What Everybody Says.

Thames Star, Volume III, Issue 1675, 16 May 1874, Page 2

What Everybody Says.

" In multitude of counsellors there is safety. —Om> Provbkb. There has been a good deal said lately about accidents—fatal and otherwise—in mines, and it does seem as if the miners were more to blame than the mine. Here is one case where a man, after repeated warnings, will persist in standing under a few tons of loose earth which threaten to fall every moment* Of course that miner is no coward. He hopes to do what he has to do and escape the impending danger. But lie stays a minute too long —down comes the crushing weight of earth or rock—a stifled cry or groan— and another poor fellow has gone to his account; another widow mourns, and more children are rendered fatherless. The most painful feature in these accidents is the reflection that they might be avoided. In another case a man jumps down into a vault at the lowest depths of a mine, regardless of consequences. The bare probability even of finding a noxious gas in such a dismal hole should be sufficient caution to men who are constantly working in mines. But no ; a miner goes deliberately-into a vault where the light of day never penetrated, and from which, the particles of God's pure air which do penetrate are at once expelled by the noxious gases exuding from every subterranean crevice and cranny. The only tell-tale to warn him of impending danger he leaves at a safe distance. The lighted candle which would have told him of the presence of foul air he neglects to take with him, thus depriving himself of any index to the danger he was exposed to, and lulling his mate into a false security nntil he was paat all human aid. These occurrences are so frequent that one begins to imagine a penal enactment providing stringent punishment of miners who wilfully and deliberately do and commit acts endangering their owe orttheirr r mates' lives would be not inappropriate. One thing is pretty certain—that more than onehalt'the accidents in this district are the result of want of prudence or judgment on the part of the men, rather than the neg ligence of managers. Occasionally a bad case does appear, when the management might be made an example of; but the recklessness and foolhardiness of miners themselves too often result in the mo3t distressing occurrences which could happen in any community. -Familiarity with danger certainly breeds a contempt for it with miners. They go down into the bowels of the earth daily with as little concern as one would go to bed, and it is only after a particularly harrassing case that they seem at all alive to the risks they undergo, and the necessity which exists for their being the most careful— the most prudent, and the most exemplary of men. Married men, too, of all others are apparently the most daringsome . may say the most reckless.

There is a practice of colonial origin and growth which would certainly be more honored in the breach than the observance. It is that of smoking to and from those public resorts known by the generic term, places of worship. Sitting in one of these places, for instance, a welldressed man passes you—rather late, possibly, for the beginning of the worship. As he moves past a strong odour of cigar or very stale clay pipe strikes your olfactory nerves. Immediately your thoughts wander to the soothing pipe you might be smoking but for the time, the place, and the hour. Not being a perfect slave to the seductive weed your imagination does not dwell long on the smoke you may have denied yourself because you were going to church, but before you can bring your wandering thoughts back to the point to which they should be directed another train i 3 suggested. Where did that person spring from, say you. He didn't get that cigar at home. He hasn't had a virtuous cup of tea I—he1—he has just emerged from a pub, and hadn't time to finish the Sunday luxury—a sixpenny cigar. Then again, coming out of church the inveterate smoker crops up everywhere. One would almost imagine they had been cutting up a fill within the precincts of the church. They strike their matches on the very thresholds of the sacred places, and march off blowing clowds suggestive of the free and easy rather than a place of worship. The habit is growing, and on this Thames it is very prevalent. It is scarcely decent; it certainly betokens an utter want of consideration for females on the part of those who practice it; and the sooner it is abandoned the better. Comingaway from church itis bad enough, but 1 o carry the odour of a stale pipe or a strong, full flavored cigar into such a building is simply indecent. Some of our cabbies and carters have petitioned for municipal regulation regarding their occupation. They object to the employment of boys as drivers— not on account of any incapacity on the part of the youthful whips, but because their craft is in danger. There is no denying the fact that some of the cabs run-, ning are entrusted to very small drivers, but it should not be taken as a matter of course that because boys are small they are incapable of driving "a one-horse shay." There is an objection on the part of some people to be driven by mere lads, but it arises not from the score of youth. Some ot these precious young Jehus have become adepts at the practices of their elders. They could initiate even a Chief Justice in the mysteries of Yankee Grab ; and, having attained a certain proficiency in this polite amusement, when business is slack they adjourn to the nearest pub and indulge in Yankee Grab for beers—not ginger beers but veritable malt liquors. Its very shocking, but boys will not be. boys sometimes when they should. If these same juveniles got excited over a game of marbles while their horses took a trip on their ©Wfi account t'.ey

would be pitied, but should an '■■•accident occur through the incapability of the youthful drivers after too much Yankee Grab and beer, very little sympathy and less mercy will be shown them; and the expose" that would follow would not tend to enhance the respectability of the house where the youngsters practised their little games.