Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1880 — A Waiter. [ARTICLE]

A Waiter.

“ Will you please pass the milk, Miss Brown ?” asked a young man of a fidgety old maid at the supper-table. “Do ycu take me for a waiter, sir ?” she answered. “ Well,” he added, “as no one has taken you thus far, and you’ve waited so very long, I should think you were one.” Fob all the ailments of small ohildren there is no better remedy than Dr. Boll's Baby Syrup, AU druggists sell it, Price only 20 oeuts.

Bjr tfceCarlnf In of n Tunnel at Jersey City Twenty-One Ben Meet Death In Its Most Frightful Shape. The tunnel in process of oonstraotion under the Hudson river, connecting New York end Jersey cities, has been the scene of a most heartrending calamity, resulting in the death of twenty-one poor laborers, who perished miserably like rats drowned in a barrel. From the dispatches to the daily press we glean the following particulars of the distressing catastrophe: At the midnight change of “shifts” at the tunnel twenty-nine men descended the shaft and worked there until 4:30 in the morning, when the accident occurred. Hie work in which they were engaged was in making connection between the iron plates of the roof of the grand arch and the brick work of the working shaft. For support this iron roof depended upon strong wooden braces, and upon the compressed air which was forced down from above by means of air compressors, and which exerted an uplifting power Of twenty pounds to the square inch. The safety of the men and of the work depended principally upon the control of this compressed air. A small leak, through which it might pass upward through the thirty-feet of mud and cinders which cover the tunnel, was liable to occur at any time, and, unless discovered and stopped in season, to cause the entire mass of material to come tumbling down into the archway. This fact was perfectly well understood by the men as well as their foreman, and a steady watch was kept for air leaks, which, when found, were at once stopped up by the silt in the tunnel which has the consistency, and much of the virtue, of putty. It was probably owing to a relaxation of tnis constant watch that the terrible calamity was due. Half of the shift es twenty-eight men left the tunnel at 4 o’clock in the morning, and passed to the surface through the shaft to eat their lunch. They returned at about 4:30 to relieve their comrades, and it was at this time that the disaster oocurred. While the change was being made a hissing sound was heard, which all recognized instantly as the noise of escaping air. It grew louder as the vent increased in size, and almost immediately the timber supporting the roof began to sway, then there was a sharp crack, the heavy joists snapped like bamboos, and the thirty feet of silt and cinders which covered the chamber to the level of the working-shaft was precipitated upon the heads of the doomed men. Eight of them had time to leap into the airlock. A ninth, Foreman Frank Olson, passed his right arm through the open door, but before he could enter the heavy iron of the roof fell against the door, swaying it partly to, and crushing him before the eyes of lus companions. The other twenty men were now completely cnt off from all escape, and were literally buried in the falling timber, iron, and mud. The men in the lock seemed doomed to certain death, for the compressed air pushing against the door giving egress to the shaft prevented them from opening it, and the water of the river, oozing through the mud and loose soil, was rapidly pouring in and threatening to drown them. This air-lock is an iron chamber resembling a locomotive boiler, which furnishes the only means of ingress to the tunnel and egress from it It is round, has a length of fifteen feet and a diameter of six feet. Half of it projects through the east wall of and into the shaft. The other half is in the opening of the excavation leading into the tunnel. It is provided with a massive door at each end, which opens outwardly toward the tunnel. Two bull’s-eyes of plate glass look from one end into the shaft, and two more from the opposite end into the tunnel, in which an electric light was kept burning night and day. The pipes which convey the compressed air into the tunnel run through the air-lock. A. pipe opens into the lock from the tunnel and another pipe from the shaft, so that ah from either direction may bo let into the lock according as ingress or egress may be desired. The principle of operating the lock is much the same as that of the lock of a canal. In going in the pressed air is lec into the lock gradually until the density becomes equal to that of the tunnel. In coming out the operation is reversed—the highly-compressed air in the lock is allowed to escape, and its density thus gradually becomes the same as that of the outside atmosphere. The greatest care is of course necessary in operating the lock, for upon it depends the lives of the workmen and the success of the enterprise. It was in tiiis confined space that the eight men found themselves apparently cut off from a 1 retreat. They hammered on the iron sides of their prison, and screamed loudly for aid ; but, for what seemed an eternity, no aid came. Then; cries were heard, however, and as soon as possible relief was at hand. On the surface Moses Pierson, the engineer, saw a stream oi condensed air coming up on the outside of the shaft, and, divining what had happened, rushed quickly to the mouth of the shaft. “Open the door,” came to him in stifled tones from the imprisoned men below. He sent a messenger for Michael Hurley, the day foreman, who lived but a short distance Sway, and also for J. H. Anderson, the General superintendent. Hurley reached tire scene in a very short time, and clamberod quickly down the shaft to the rescue. He was followed by Patrick Meehan, Michael Burcliell and Thomas Anderson, and the four tried to force open the door of the lock, but without success, the pressure of the air against it from the inside being too great Then Hurley seized a crowbar and burst one of the bull's-eyes. At the same time Thomas Van Nostrand, oue of the imprisoned men, broke the other. The compressed air rushed through the lot with a whirr, followed by a stream of water, and, the pressure being thus removed, the door was forced open. The night men rushed out and hurried across the shaft to the stairs leading to the surface, followed by a flood of water which threatened to ingulf them. They escaped without injury, and at once went to work on the surface digging for the purpose of resouing their buried companions. Meanwhile Bupt. Anderson had reached the scene. A glance at the river showed them at once that all hope of saving the life of any of the twenty workmen in the tunnel was in vain. The water had risen in the shaft until it was twenty feet deep, and on a level with the river, and this was sufficient evidence that the tunnel was flooded. Evon had the men been saved from suffocation, drowning must have put an end to their lives in a very few minutes after the fatal crash. The news of the disaster had spread rapidly through Jer.ey City, and by 6 o’clock a crowd numbering nearly 1,000 people had congregated around the shaft and were gazing at the pool which marked the tomb of the unfortunate laborers. Policemen were soon on hand to keep the throng back, and ropes were stretched around to protect the workmen from interference. The scene all through the day was a sorrowful one. In the great crowd that surged around the shaft were wives seeking their husbands, mothers their sons, and children their fathers. The wife of Assistant-Superintendent Woodland did not hear of the disaster until 7 o’clock, two hours after her husband was dead. She rushed frantically to the shaft, pushed her way through the throng, and gazed down into the deep water, weeping and wailing. She was led away by kindly hands and taken back to her desolate home, heart-broken and sobbing piteously.