-
tect blasts and drills during the
daytime, but at night it seemed
to us the work ceased.
WE have since learned this
w was not so, that the work
went on furiously all the time,
day and night. Perhaps some
atmospheric action at night dulls
sounds through earth, but we
were uncertain in our minds
whether this working, as we
thought, by day shifts alone indi-
Gated that they thought we were
dead and were taking their time
about getting down to us. That,
know, in my own case was the
hardest part of the whole ordeal
to bear.
I was not hungry at any time.
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