United States or Germany ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
They kept running about without bonnets or shawls, their hair streaming in the wind, and frantically crying as they stretched out their hands to the banksman and viewers and other officers, "Where are they? where are they? Why don't they come up?" It would have softened the hardest heart to have seen the grief, the agony of the poor women. No one could answer them.
And once again, as though by a rush of muddy water, the street filled up, and a strong body of police came through it, escorting the banksman who had been the cause of the accident. A hatless, hunted creature, with white face and loosened limbs, he was hurried along by the police, amid a grim silence that had suddenly succeeded to the noise.
Coe was, however, opposed in this by several of the other workmen—one of whom, a banksman named William Locke, went so far as to stop the working of the pit because Stephenson had been called in to the brake. But one day as Mr. Charles Nixon, the manager of the pit, was observed approaching, Coe adopted an expedient which put a stop to the opposition.
An' there's catches as yo mun knock away to let 'un go down an' this banksman ee's a devil! he niver so much as walked across to the other shaft to see an' theer was the catches fast an' instead o' goin' down, theer was the cage stuck, an' the rope uncoilin' itsel', and fallin' off the drum an' foulin' the other rope An' then all of a suddent, just as them poor fellows wor nearin' top the drum began to work t'other way run backards, you unnerstan? an' the engineman lost 'is head an' niver thowt to put on t'breaks an' oh!
His companions put him on the rolley and took him to the foot of the shaft. He was soon drawn up to the pit's mouth, when the banksman got two men to carry him home on a stretcher, and sent for the doctor. "Oh, Dick, Dick, what is the matter? Another of my boys a cripple!" cried poor Mrs Kempson, when the men brought him in and placed him on his bed. Dick could scarcely speak for the pain.
It was not the first time such a thing had happened, even in that pit. They all knew too well the effect of the fire-damp, and still more destructive choke-damp. "Is no one going down to bring them up?" was the question next asked. "Yes, some one will go, I dare say, as soon as it's safe; but it would not do to go yet," answered the banksman. "Besides, the gear is knocked to pieces."
However, they all agreed to take another long round. The poor widow sat and sat, anxiously waiting the return of her friends. The banksman at the mouth of the pit received the signal from those below that they were ready to be drawn up. It was now quite dark. "Stay quiet, dame, stay quiet," he said, as the poor widow was about to lean over the mouth of the pit to watch for her boy.
Samuel Kempson went on his way to the pit's mouth, where a number of other men collected, ready to go down as soon as the banksman called them. It was a fine morning; the sun was just rising in the clear sky out from the far-off sea.
The name is given, because, when the time for work is over, the banksman at the mouth of the pit cries out, "Kenner, kenner." Dick did not get much play, even in summer. In the winter he never saw daylight, except on Sundays.
Word Of The Day