Ways of Living.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 410, 17 March 1904, Page 3

Ways of Living.

HOW MEN FACE DEATH. / SpWNDEBNEATH London is a second Is£j& dark tunnels—the city of the sewers. Here, day by day, the sewer men face death in order that the London above may be sweet and clean. The streets of this underground city vary in height from Ift. to 10ft, and put end to end would easily reach from London to Holyhead. I recently had the opportunity of going through them. My companions and I made our way to obo of the wellknown flaps in the pavement, and descended. We went down a short passage and finally stepped down into a foot of swiftly-flowing slush. Darkness reigned, and my sensations were weird in the extreme. Soon I could see a little. I was in a large brick tunnel 10ft high. The inky flood reached nearly to my knees, and my feet sank several inches into the deposit beneath. Then we set oat. on our journey, It was certainly a strange one. The unaccustomed sensation of walking in a foot or more of —water j the echoing and re-echoing of our fooisteps gradually dying away in the darkness ahead; the wiD o* the wisp like lights carried by my companions} the dimness and sense of unreality. All were extraordinary. A four hours' walk in these caverns of the shades was an experience. Two things surprised me. There waa very little smell except in places, and an occasional smoke was sufficient, And I saw only a few rats. From what I had heard I expected to see hundreds. UNDBEaROUJCD TuAaKDIKS. Though, strangely enough, the work ig peifectly healthy, the history of the sewers is one long list of fatal accidents and hairbreadth escapes. • Accidents arise from fames given off by chemicals discharged from a factory, from foul air, from sudden flooding owing to a heavy storm of ratn a mile or two away. A discharge of Bteam, too, is a common cause of danger. A man called Day who began to work in Soho in 1849, when the sewers were open watercourses, nearly lost his life in an accident of this kind. He and threo othersShirley, Albert, and House—were working in a 4ffc pipe. Suddenly came a rush of steam and chemical fumes. All four dropped their shovels and bolted for the nearest shaft, some 80ft. away. Imagine, if you can, the sensations that must have been theirs. Stumbling along, bent nearly double, their faces washed by the filthy flood; scalded by steam, and half-suffocated by chemical fumes; in total darkness, and falling ever each other in their mad rush ; knowing that in hurry lay their only chance, but knowing, too, that if, in their hurry, j they missed the shaft their doom was 1 sealed, j ' All four grew gradually weaker. Another minute would have seen them dead, when the leader suddenly found the gap. Shouting the good fortune to his companions, he rushed up the short passaga, climbed the shaft, and—failed to open the flap. Galling for help, he descended two steps, and, making j one last deperate effort for life, went at it I again with a rush. In the meantime the I second man bad nipped up the shaft, and I

now stood with, the leader beneath the flap. ■- ■ .-■;•• Both applied their remaining strength. The flap moved, lifted, poised itself ios a moment, and then fell open. All four tumbled ) out—alive, indeed, but '■ with •faoes blackened; beards singed off, and reeling like drunken men. A wonderful escape.' ;■•■ . ■ / An accident which illustrates how tremendously quickly water rises happened in 1875 at Stamford Hill. James Hill was cutting through a 10ft, sewer for the-purpose of putting in a house drain. In order to reach his work he was sitting on a plank placed across the sower about one-third of the way np it. His-mate noticed the water rising, and said: ' You'd better chuck this, Jim. I think there's a storm coming.' ••' Oh!' said poor Hill, • I've only got a few minutes' work now—may as well finish the job while I'm at it,' and went on with his work. The water rose at a terrible pace, and, before Hill realised what was happening, he found the plank on which he was sitting spinning round on the surface of the water. His mate made a grab at him as he was carried off, but failed to hold him, and in a few seconds he was out of sight. They searched the entrance night and day, but could find no trace of him. Into the sewer itself no one could go, for it was simply a roaring tide up to the roof. It was not till a fortnight afterwards that they found his body—or rather, what remained of it—at the Old Ford Penstock. :•• . HeROKS Alii. In 1884 two men were working in a sewer. A tremendous thunderstorm broke over London, and the flood rose so fast that their efforts to escape came too late. They were washed from Kilbura, under Hyde Park, to Chelsea—a little matter of seven miles. Their bodies were found two days later when the flood had subsided. About five years ago the presence of foul gas in a sewer cost three men their lives. One of them went down a shaft for the purpose of cleaning up the entrance into the sewer. On aearing the bottom he was apparently overcome by gas and fell into the water. Another man went to his help. He also collapsed. A third' followed, only to share the same fate. Two others, Baron and Gaskell, rushed to the rescue. The former descended, and had not been down half a minute, when Gaskell shouted' to him, and getting no answer, at once feared that he also had been suffocated. Assistance was obtained, and, by the help of a boat-hook and a rope, Baron was dragged out. He recovered. Tne rest when brought up were dead. Truly the sewer man carries his life in his hands.—H, Jenneb-Fust 111.