LOOKING AT DEATH

Evening Star, Issue 14307, 4 March 1910, Page 3

LOOKING AT DEATH

A MINER'S AWFUL EXPERIENCE. A terrible accident, in nature happily rare- oven in the grim annals of mining, occurred at tho Manvcrs Main No. L "car Mc-xbro', in January. About- six o'clock a Swinton collier named Robert Barnard, living at 127 Queen street, after finishing his work in tho ordinary course of events, proceeded to the pit bottom to bo drawn out. The cage was all in readiness, but just ;us Barnard was stepping into the "chair" the cage began to ascend. The sudden jerk had the" offoct of throwing him backward, and unfortunately he was caught, by tho rapidly rising cage ami whirled into tho darkness of tho shaft, hanging by one leg head downwards. Tim men assembled at- the bottom of the- tdiaft wen: bpeechleas with horror, but tho e-n----gineman was quickly signalled, and the machinery brought to a standstill with the man hanging some years from tho bottom, and altogether about 70yds from tho nearest gallery. For a time tho men were too shocked to think. Unfortunately the cage could neither be moved backward nor forward, the position of tho man's back acting as a wed go. For three hours Barnard was hanging in this awful predicament. His rescue called for iron nerve. It was not without groat difficulty that he was reached, and then tho guide ropo had to be cut and the man to suffer further agonising torture- by having his left leg wrenched clear. By this time- he had completely collapsed, despite tho efforts of the men at tho bottom, who kept up a running conversation. When rescued, he- was at once conveyed to the local hospital, where in tho afternoon he succumbed to his injuries. This accident recalls the wonderful escape at the same mine of a man named Agnew, who foil out of the cage as it was descending, but when it reached tho bottom he was found clinging to flic chains on the roof.