Scenes And Incidents From The Life Of A Practical Miner
With A Treatise On The Ventilation Of Coal Mines

34 state, hanging head-first down the pit for several fathoms up, and all the way down to the bottom. While I myself hung by one foot and one hand, though injured by the blow, yet I never faltered with him; I kept my eye steadfastly fixed on his foot, as the variation of the sixteenth of an inch might have precipitated him into the folds of eternity. This was one of'the many miraculous and hair-breadth escapes, I have had in» my time as a miner. And strange to say neither of my brothers had one. They were both cut off in the flower and bloom of life, by an equally sudden surprise of the solemn call, in the twenty-second and twenty-fifth years of their ages; and if in this instance such had been our lot, I have no doubt but at the coroner’s inquest it would have been found accidental death. In point of fact, it was absolute negligence This door was placed in the brattice that divided the back shaft'or pumping side from the fore shaft, where the coals as well as the men and boys were drawn iip to and from their work by a winding machine &c The door was made for the purpose of letting the enginewriMits in’con veniently to change the bucket, &c. They had been in this morning and gone out only a short time before we arrived at the bottom to <?0 Up • and in going out they had neglected to fasten this door; by bein«- left so it was working on its hinges in the coal-drawing side, knocked to and fro by the rope and corves as they passed up and down. The youn- man who was on top was John Cole, now proprietor of the Elephant uid Castle public house in Low Friar Street, Newcastle. And fortunately for him, at the time, he had his head below the hooking when it struck the door and drove it with great force to its frame, the motion of the engine enabled him and the men m the high loop to pass; but in rebounding back it struck the cham immediately below the high loop men, driving us from our hold, backwards over as I have described. Now, was the importance of leaving the door open not sufficient in itself to induce them to be sure that they had safely secured it before they eft it? Here you see, that by negligence, that monster of human ills how easily we mxght all five have been killed; for instance, if the dooJ had struck the chain below the hooking, and above the Cole, it would have swept the chain of us all, and the rope would have gone to bank empty. As it was, the three upper men wore nothing worse, but panic stricken at the frightful scene below them. While Laws was nearly done, by hanging so long m the awful position he was in, bis body hanging head downwards supported only by the heel of his shoe resting on the rids of a link, the length and lever of his foot enabled me to keep it where it was for several minutes; otherwise I could not have borne its weight, which at the time was 12 stone 8 pounds. He was a long time in coming round, and nejei was able to do the work as he had done, yet he lived several years after this, and told Ins tale of my presence of mind and his miraculous pieseivation. He has a son, Richard Laws, and grandsons, at Seghill Colliery, to wit. 0 Perhaps it may be necessary to particularize species of work in the system of mining with winch I have been connected, either as a workman or responsible superintendent. I have observed that they came to the conclusion to put dams into all the south and east holeings, and if pos-