Several thousand mine workers of the anthracite region, chiefly
foreigners, refused to enter the mines to-day because they had
a superstitious fear that the earth would be destroyed when
enveloped in the tail of Halley’s comet to-night, May 18, 1910.
Efforts of the English-speaking miners, [at Wilkesbarre, Penn.]
to get them to go to work were futile, and they said that if the
world came to an end they wanted to be on the surface where they
could see, instead of in the depths of the mines. A number of
them spent most of the day in prayer, and many of them were in a
condition of great fear and nervousness. A number of collieries
were so short handed that they had to shut down for the day.
(1079)