Year: 1875

A stickful of information in the Asso-
ciated Press dispatches concerning the
recent coal-mine fire at Usage City, Kan
sas, conveys but a stingy idea of the
horrors attending that event, as related
by the local papers. The fire broke out
about midday, and when first discovered
the main shaft of the mine was in a
blaze, with thirty-two men and boys at
work beyond and beneath the flames,
nearly forty feet below the level of the
earth. In a few minutes the whole pop
ulation of the place rushed to the scene,
and a 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, stupefied with fear and an
guish. All the wells in the town had
run nearly dry weeks before, and scarcely
enough water could be obtained to sub
due the heat above ground, much less to
arrest the confagration inside the mine.
Thus matters stood for two awful hours,
when a 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 juno
ture a man emerged, like specter, from
the blaze and smoke, and fell in 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 burned 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 sud-
denly 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, thank God, as he always is.
His name this time was Marks, William
Marks, and he stepped to the front with
the promptness and the modesty Of a true
hero. "Fasten a rope around me and
let me down into the shaft" he said.
The proposition was appalling, but the
quiet courage of the man tied every
tongue and stilled the agony of the trem-
ulous crowd like a special providence.
Down he went into the horrible 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 coal car,
which he pushed to the entrance, secured
the rope around the body, called to those
above to hoist away, and in a moment
the man was safe. Further search soon
revealed the whereabouts of the remain
ing twenty-eight, and slowly but surely
Marks piloted them to the mouth of the
mine and delivered them, one by one
many insensible, but all alive-out of the
laws of death into the hands of their
wives and children. Then, when the
last one had been rescued, he came him.
self to the surface, scorched and blinded,
and nearly suffocated, and stood there
silently among the cheering townspeople,
the master of the situation.


Thus the peril was surmounted with
out any sacrifice of life; but the heroism
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 tragedy
but the destruction of all concerned
could not have added to the radiance
which belongs to the superb and unset
fish bravery of William Marks. He was
only common workingman facing Q
duty to his fellows: but he met that
duty like a Roman monarch, and made
grasshopper Kansas splendid for one day
| with his conouering courage. He prob
ably never heard of Cato pausing, SWORD
in hand, to welcome death or Cleopatra
putting on crown to make royal end
ing; or even of Hays Jim Bludso, Of
Harte's Flynn of Virginia. He merely
saw and felt the imminent need of risk
ing one life to redeem twenty-nine othe
lives, and coolly accepted the challenge
He was the right man in the right place
at the right time. May he live long ant
prosper.