edinburgh 30 Cannon Gate Mr. J.R. Starr, Engineer "James Starr will visit the Yale Shaft at the Dochart Colliery in the Aberfoyle Colliery to-morrow, as he wishes, to learn a piece of information about Nature that interests him. "Harry Ford, son of former foreman Simon Ford, will be waiting for Mr James Starr at Callander Station all day long. "Please keep this invitation confidential." The above is the letter brought by the first post to James Starr on December 3, 18 - the envelope is postmarked by the post office of Aberfoyle, Stirlingshire, Scotland. The engineer's curiosity was piqued.He didn't even consider whether there was some deception lurking in the letter.He had known Simon Ford for many years, one of the ex-foremen of the Aberfoyle Mine, and he, James Starr, had been the mine's leader for twenty years - in British coal mines this is The positions are called "audience".

James Starr was a solidly built man who looked 40 at 55.He was born of an old family in Edinburgh and was one of the most distinguished members of that family.His deeds do honor to the venerable guild of engineers who are nibbling away at the carbon subsurface of the United Kingdom, not only in the Scottish Lowland counties but also in Cardiff and Newcastle.It is, however, that what makes Stahl's name especially universally venerated is the underground of the mysterious coal mines of Archenfoyle, which adjoin the Alloah mines and occupy part of Stirlingshire.In addition, James Starr is a member of the Scottish Association of Archaeologists and serves as the chairman of the association.He was also one of the most active members of the Royal Society, and the Edinburgh Magazine frequently published prominent articles signed by him.In the public mind, this was a practical scholar on whom Britain's prosperity depended.He ranks high in the ancient capital of Scotland, not only materially, but intellectually as the 'Athena of the North'.

The English are known to have a meaningful general name for their vast coal fields."Black Indias," as they very accurately call them, and these Indias have probably contributed more to the increase of the incredible wealth of the United Kingdom than the Indias of the East.There, indeed, a whole army of miners worked day and night, extracting from the subsurface of Britain coal, that precious combustible element indispensable to industrial life. At that time, the time limit for coal mine exhaustion determined by those professionals was still very far away, so there was no need to be alarmed by short-term coal shortages.The carbon layers of both the old and new continents are sufficient to be mined on a large scale.The various uses of factories, the use of locomotives, mobile internal combustion engines, steamships, gas, etc., did not lead to a shortage of this combustible ore anytime soon.Only in recent years, due to the rapid increase in consumption, certain deposits have been mined to only barren veins.These now defunct mines, with their abandoned shafts and deserted drifts, left useless pits and ditches in the ground.

This is indeed the case at the coal mines at Aberfoyle. Ten years ago, the last grab removed the last ton of coal from this seam. "" equipment, those machines that are pulled by machinery on the tracks of the level road, underground trains composed of mining cars, underground trams, stairwells leading to mining shafts, pipes for compressed air to operate rock drilling machines-- All in all, all coal mining equipment was brought out of the depths of the coal bunker and discarded on the surface.The hollowed out coal mine is like the corpse of a huge behemoth. People have taken all kinds of life organs from the body, leaving only the skeleton.

When the work was finished, all that remained of that equipment was the long bamboo ladder that ran through the Yale Well, now the only access to the lower drift of Dochart's coal bunker. Outside, the buildings that formerly sheltered the "open pit" works that still marked the location of the above-mentioned coal bunker excavation were now the same as any other coal bunker had ever been before, and all of it constituted the Aberfoyle A general view of the coal mine. It is a bleak day when miners leave for the last time the mines they have lived in for so many years. Engineer James Starr called together thousands of workers, a group of hard-working and courageous coal miners.Coal miners, mine cart pushers, drivers, earth fillers, installers of mine tunnel supports, road maintenance workers, conductors, unloaders, blacksmiths, carpenters, all people, women, children, old people, underground workers and open pit workers Workers, they were gathered in the huge yard of the former Dochart coal bunker, which was full of coal.

These brave people who are about to lose their livelihoods - their grandparents have lived in Aberfoyle for so many years - wait to say goodbye to the engineer before they leave here for good.The company distributed them this year's bonus in the name of extra compensation.Only a little, because the proceeds from the lode actually only slightly exceed the cost of mining, and the money must be maintained until they are recruited, either to the neighboring coal mines, or to the farm or county factory. James Starr stood at the doorway of the wide lean-to roof under which the powerful steam-engines of the mining shaft had been running for so long.

Simon Ford, then fifty-five years old, was the foreman of the Dorchard coal bunker, and he was surrounded by several other directors of the project. James Starr showed up.The miners took off their hats and remained deeply silent. This farewell scene has a touching color without losing its solemnity. "Friends," said the engineer, "the time has come for us to say goodbye. The coal mines at Aberfoyle, where we labored together for so many years, are now exhausted. We have failed to find new veins, and the last A lump of coal, just dug out of the Dochart bunker!" To corroborate his statement, James Starr pointed out to the miners a heap of coal left at the bottom of a grapple.

"This coal, my friends," went on James Starr, "is like the last blood cell in the veins of the mine! We shall preserve it as we preserved it from Arbor 150 years ago. Like the first coal dug in Foyle's deposits. Between these two coals, many generations of workers handed each other in our coal bunkers. Now, this is over! The last words of your engineer to you Words of farewell. You once lived on the mine, and it has been hollowed out by your hands. The work has been hard, but it has not been unprofitable for you. Our family is about to part. Never get together again. But please don't forget that we lived together for a long time and that among the miners in Aberfoyle it was a duty to help each other. Nor did your former chiefs point. People who have worked together do not see each other as strangers. We will care about you, and our recommendations will go with you wherever you go as decent people. Goodbye, friends, may God bless you."

When he finished speaking, James Starr hugged the oldest worker in the mine, his eyes wet with tears.Then the foremen of the various bunkers came up to shake hands with the engineer, while the miners waved their hats and shouted: "Goodbye, James Starr, our head and friend!" This farewell will leave indelible memories in these brave hearts.However, the group had to gradually leave the huge courtyard sadly.James Starr felt an emptiness all around him.The black earth of the lanes leading to Dochart's bunkers rattled for the last time under the miners' feet, and silence succeeded the joyful din that had until then filled the Aberfoyle mines.

Only one remained with James Starr. That was Foreman Simon Ford.Beside him stood a lad of fifteen, his son Harry, who had been employed underground for several years. James Starr and Simon Ford know each other, and because they know each other, they value each other. "Farewell, Simon," said the engineer. "Farewell, Mr. James," said the foreman, "or rather, let me add: Good-bye!" "Yes, good-by, Simon!" went on James Starr, "you know, and I shall always be happy to be with you again, and to talk to you about our old Aberfoyle past!" "I know, Mr. James."

"My home in Edinburgh is open to you!" "Too far, Edinburgh!" replied the foreman, shaking his head. "Yes, too far from the Dochart bunkers!" "Far away, Simon, where are you going to live?" "Here it is, Mr. James! We will not leave mine, our aged breeder, dry because of its milk! My wife, my son and I, we will remain faithful to it!" "Farewell then, Simon," replied the engineer, with uncontrollable excitement in his voice. "No, I say to you again: good-bye, Mr. James!" replied the foreman, "and not farewell! Simon Ford promises you will see you again at Abbefoyle!" The engineer is unwilling to take away the last fantasy of the foreman.He hugged young Harry, who was looking at him with his big excited eyes.He shook Simon Ford's hand for the last time, and left the coal mine never to return. This had happened ten years ago, and yet James Starr had not heard from him again, despite the foreman's expressed desire to come and see him at some point. It was after ten years of separation that Simon Ford sent him this letter, inviting him to return immediately to the former Aberfoyle coal mines. One piece of intelligence about nature that interested him, what would it be?Dochart Coal Bunker, Yale Mine!What memories of the past these names called in his mind!Yes, it was a good time, a working time, a fighting time - the best time of his engineering career! James Starr reread the letter.He went over the letter from every angle, and indeed he regretted that Simon Ford hadn't added more.He complained that he could be so terse. Had the old foreman discovered some new vein of mineable minerals?Will not! James Starr remembered how finely the coal mines at Aberfoyle had been explored before the work was finally completed.He made the last survey himself, but found no new deposits in the land that had been destroyed by overexploitation.People even tried to see if there were coal deposits under the formations, such as the Devonian red sandstone, which usually lie under coal seams, but nothing was found.James Starr was therefore absolutely sure of abandoning the mine, which no longer contained a single piece of combustible material. "No," he repeated to himself, "no! How could it have escaped my search and been found by Simon Ford? But, as the old overman should know very well, there is but one thing in the world This invitation, which interests me and which I must keep secret, is to go to the Dochart Coal Bunker! . . . " James Starr always thinks back to this. On the other hand, Simon Ford, as the engineer knew him, was an able miner, especially with professional instincts.He hadn't seen him since abandoning Aberfoyle.He didn't even know what the old foreman had become now.He doesn't know what he's doing.All he knew was that he had asked him to go to Yale Mine and that Simon Ford's son would be waiting for him at Callander Station all day tomorrow.Apparently this involved a tour of the Dochart coal bunker. "I'm going, I'm going!" said James Starr, feeling more and more overwhelmed as the days went by. The venerable engineer was one of those passionate men whose minds are always agitated like a kettle set on a sizzling fire.He was one of those kettles in which thoughts boil, in other kettles thoughts simmer peacefully.And that day, James Starr's idea was boiling hot. But at that moment, something extremely unpredictable happened.Here is a drop of cold water that will temporarily condense all the steam in this brain. It turned out that about six o'clock in the evening James Starr's servant brought the second letter from the third post. The envelope was enclosed in a large envelope, and the address on the envelope was written with a quill by a hand with little training. James Starr tore open the envelope.There was only a piece of paper yellowed with time, which seemed to be torn from an exercise book that was no longer in use. There is only one sentence on the paper, which reads as follows: "There is no point in putting down what Engineer James Starr is doing - as Simon Ford's letter is no longer directed." Not signed.

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