Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 October 1889 — DOWN IN A COAL MINE. [ARTICLE]

DOWN IN A COAL MINE.

Minute Description of a. Trip Into an English" Coal Pit. “Come along, Sam! Now is your time if you want to go down the 1 pit!” So said Mr. Clay, the manager of our pits, to me, one morning, as I sat it my desk in the office of the Dukinaeld Coal Pits. 1 had been employed In that office for over five years, but I jntil that time had never bean down Ihe pit. I Following Mr. Clay, I asked him what I must do .for clothes, as it would hardly do for mo to go down the pit in my office suit. “Come into the bath room,” he replied; “there are some old \hings •here that will do." Fresently I found myself arrayed in i p;iir of dirty trousors profusely ornamented with rags and holes, which, together with an old woolen jacket squally aristocratic in appearance, jomprised my pit costume. On the table of Mr. Clay’s office I found two safety lamps which he had brought one for himself and one for me. They were cylindric il in shape, about a foot long and three inches in diameter, l’ho lower part near the light was surrounded with glass and the upper part with fine iron gauze, through which the lamp was fed with air. Seizing hold of the iron ring which was fastened to the top of one lamp, 1 followed Mr. Clay across a large yard and up a flight of rough steps on to what is called the pit top. This consists of a platform raised about twenty feet above the ground, and is placed thus for convenience of emptying the coal into carts and wagons beneath. Presently we came to the shaft, as the hole is called up which the coal is drawn out of the pit. This was divided into two parts, one for the ascendidg and one for the descending cage. Each was a huge framework of iron and was arranged to hold a number of the small wagon in which the coal is drawn out of the pit. In the cage also the workmen are lowered into the mine. Following my companion, I took my place in one of the cages, though not without considerable misgivings, foF I had heard a great deal about the unpleasant sensations experienced by any one going down the pit for the .first time. Some of the men had told me that it made them feel as though their hearts were in their mouths, while others said it felt like standing on nothing. Most of them said it was unpleasant; but I did not find it so. There was nothing really unpleasant in the descent after we had oncei got fairly started. Gazing around I took my last look at the light of day previous to leaving for three hours, and then we started. Down we went—past the pumpson the level with the ground and then nothing was seen but the massivo timbers framing the side of the pit. Still down, until we passed the other cage on its upward journey, and knew that we had descended half way. The feeble lights from our lamps cast a pale glimmer around, preserving us from what would otherwise have been Egyptian darkness. A moment later and the cage slackened speed and stopped. It was secured by a man at the bottom, and, stepping out, I found myself for the first time in my life in a coal mine. Nearly a hal f a mile of solid earth was above my head, while in front of me stretched a wide, dark tunnel about five feet in height. We went on a few yards.

ancTrhon entered a small side passage' leading to a hut, where the manager kept some books. Here we stayed a few moments, and then went on a little farther to the boiler-house where three moderately large boilers were at work. The places where the coal is gotten are in some places a mile from the shaft, and these boilers supply steam to an engine which pulls the loaded wagons from the workings up an incline called the engine brow. It was fearfully hot in the boiler-house, but the manager finished his inspection of the boilers in about ten minutes, and wo made our way back to the main passage near the shaft. We wished to go to the workings where the men were actually getting the coal, To do this it was necessary to go down the steep incline called the engine brow which led to the place. So we got on to a truck which was fastened to the engine by a thick wire rope. The truck was a sort of low wagon without sidc3, and was about 6 feet in lehgth by 4 in width. On this we reclined, with one hand supporting our heads and with the other holding our lamps. The engine started, and soon we were moving at of six or seven miles an hour down the low steop tunnel. The roof was about a ton above our heads a§ we lay down on the truck. To have sat straight up would have been certain death and, in fact, many men have been killed by their heads striking the roof, in this way. It was a strange sensation to be thus whirling along with the low roof overhead and the sides of the tunnel coming close to the car. Everything the dim light of our lamps fell upon was black and gloomy, except that every now and thon a whitewashed patch of the wall indicated that in that placp was a reees3 whore a miner might take refuge should he be walking up the brow when the wagon 3 were moving. But at length we arrived at the bottom and soon wero walking along unother tunnel about four feet high. Wo had to lean well forward with bodies nearly at right angles to our legs, and at th«

same time had to hold our heads back and keep a sharp eye on the roof lest some jagged edge of rock should strike us on the head. The light from our lamps was so faint that we could but a few yards in advance and the unwonted posture caused my neck and back to ache severely, ——— Presently w« came to the stables where the horses were kept A miserable existence they must have, for they are seldom or never brought out of the pit, and have to speed their lives in pulling long trains of wagons through the dark tunnels of the mine. Some of them go blind with living in the darkness so long. We passed on, through one tunnel after another, the air getting hotter the farther we went, until at length at the end of a low passage we came to a place where some miners were hewing the coal out of its native resting place. It was a wide, but low chamber whore the men were working, and with numerous timber props supporting tho roof. Before me I could see a shiny black seam of coal about four feet thiek; At this seam men nearly naked, were working with picks and other tools. As I saw the fine fellows at work in the hot and foul air, daring death by explosion, fire damp, falls of roof, and maDy other ways, my respect for them was considerably increased. The coal, after being hewed out of the rock by the men, is then shoveled into small wagons which are run down a short incline on to the horse road. Six or eight of them are here fastened together, and are drawn on tram-lines by a horse to the bottom of the engine brow. Here they are fastened to the end of a long wife rope, and are wound up the brow by the engine, after which they are placed in the cage and are drawn rapidly up the shaft to tho pit top.

We left the workings at last and commenced our return. When wo had nearly reached the shaft, Mr. Clay pointed out a certain spot in the main passage, and said, “Here is where the great explosion occurred.” The explosion to which he referred happened about fourteen years ago. It seems that some of the timbers supporting the sides of the main passage near tho shaft had fallen in, followed by a large quantity of earth and rock. This had liberated some explosive gas in the wall which ignited with some of the: lights near and caused an explosion.. Those who have witnessed an explosion describe the scene as being magnificently grand when the death-deal-ing flame, resplendent in all the colors of the rainbow, flashes about in the dark caverns of the mine. Mighty and terrible in its beauty the flame rushes along, hurling huge masses of earth from their places and touching some of the men with the touch of death in its course. Tho thundering nois e. of tho explosion echoes through the mine, telling the men who. are working at a distance that their dread foe is upon them. Throwing down their tools they rush for the shaft only in many cases to meet the> poisonous after-damp, which Invariably follows an explosion. After a time> the air gets clear again, and when the searches come around they find the poor follows stretched on the ground as if asleep—but it is the sleep of death. Over fifty men were killed at one explosion in the pit down which I went.

But now our journey was nearly* over, and again I found myself in the cage ready tar be dpswir up the shaft. Upwards now—leaving the region of darkness behind us till at length the light of day penetrates into the cage, and in a moment more wo gre at the top. I step out of the cage, tired, bruised, and black as a negro with coal dust, yet happy and satisfied; forI had realized one of my wishes—l had seen the colliers at work and had penetrated the utmost recesses of the darksome mine.—S. H. Wheddow, in Milwaukee Wisconsin.

Unpleasant Courting Experience. A young man named Dixon has just had an unpleasant courting experience in Innishowen, County Donegal, Ireland . His lady-love is not only very pretty but she is an heiress, her uncle having left her a fortune. Moreover she is partial to Dixon. Tho young man was calling on the girl one day when he heard the footsteps of a couple of rivals, and in sportive humor he concealed himself in the butter-box. While he was enjoying the conversation the girl’s father came along with a pail of hot water to scald tho box. Before the girl divined his purpose he d;.shed the water into the box. Tho howl of anguish that arose scared the old gentleman half to death and poor Dixon was found to be so badly scalded that he had to be moved to the hospital.

A Long Debate. Tho longest uninterrupted debate on record was Aug. 1 brought to a close by the New Zealand house, of representatives. It had caused a continuous sitting of seventy-six hours, entirely given up to the discussion of a representation bill. Yet the debato was not finished.

Cigarette Suppression. The Women’s Christian Temperance union of Oakland, Cal., has a “Cigarette Committee,” theTmsinuss of which is the suppression of tho cigarette habit A petition to the city council in favor of the prohibition of the tulo 6f blgaheties wii brought under debate at a recent meeting of the union,