Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 186, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 August 1913 — BUS VISIT MINES [ARTICLE]

BUS VISIT MINES

British Collieries Have Many Strange Visitors. * 1 Cats, Mice, Rats and Dogs Not Un-common-Animal In Pit the Cause of Strike With Curious Sequel. London.—After a colliery explosion at Llanbradach one of the rescue, parties made a surprising discovery. Perched on a tub in the mine was a robin. Now, most collieries regard the presence of birds, particularly those with white plumage, about pits as a “token,” and the \ “fire” which had occurred was, therefore, attributed to the intrusion of the perky little stranger. Rats are not uncommon about a pit head, and some of them reach the depths beneath, occasionally with fatal haste.

One, during the process of falling down a shaft, acquired such a momentum by the time it reached the bottom that when it struck a collier there was a'loud report as of an explosion, and the man was knocked to the ground with great force. In warm mines, too, mice are numerous. A few reach a new pit in the trusses of hay and bags of corn that are taken down It for the ponies, and these, notwithstanding the strangeness of their environment, multiply so rapidly that cats have to be installed in the stables. It might be supposed that they, at any rate, would not take at all kindly to the subterranean world, but they soon become used to their surroundings. In one mine a fine pit tabby used to knock off with the men on Saturday, but, unlike them, t-lie did not start again on Monday morning. She was always missing till Wednesday or Thursday, when she returned from the old and disused portion of the mine.

A strike, however, plays far greater havoc with the mouse population of a pit than any number of cats, because the food of the ponies and of the men and boys Is no longer available for the unfortunate little creatures. When, by way of example, the Durham colliers joined in the great general strike last year many of the pits In that county were overrun with mice, but for some time after work was resumed not one was seen. Dogs also are among the animal trespassers in mine?. By some means a terrier entered a disused pit in Swaledale, and for qlgbt days it roamed about the workings without anything to eat. More remarkable was a dog's intrusion into a South Wales pit which has the reputation of being haunted. The animal in question was seen prowling about the workings, and, as it seemed to vanish when an attempt was made to catch it, a number of colliers at once “downed tools” and went home. Some of them then consulted a local wise woman, telling her of the “vision” they had seen earlier-in the day, whereupon she predicted a disaster. As a result more than 200 men refused to go down the following morning, and, though the manager did his utmost to induce them to resume work, they obstinately determined to remain idle. And, what is more, it was not untlb three days later that all the men were at work again. There were two curious sequels to this incident.v One, which took place about a week afterward, was the prosecution and conviction of the fortune teller for causing the miners to absent themselves from work. The other sequel happened much more recently, and was the discovery of a skeleton of a dog (doubtless that which had been seen by some of the miners) In the workings.