A COAL MINE EXPLOSION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 98, 26 April 1881, Page 4

A COAL MINE EXPLOSION.

A contributor to the GM. Argus thua relates his personal experience of one of thffiso fearful catastrophes io (be home counfry : — "It was in August, 1869, that I went down ono morning to work. When I got down nnd was walking along the main road towards my place I met a fireman who had junt finished his round of inspection. ' How is she this morning, Jemmy ?' I asked as I passed him, meaning, of course, was there much gas ? He eaid ' She's pretty full.' This wbb before the Mines Aot was passed, when inspection was a dead letter, and men were murdered yearly owing to insufficient Ventilation, and I could hardly see how she could be other thfin full, for there W«b very little air travelling, and she was little better than a magf.z'na in the best of time?. The Mines Act had made a difference in tint place, for if you walked alonp that road to-day you would have to bold your hair on. When I got to my ' siall/ or ' bord,' as some call it, I had a sit down /or a few minutes until my mate came, and then we stripped and Btarted to ' hole.' We had been at it some time — it roigbt have been two hours, I koow I wss getting pretty well under — when 1 heard a rushing, rumbling noise, and that was the last I could remember for a time. When I came to myself I found myself jammed into the holing under the oral ; I felt myself smarting prptfy well about the body, and as I Bmellei? a pretty strong scent of burning hair, after I pushed myself out of the holing I put my hr»nd to my face and found that my whiekers had been singed off. I eunfj out to my mate but got no answer, so I groped toward him. I shook him by his leg^ and cal'ed him by his name, and in a minute he came to. But aa soon as he spoke I was sure be wag done for. He h^l been burned inside as well as out. Wtgot on our feet and I groped for my clothes. I found them, and Bluffed force of mv flannel into my mouth and tied it round my nose, so that I breathed through the flannel, because I felt the afterdamp wbs petting hold of me. Thiß only occupied a very ahorfc time, sdc! we then started for the ebaft ss feet as we could go in the dark, as our only hope of life. But my mate rolled about like a drunken man, and as every now anO tben he would come into contact with a prop, or the cold rout»h side with his burned flesh his groarß curdled my blood. When we got to the main road, however, I gave bira one end of my shirt to hold on to and I held the other. , I did not like to give bioa my hand Sooner or later I knew be must fall, and I thought perhaps he might lay hold of me with a death grasp, and bo seal my fate as well as his. I need not have been afraid of such a thing however, for in a few minutes he fell forward on me, limp and lifeless, nearly knocking down me. I stood still a moment and called bim by his name, but he neither spoke nor moved, Bnd then feeling that I had not a minute to spare if I wißbed to save my own life I moved on again. I had gone about twenty or thirty yarde from where my mate fell, hurrying sb fast as I could, when I stumbled over something soft in the road and fell forward on my hands, I turned round and passed my hand over what bad thrown me down, and found it waß our little driver lad, lying ecroee the railp, dead, and I remember as I touched his wet face that I said to myself 'poor little fellow, he was sweating when he fell.' But as I walked on a minute afterwards I reflected that it was not sweat but blood, that was on his face. When at last I struggled to the pit bottom, I wob nearly dead. There was a faint breath of air coming down the ebaff that revived me a good deal, end then I called out, ' Ie anybody here ? ' But all was as quiet as the grave. Not even the Oneetter answered. I heard afterwards, that he bed been deebed against the side of the shaft by tfce explosion and killed. The empty cage was in the bottom and I got in and WBited, beping that they would soon pull op. For a time there was no sign in the bottom that out of more than 200 men and boys anyone but myself had escaped alive. In b little while, however, an old man crept into the cage. He was dreadfully burned and must have been suffering great bodily agony, but his mental Rgony wae greater. He had left hia little Benny behind. How could he go home without Benny ? Would I go back and fetch him ? I felt like a coward when I told him I dared not, but I knew that it was utterly impossible. In a short time another man came, and they came in ones and twos until there was probably a score in the bottom and in the cage— some quiveriDg and soreaming with agooy, others eat without a sound, whose bodily torments could not efface the thought that the boys who had been the life of the home would never gladden it again. "At lost the cage moved, slowly at first, end then a little faster. I shall never forget the crowd oi eager excited bloodless faces that peered in upon us as we came to the top. As the cage dropped back upon the catches hundreds of hands were put forward to help us out, and men who cared nothing for us individually, bugged us in very exceed of joy that any of us should come up alive. As we were .helped aw»y from the shaft we were surrounded by a crowd of appealing women asking for husbands and sons. • Did you see my husband P ' asked one "weman. I told her he was at the boftocQ waiting his turn. I remembered him being there. ' Did you see my boys,?" asked a widow, whose four likely lads I felt sore must be lying far up in the rise workings, charred and blackened corpses. I couldn't answer. A great sob came up, and for answer I burst oot crying. Out of more than 200 only 24 came up alive, and 18 of them died in 0 few daya. Nearly every house bed its corpse, and some two or three, and such a sound of mourning ae was in that village I hope I may never hear again."— J. D.