Year: 1875

ING COAL PIT.


From the st Louis Globel


The fire in the mine at Usage City,
Kan, broke out about midday, and, when
first discovered, the main shaft in the
mine was in blaze. with thirty-two men
and boys at work beyond and beneath
the flames, nearly forty feet below the
level of the earth. In few minutes the
whole population Of the place rushed to
the scene, and thousand or more men,
women and children-the relatives, friends,
and neighbors of the entombed miners
were gathered at the mouth of the burn
ing shaft, stupifed with fear and an
guish. All the wells in town had near
ly run dry, weeks before, and scarcely
enough water could be secured to subdue
the heat above ground, much less to ar
rest the confagration inside the mine.
Thus matters stood for two awful hours,
when railroad engine arrived with a
full tank, which was hurriedly emptied
into the shaft, and great shout of hope
went up from the people.


AT this juncture, a man emerged, like
a specter, from the blaze and smoke, and
fell in a swoon at the very edge of the
shaft. An hour later, two more men
cried up through the flames for help,
and ladder was lowered to them, on
which they made their way to the top.
and were dragged forth alive, but burn
ed and blackened beyond recognition.
Three were now saved, but twenty-nine
others were still below, and the fire was
not yet under control. The terrified
crowd stood aghast, for few minutes,
and then, suddenly, panic Of despair
seemed to seize them, the stifed means
of the women and children breaking out
afresh, and the men drawing back from
the mine with blanched and averted
faces. The supreme moment of the
emergency had come, and the one man
to meet it was there. His name was
William Marks, and he stepped to the
front with the promptness and the mod
esty of true hero. "Fasten rope
around me and let me down into the
shaft, he said. The proposition was APP
palling, but down he went into the hor-
rible cavern, without another word, and,
reaching the bottom, freed himself for
his search in the entries diverging from
the main shaft. AT almost the first step
into the sitting darkness, he stumbled
upon the inanimate form of one of the
miners in a coal car, which he pushed to
the entrance secured the rope around the
body, called to those above to hoist away,
and in moment, the man was safe.
Further search soon revealed the where
abouts of the remaining twenty-eight,
and slowly, but surely, Marks piloted
them to the mouth of the mine and de-
livsred them, one by one-many insensi-
BILE, but all alive out of the jaws of
death into the hands of their wives and
children. Then, when the last one had
been rescued, he came himself to the
surface, scorched and blinded, and near
ly suffocated, and stood there silently
among the cheering towns people, the
master of the situation.


Thus the peril was surmounted with
out any sacrifice Of life; but the hero
ism was there all the same. The rescue
of the helpless miners, and the escape of
the man who gave death scorn to save
them, spoiled the perfection of a trag-
edy !; but the destruction of all concern
ed could not have added to the radiance
which belongs to the unselfsh bravery
of William Marks. He was common
working-man.