8 NEW-YORK DAILY TRIBUNE. SUNDAY. JANUARY 26, 1908. MilsibbbbbbA yjanaaf KuCMiffAiionffß[HI! d^BF/ y^^H^h^v /aansauvv \u25a0B^^^B^B: n FEARFUL RECKLESSNESS WITH BLASTING POWDER ontlLAMPS= LAW IGNORBD^gy UNDERGROUND

[C"F>rl«ht, 1908. br Charles Claude Casey.] The newspaper reading public may suppose that practically all the men who are killed in mines are slaughtered in batches so large as to Vf rise to big headlines In the press. The error of such a supposition is made plain when that, were It is shown although only 747 men killed In a total of nine spectacular mine hor- r in the twelve months of 190. >. no fewer rors 4,402 than 2,097 lost their lives and were in- lured in that tim« in American mines alone. Accordingly, the death of 1.350 men anb the In- the jury o* fcbout 3.G00 were known only to people in the Immediate neighborhood of the where the 5.000 accidents occurred; and mines year the ftory of the mine disasters of a is far more impressive than the story of the Monon- cah disaster, in which 550 lives were lost. The causes of the death of 747 miners are tor known to the newspaper reading public 190TV. The dangers which caused the l.?>rio other deaths lay in the handlingof powder, care- jeecly or otherwise; in the fall of rock, the in- security of which was known or unknown: in accidents to machinery, in good and bad repair; DUST, POWDER IN A MAN- •n accidents due to the handling of coal cars, "TAMPING A SHOT" WITH COAL OPENING A KEG OF TAIL CHAINS. NER PROSCRIBED BY LAW. DRIVER IN PERILOUS POSITION ON both inside and outside of the mines. These PICKING OFF LOOSENED ROCK AFTER A BLAST. WHICH MAY BE EXPLODED variations, BY A four causes, with scores of detail SPARK. caused 1.600 deaths, or six deaths for each -srorkday. In 1906. and Injured 4.500 men, or IS squarely into the fastened to the miner's hat by a small hook, workday. Many of the injured were but it is done every day In the mines. In re- load of powder and dropped for each answering to the handle of the teapot, and to ality the miner Juggles his life and the lives of open can. never able to return work. swings and one side to the his fellow men in one hand and their and his "It would be Impossible to describe the hor- back and forth from with the every movement of the wearer's at instant. My hands other SMALL DANGERS MOST FATAL. own death in the other. rnr which Ifelt that fireand the can of powder as a head. Ifthe wick becomes dry It catches from the point How would you like, for instance, to stand gripped the edges of ma- These are small dangers, of grip anything that gave the end becomes a email mass of charred stooped over a keg of p'.ant powder and to see drowning man would sparks of the public, because the public seldom go terial and each shake of the lamp causes view sparks fire an open lamp play hide and hope of life. Icouldn't have let of it if I of a death from these causes. In the of from my life, much to fall about the miner's head. On this account hears the open can? If that had known it,would have saved they great dangers. "When twenty- seek about the top of requires in handling powder the mine are the you less have cast it from me. Cramped as Iwas. in the law iiiat world is not thrillingenough, how would like to miner lamp on the ground— ln the five men are killed at once the whole a four foot space. Icould scarcely have moved, shall set his many see one of the sparks drop Into the powder? four feet from the it; but killtwenty-five times that even if Ihad not been petrified with terror. mine it is called "bottom"— knows There is one man who has had such an ex- side, as sailors would cne at a time In different places and few know "Sparks of fire often vanish in midair, and my powder and on Its ."lee" perience and who lives to tell It. This one is say. lamps only about If were any doutt of this it would explanation of the failure of the powder to But since the furnish it. there Haute, once a only of light, if the miner is by the public knowledge of the mine P. H Penna. of Terre Ind.. explode is that this particular spark went out one candle power be settled miner, the and sometimes when he is not, of approximately 2,400 men coal but now secretary of Indiana within half an of the powder. It seems im- crowded for tirr.e. fatEiities of 1907. inch and keep lamp on his during Bituminous Coal Operators' Association. possible to believe that it touched the powder, he will take the risk the In the mines of the United States 1' killed "Rooms In a mine, he said to the writer, "are cap. that he may better see what he is doing. year, not more than were killed in although at the time Icould almost have sworn last 1.000 lafd off from entries (long tunnels, like hall- careful In handling pow- Watching a miner open a new can of powder horrors of sufficient magnitude to be head- that It did. Iwas more trine ways), and at right angles to them. These also produces thrills of uncertainty in the heart the newspapers published at a distance der after that experience. Jtned in rooms are driven side by side into the shallow of an inexperienced onlooker. The clink of steel leaves about have seen men violate the mining "laws that from the accidents. This 1.400 layer of coal— in Indiana from three and one- "I against steel causes sparks. The can is made of regulate the handling of explosives so many death?, besides nearly 5.000 more or less se- half to five or six feet thick- only the coal being tin with an Iron wire rod around the top anil times that Iused never to think anything about riously injured, unaccounted for to the general taken out. Between these rooms "break- bottom edges. To open a new can, which con- Hundreds of times Ihave seen men filltheir public. There were in 1007 17 great mine dis- throughs," or air passages are driven about it. tains twenty-five pounds of powder, the law says 7,000 (long lubes niMd* by rolling thick asters that shocked the country; while every forty-five feei. The "break-throughs" re- .aitridKes that a epecial cap shall be removed, but the paper around a stick and fastening it with mine accidents, although they caused semble t£e entries, except that they are narrow miner gets quicker r^ilts by sticking a sharp LAMP. ether sticky soap) without removing thHr lamps fro:n FILLING A CARTRIDGE WHILE SPARKS FALL FROM loss of life, made little or no impres- and have no tracks in them. The rooms are pick into the top. To make tiie hole round the twice the h*>ads. The flame would not be more than several times wider than the entries, since ths their pick i» given a quick twist, turning it about in sion. foot from the hr>le In the top of the powder warning by run- rooms are the real source of coal. a the square That thai is criminally dan- tamped six or eight Sometimes falling rock gives these dangers to which the miner is ex- top of the paper tube into which hole. hole that Is being with All can or from the apparent from the fact that state leg- the cracking of props. Some- potei his calling one of greatest being poured. A spark falling Bjerous Is pounds of powder might readily cause an ex- ning sounds and render the FACED INSTANT DEATH. the powder was passed prohibiting it. does not know the rock is loos*. received, the might have islatures have laws plOStOß. times the miner daring. Kis bravery, however, has from the lamp Into powder big rocks, weighing tip t^ "Iwa* getting ready to make a shot when I Another thing that Is prohibited by law is the Sometimes there are rerrectly. perhaps, another name. He Is so killed every man within three or four hundred THE LAW. pounds, which discovered that Idid not have enough powder, tamping of "shots" with coal dust, but the mere DISREGARD three thousand or four thousand used, *o hardened, to the constant presence of yards, ail through the carelessness of one man." and Iwent to the next room to borrow some. prohibition by law means little to the miner, amount of powder that may be used in just drop out of a hole in the roof. many death dealing forces that he really be- pail, In filling the cartridges the miner aits on an The *o Filling the upper iuilf of my dinner I neither states, the number of is so Improperly pre- of danger. The risks "' empty powder can and, laying the cartridge miles under ground, where lawmakers any shot and. in some When a blast in a mine comes unconscious which through the "break-through. In so any room are blow out the started back along one leg and balancing the nor law enforcers ever go. Coal dust Is shots that may be fired in one also pared that It does nothing but men take in handling powder tend to increas* over a b!g rock Ibumped my head outstretched in two the effect climbing powder in the hollow of one arm, he highly Inflammable that a spark will sometimes ••regulated." Six pounds of powder ench hole in which the powder is tamped the apparent danger from explosives. Any one roof, of sparks was can of against the and a bunch pours the powder into the long tube. cause it to explode. Shots are tamped with iron shots Is the limit In some states, but not neces- Is that of the firing of a gigantic gun loaded sot accustomed to constant danger would be charred wick of my open practice the is knocked from the Tlje "tamping bars." which often knock sparks from sarily so In the mine, from the of with five times aj much powder as to see a. miner juggle an open can of my straight toward A miner's lamp resembles a small teapot. hundred horrified lamp. One fell past face In the dust a miner laughingly said that he was force such lamp light protrudes from the spout. The lamp la the hard minerals coal Coal In ir.iti.r. One used In an ordinary rifle. The of powder in one hand and a in the other. powder. It looked big enough to a car- \u25a0rick state, often the two hundred feet under the and therefore explosions in the confined atr of a mine is its proof that he by not in it or subject to laws. As great a3 to stop the big fans driven that particular fo be- had no f;ar. be explained that on powerful engines. Sometimes the effect from five to day he VM shooting five shots with cyclone, confined in a few feet of spac«. LIFE. he comes a THE SIMPLE pounds of powder each. "'The laws." walking In air NOW SEEKING twelve Every man who may be the ROYALTY permit us to \u25a0aid, "are radical. Th-y won't is In danger of being swept from his day's work." current resort Alexandria, un- cas«>d to be correct; that the people no longer shoot down enough coal for a often princesses th* Moo4. They, too, , seaside a few nill^s from feet. These cyclones, called "windles." princes ar.d of they the snots causes a flut- King perpetually In the .i.-r the name of Professor NeufVld EUs prin- require of those m authority that environ The boom! boom! of everything loose In the mine. Doors used The New of Sweden bee >me wearied of being lamp flamea tear .ipal home Is the old monastery of La Gartut*. themsehreS with a dt-Ktve of luxury and display t.-rinp of tli. air that makes the change the current of air are ey-s the public, of playing a role, no matter a in the mine to or | I'alma, Island of lie to maintain apart Bicker and Bometimefl blowj them out. and kindlingagainst galiery. feeling that their I near I^a on the Majorca, tlmt shall serve them Inaclass blown down and smashed Into Makes a Record Others how exalted to the of nerve racking aenaatioa in the ears, to dust, and has published several works, most of them of a from th»-lr fellow etttseaa, and that royalty will peculiarly the pillarsi The cyclones stir up and there every word and gesture, their appearance all of the men in a mine are accus- r-' ientlflc character, which hay« won for him gain rather than lose iae£he twentieth century by which not that a later blast, shooting Not Fa^r Behind. their apparel, are the subject of comment, and new men whose is constant danger « onsiderable celebrity in the world of letters and descending from Its pedestal, by mingling with tomed. There are always some yards, may cause prying curiosity at times does not during aheeta of flame for a hundred i of a which mankind, nerves, kept on edge by constant daagen puff glasses. To a membership of the Institute of fYance. It ordinary ar.d by becoming more in- a explosion, snuffing out lives as a of disdain the use of opera and field the day, cause them to set hysterical when the dual [Cop>rlght. ISK*. b;. th» BrentwooJ iVrnpany] is ilnni'iraaai jto make more than passlriK ref- timately acquainted with the views, the wishes. wind snuffs out a candle. air. It some them who suffer from shyness, the «huU-« begin to explode. Often the lives of Elisple life is just at present in the of ' erence li»-re to the well known instance of am prejudices and, above a!:, with the life, of consciousness of feeling thems.-ives the cyno- the depend the of one appears to be sweeping all over the world. In John, surrendered his average Perhaps Kins; Gus- dozens of men or. self-control to broth.\u25a0!. Arcbduhe who the human being. a DRIVERS' FEARFUL RISKS. King only declining sure of all eye« Is a positive torture which of these men. There arc often as many a* B»ed*r. nc f.nd the new not membership of the reigning house of Austria taf Is right In his opinion. Perhaps he Is ahead however, most and they can never become entirely accustomed. working places, or rooms, driven off Accidents to dll«era, are the to b? crcwned, on account of all the pomp and his rights to the throne, in of hi« epoch. alone will any hundred King Kdward, the late | of succession Time show. At on the entry, the source of lnjurte? in mines in propor- ceremony aineh it would entail, but also pro- The three daughters of H.-afarlng life as <'aptain Orth. of maj- one entry. The first room fruitful Empress of order to adopt a rate, his conception of the environment exit, is the tiist to of employed. Th? man claiming his intention of dispensing as much as Duke of Clarence and the late while on a voy- room futthesl from the mine tion to the number 'men of under which name he perished esty conHtltutea the inaiiK'.iration of a new de«- comes the teat draw the coal care and feathers at his court Austria all have suffered from this form which Is tire Its shots. When the ririris time who drives the mules possible with ihe fuss aK- through the Strait of Magellan, parture In th© Old World; and as an experi- same plainer of sensitiveness, and those who b*-st know Effl- man at the end of the entry lights his shot arid enters upon his work with the reck!*»s« ted of inaugurating an even mode bow about to be traversed by Admiral Evans'n ment It will be watched with Interest. insist that, at any rate through- to the ritst room to light His: spirit that a college alhim iHW a football than that of and predeces- peror William Two other to rails the man in MlMtnce his father fle»-t of American men-of-war. In this Association it Is worth while recall next to much worse brulsed- the \>-ars of his r»-iKn. much «e»*n him in bia ordinary habili- the word, the men behind him must pa-«s his of a driver's and calling. When recall the Munich, and the other, rharles Ferdinand, black, rumMe and the erach country, as his we crowned h»-ads of Europe leaving their domin- ruentM consisting of a suit of rusty topped shots after they have been lighted. has time to dodge into a fact that in times cattle l.ifting was the of the heir apparent, to wed the daugh- that, almost before he ancient ions in search of change of scene at Southern brother off by an Invariably disreputable looking and As if there was not .nuugh uaage* in th- the little coal train Cist important means Professor Bzuber, of Prague Uatveratty. crevice in the wall favorite pastime and an of they are always M delighted ter of badly hat of the Stove pipe order often, in the always winter resorts. If brushed ailk miner Is often, surprisingly left past him. The tracks are littered wit* liveilhood"of the great, we should certainly re- the absence It would take too long to enumerate here all architecture. He preferred public to private Imagine, If you a as th«y to get away, and if they consider of dark. And such dark can. lumps <\u25a0( coal, knocked from the cars it at enlightened progress that the votaries of the wimple life among the sov- use any his walls, cefUag sard a s>;g»i of from their own e pomp, the etiquette and, the BOVeretgaa several hundred feel wit* ground. probably under the car. hfs eldest sometimes In remote corners of the earth, are dirt, hundreds of prop". attention once more to the action of ail. from the publicity of court life. Whea In his own empire his efforts to place himself coal and and perhaps an or- his Im- Iabove to be found men «nd women whose plain and though your cages In a mine shaft resemble •on. who of his own accord resigned ail tli^y ran mingle with t!i» on same footing us that of the man in the Let your Imagination see, eyes The archduke, away from home conceal the most Illustrious the liar, except that the mine peraf honors and prerogatives as an unadorned names street, not, three blasts, ready to explode, just diiuuv passenger crowd, pans among the latter unperccived rule, together with his abandonment of all the could course, much •• can of titles. Until now moaarchs have, as a knowing you that you could cage hai no walls and Is. of weli a.« his rights of succession to the thrones Indeed, a taste of ornamental and ceremonial attributes of sov- behind you. as do s;>eed and U!in:olest.d. ran obtain. themselves with a pomp. & ceremony, m The limit of i» •f,Austria and Hungary, in order to become a everyday environed ereignty, by convincing his people that not walk fifty feet straight in any direction roußher construction. the existeme of a plain citizen— and of admit- end-d second, dropping from the top to tr>« citir^n of Switzerland, with a in- a splendor and an amount eti^u^tte. ruler, admittedly a man of groat Intellect- without your head hitting a prop. It WOUM be IS feet a W«in small Meal that they like th- taste, that they ground their seconds. eattt, Leopold Woelfiing. It would tedly distasteful to them on the that erudition, »ay that almost any mine where the of a -JoO-foot shaft in eleven under the name of its advantages In fact, when they uality and of vast was right in these safe to In bottom appreciate the people required it of them, and would be owa shots aevera] could be found, great speed, particularly in coming up out \u25a0Rom China come* the n'-ws that the Manchus. and resume harness matters. Like him, they came to the conclusion men flro their This are forced to return to the unless they maintained with befit own mine, cause* inexperienced *to the ruling and dissatisfied ceremony and the etiquette somt s one or more of them still In their of Ihe sometimes have constituted until now monarchy, to submit th«-ir necks again to dignity their that the pomp and cage, legs fcob"!ary voluntarily all of ting majesty and grandeur the of rooms, at the end of each day's work who had men to fall to the floor of the their Baste, have surrendered they talk regretfully of their "holiday of an imperial court were superfluous- The that •** plac- its yoke, lofty positions. They have been encouraged in experienced thai sensation. Som* oC them have giving way under them. It oftrn happens epecia! Immunities and prerogatives, end" of the resumption of their natural asid inevitable result vvas that the court kg being at an and this notion by the criticisms which have been their way for a mile without a light, Staammg at the outer ed«i of the cage themselves on the same level as the ordinary if it a species of itself became superttoOOS In their eyes, and to make a man illustrious .status as wero indulged in the past, both in France and in may have been some who did not get one and is instantly jerked In country Is a En moiiar. hy So at last they and there leans a little to side Chinese citizen: while this there captivity. at expense of the Jeffer- then the Intimated Many bod;, fall- gilded the I'nittd States, the out the room before the explosion. the ca e and the wall?, his T«T pronounced tendency on the part of the Instances of to Dom ivdro that he was no longer needed as of between Every reigning family furnishes sonian simplicity Of the chief magistrates of mines now provide professional shot firers. the and lifeless to the bottom of the shaft. rich to avoid everything that can be construed sought the Kmperor. shipped him and his family off to ing limp princes and princesses who have these two great and glorious republics. miners being permitted to go out of the mine Inexperienced are usually made to stand t*the light of unnecessary ostentation, an Europe to enjoy the delights of the simple life, men at^i- simple life, and who have manifested their sym- are flrfd. cage. Not always, how- H«*e prompted not only by own personal AND a republic at Rio. before the Brst shots in the middle of the their the sentiments to which the n^-w KING GUSTAF DOM PEDKO. and proclaimed KiiirGustaf on* pathy with or there would probably have been t*«te but alas by an appreciation of the trend just given notable expres- of Sweden, who is a careful nhould bear this in mind In making his pro- FAILING ROCK SLAYS MANY. evtr. King of Sweden has King Gustaf fewer and Injuries in America «*Popular fe-iing times, come to the e.ondu- jected experiment. It Is one which k» not en- hla hundred deaths sion. He himself has a brother— Oftcar by name student of the has There arc otbi r dangers. A miner goes to year. tirely Of danger. EX-ATTACHE. mines last HAPPIEST IN RETIREMENT. ho resigned his prerogatives and rank as a eion that this conception of public sentiment has devoid work. At the "face" Of the coal— front end he Qu»en Alexandra ar.d her sister, prince of the blood and became an ordinary of the ronm where the work is done— sees the widowed big COME TO. in order to wed the non-royal several slabs of rock, any one of them WHAT RESOLUTIONS Ctarina. insist that they are never so happy as Swedish citizen Januar> Munk, crushed him had ttiey ralien The !of the resolutions made on *b*n living together in that villa which they maiden of -his choice. Miss Ebba who enough to have en KOoJ well, , usually in about this time. Just a« \u25a0•»• for one of his mother's maids of honor. Oscar when he was ihere a few hours before. He mm acquired in the suburbs of Copenhagen was for al the best they are frozen and un- •»o Count Wlsborg. and it is possible that looks up and discovers that the whole roof is perhaps, other purpose than to escape from the at- Is to-day to attain uprightness. It may »c sometimes causes his loose. m;:st undor this loose rock, .-«> he human devices »<*phere of merely a pialn his domestic happiness , He work Jamiary; It may be February; palaces. It is sets th-m it. the third week in •\u25a0\u25a0Juns;, of King C.ustaf. to regret that he himself gets some props and under While pretty sure to go by the board at euch as a retired merchant mod- broth'-r. will hold a but they are to his position as he knows that half a dozen props very document is the tiiary of tho *rt>means might select as the home for his was not permitted sacrifice last A lifelike ton two of rock, he does not know but that We select a few Jottlass: ••dining by a garden crown prince in order to wed the girl to whom or crusty old l>r. Johnson. T-ar«. and Is surrounded is enough rock ready to fall to make those To rise as early as Ican. **cry — enough, fact, to he was pas-ionately devoted— a pastor's daugh- there •IT6O. Resolved. limited Just in \u25a0 my compelled in to con- props as valuable as so many toothpicks. Now I7t;i My purpora Is. To regulate sleep. taiurf a cerUm amount of privacy. Empress ter an d Was lieu thereof To rise early. '"' see htm po to work, showlling coal and clean- •'.76». My purpose Is from this time. '!a Augusta delights i:i slipping away to tract a matrimonial alliance based on dynastic To rise early: not ing the rock trmt has already fallen. In a "17tH (September). Iresolve. **' The Kings youngest brother. up can; sooner, but aa soon iirm at Cadinen. where she lives like the considerations. lie lie^rs a noise resembling thunder, later than 6. if I Ihope spends much of his ttsae abroad, moment *"Ue" Of an ordinary Gorman country gentleman, Prince Eugene, loud, and then the click, click of as Ican. Berlin, where, under the only not so Ipurpose to rise at S, se- r ng herself shoot the dairy, the cows and chiefly at Paris and His experienced "i;*6. My resolution. *• the breaking fibres In the timbers. -"hall not yet rise »ariy. it will Poultry, while h*r husband, in spite of his name of "M. Eugene," he leads life to which cutting eause. though i be — ear tells him that It is the rock itrclf than Inow ri*e. for Ioften lie till Z- *Put«* find * of the distant death we flnd him writing; 83 part of -anointed of the Lord" to knowing him merely as a pclnter. timbers. He hastens to "clean up" a few years before his the click in the spert about fifty-five years in re- ***?»• *Yen if only *' from the lime- In Austria, there is not only the ex-Archdukw his coal without •I have now for a tsni his room— that is. to "load out" having from the earliest tlnv» almost that "***\u25a0 cf royalty glare which en- Leopold Salvato., **4eat son of the late Grand In mean he solving; and from tlie MORITZ, TURNING CORNER. attempting to make more. the time remember, been forming schemes of s better 'kpes yearn of Tuscany, but also his uncle, Archduke BOBBING AT ST. IN SWITZERLAND. A SHARP Some- Ican. all thrones. An actor does not Duke ; continues to work under the loose rock. lire. done nothing-. . . >My life ha», fr«m 10 ** most Bobbing, which increasing in popularity more snd mor. every year is a .port that wan is*; Ihave the the time, and at Salvator, justly reputed as the is the o* always, the miner leaves before the wasted in a morning before footlights all Louis ported from America, and wa. first practised at St. Montz in winter times, not my earliest year3. been b«d."* *very our , longs scion of the Hapsburg into Switzerland run, the race the Bobsleigh or figures Johnson's estimate of fc of t r e day an