QUIET HEROISM.

Evening Post, Volume L, Issue 54, 31 August 1895, Page 1 (Supplement)

QUIET HEROISM.

The quiet heroism incidental to the dreadful accident at the East Ham sewage station, on Ist July, gives the whole story of it a touch of sublimity. It shows that men may die just as i nobly in a sewer as on the field of battle. One man went down the well of the pumpingstationin the ordinary course of his duty, and immediately disappeared in tb.6 foul water at the bottom. He had been overpowered by the deadly gas, and, as it is now known, suffocated. A second man at once descended to ; rescue him, and shared his fate. Without any delay or hesitation, a tHird went to look for the two, and he perished. No signal came from him, and a fourth man followed — to ; his death. Still there was no want of volunteers. A fifth adventured " into the mouth of hell," and he, too, lost consciousness, and for aught : those on the surface kne w his life along with it. Thon they lowered a bucket of fire down the shaft, and, as soon as the gas failed to extinguish H,-a ' sixth man took his turn. He was, nearly choked, and had to come up four times for air, but at length, after hours of labour, he brought up his dead comrades one by one. Nothing finer has ever been done at ' the mouth of a coal pit, or at the foot of a breach. — Daily News.