EXCITING RESCUE BY MINERS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2623, 4 May 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

EXCITING RESCUE BY MINERS.

An instance of what patient perseverance will do in the case of a mining disaster has just been shown in Hungary. On the day which Professor Fal'o had predicted as a critical one, the waters suddenly burst into a shaft in the Sal.ifo Tarjan Mines, near Pesth, where 340 minors were at work. An alarm signal was given, and most of tho men were able to get out, but when the names wore culled over '20 men were found to bo missing. In tho meantime the water had risen so high that it was impossible to reach them. Tho engineer and the chief manager, Herr Gerber, h r.vever, never for one moment gave tho men up as lost, and from Wednesday to Friday night worked incessantly at their rescue. Ilerr Gerber was carried out of the shaft in a swoon six times in those two days, but always returned to the charge. He bored holes in the well of tho shaft, where ho supposed tiie men miyht be, to allow the giws to escape, and this clever contrivance actually Rived their lives. The}' had already given themselves up as lost whou a draught of fre.-h air reached them, and, besides refreshing them, was a sign of the efforts being made to save them. The manager on returning to the shaft on Friday night, had ordered twenty coffins, and the miners' relations were preparing muurning for the funeral. The fifleen men who helped Herr Gerber to reach tho spot where the entombed miners stood surrounded by water had to stand in the water up to their uecks, tho bad gases stupefying them every now and then. At last a lamp on a long pole was seen by those who were then firmly believed to bo dead. They gavo a shout of joy, and half an hour later the victims and their rescuers joinod hands. Tho twenty men had been in the shaft sixtyone hours without food or drink, standing in water up to their thighs, (ind sometimes up to their necks. The younger ones had given way to despair, but a brave Styrian managed to keep their spirits up and directed their movements as tho water rose and fell. Though it was midnight, the whole town was up to receive them, and to cheer tho bravo men wbo had saved them. Huudreds of guns aud pistols wore fired off by the excitad spectators.