Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1894 — A Night in a Coal Mine. [ARTICLE]

A Night in a Coal Mine.

“I once spent a night in a coal mine,” said Charles F. Tomley, of Indianapolis. “It was partly the result of meanness, but more largely of forgetfulness. I was out on a tour of inspection and investigation in Ohio at the time, and had a letter from the manager of a mining company authorizing me to look over their mines. I was generally received very courteously, and had no difficulty until one day a miner’s boss demanded very rudely a liberal contribution. When I refused, he told me that I could stop down in the mine until I changed my mind, and he actually refused to allow me to go up in the shaft. I never imagined he meant anything more than a joke, and as I did not know the mine was only working short time, I did not dream the men were leaving for the day. Such, however, was the case, and although|l waited hour after hour, no friendly shaft came to my rescue. What had been first intended for a bluff had been converted into an outrage by sheer forgetfulness, and I spent a horrible night in intense darkness and miserable dampness. The horrors of that night with noises all around, for which it was impossible to account, can hardly be realized, and if it is anything like what a prisoner suffers in solitary confinement, such unfortunates have my hearty sympathy.”—[St. Louis 'Globe Democrat.