“Did you use to work at the coke ovens?” I asked.
“No, but I use to work in the hard coal mines—at Nanticoke and Shamokin;
knocked off thirteen years ago, when the foreigners cut down wages. It
was at Nanticoke I had the narrow escape with my life. I’ll tell you
while I’m getting warmed up. It was all the mistake of the engineer.
We were putting a tunnel from the new drifts up into the old abandoned
workings, in order to drain the old workings down into the lower level,
and then pump it out through the great pump that was pumping out the
lower level.
“The engineer calculated to strike the old drift several feet above the
great body of water lying there, and then pump it up into the tunnel and
let it flow down to the lower level. The engineer made a grave error in
his calculations, for instead of entering the old drift above the water,
the tunnel was almost on a level with the bottom of the old drift. There
was a large quantity of water in the drift. When the men put in the last
blast it tore the intervening wall down and the river of water came
bursting into the tunnel. There were eleven men working there besides Ed
Evans and me. We had gone back to the shaft to get some powder and were
back as far as the big slope when we heard the mighty roar of the rushing
waters.
“We could not tell at first what the noise meant, but we felt there was
danger in the pitchy darkness. Ed and I ran up the slope, calling to big
Billy Beck to follow us, who was then working at something near the foot
of the slope. He waited to learn what the cause of the noise was. We
looked back and saw him start in our direction. We could see the light
waving rapidly up the slope behind us. Suddenly his light went out. We
soon learned why, for a moment later the water came rushing up the slope
and soon submerged our legs up to our knees.
“Luckily we had reached an elevation on the slope almost as high as the
flood could ascend when the level was filled, and we soon found ourselves
on dry ground. This slope had not been worked for over a year, and no one
else was penned up in the horrible trap but Ed and me.
“We felt confident that all the men who were cutting the tunnel into the
old drift had been drowned. The terrific flood came in so suddenly that
none could escape. Then we began to think of our own situation. It would
require months to pump all the water out of the level. In the meantime
we would starve. We had even lost our dinner pails. We looked into each
other’s eyes through the dim light, and Ed said, ‘We’re in a hell of a
fix now, old man! I wonder if the people outside will still think we poor
miners demand too much pay? Will they be good to my wife and the babies?’
“At the word ‘babies’ poor Ed broke down and wept as only a brave man can
weep when facing despair. Then we remembered the old abandoned air shaft,
and we went up the slope as fast as we could go until we found it. We
called up the shaft to where we could see a speck of light, but there was
nobody there to hear us. Then we both sat down and cried in utter despair.
“Yes, we were rescued. Men came to the old shaft next day intending to
go down and see if anybody had found safety in the old slope. We were
rescued thirty hours after the accident. Our wives and Ed’s children were
on hand to receive us. But, dear God, I can never forget the wail of the
poor wives whose dear ones lay drowned down in the lower level. Big Bill
Beck’s poor old wife had to be carried home when she saw that Bill was
not among the rescued.
“Yes, thank you very much for the food and your kindness. No, I’ll never
go back to the mines again. It’s a hard life, and the operators have made
the world believe that the miners are asking too much for their work and
their lives. Say, did you ever notice? Two days after a mine accident the
widows and orphans need help! Too much pay? Oh, the shame of it all!”