SNATCHED FROM DEATH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18197, 16 September 1922, Page 2 (Supplement)

SNATCHED FROM DEATH.

SAVED BY A WAR RELIC. When a man and his daughter had been buried for 32 hours in a mine, and experienced men abandoned all hope, an ex-soldier wa3 able to effect a rescue by means of a device which he had used when he was with the French Army during the war. Marie Blackwood, aged 19, and h« father were exploring a mine near Oatman, Arizona, when the mine caved in.' There was a quick call for volunteers, and an equally speedy response, but the workers found themselves stopped by solid rock. Lights, bells, and pistol shots were tried, but there came no response from below. Acres of earth had slipped down, and experienced miners expressed the opinion that a rabbit could not have escaped. Nevertheless, the miners worked with • feverish haste. But they did not know where to drill. Four gangs were started, arid they set to work at each of the four crossings where the cave-in had occurred. The distraught miners telephoned to Monroe th» girl's fiance, some distance away. He was swift to respond, and among the gear he brought was an old sound amplifier and wires, delicately adjusted, a relic of the days when he served with the French and won the Croix de Guerre for detecting mining operations of the Germans under the French trenches near Rheims. He strung the wires and set the headpiece, listened, and at the end of several hours he was able to locate the entombed pair. In four hours the first drill cut through to the narrow chamber. The thing that had seemed impossible had come about, and father and daughter were saved. Bailey carried his girl out, unhurt, and the wedding bells are due tot ring shortly.