io BY MEADOW AND STREAM. 



AN AWFUL ACCIDENT. 



Not long after this another terrible accident occurred 

 which caused a sensation not only in our village but 

 throughout the county. 



They were repairing a pump at our school, which 

 was supplied from a deep well. A workman had 

 gone down in a bucket without testing the air ; he 

 gave no sign of returning ; another man went down ; 

 he too made no sign ; a third man went down, and no 

 sign came up from him. Then the bystanders became 

 alarmed the headmaster and the second classical 

 master were at their wits' end, when the drawing- 

 master came on the scene. He immediately sent a 

 lighted candle down, which was at once extinguished ; 

 it was thus he discovered that there was carbonic acid 

 gas down below, and he nobly, at the risk of his life, 

 volunteered to go down ; he knew the risk. He 

 placed a piece of wood between his teeth to prevent 

 their closing, and down he went with ropes and 

 proper tackle : presently he was hauled up with one of 

 the men dead. Down again, and up with a second. A 

 third time he descended and successfully brought up the 

 third ; then, although all but dead himself, he set himself 

 at once to try at least to revive the three men, but it 

 was in vain ; they were all dead men. He told me 

 afterwards that he had hoped to recover them by 

 bleeding, and he accordingly cut great gashes across 

 their temples, but with no result. I do not vouch for 

 the absolute accuracy of this description of his mode 

 of treatment, for I was but a child at the time. I was 

 present, and I have a distinct recollection of seeing 



