Nearly Suffocated In A Well

The Chelsea Standard contaius the following: Thursday afternoon about 4:30 o'clock Wesley Canfield, who resides about a mile south of this place, drove furiously into town to get help to remove E. S. Frudden from a well in which he lay unconscious. Before going in the well Mr. Prudden took the precaution to lower a lighted lantern and everytliiug was thought to be all right. Hè had gone up and down in the well seyeral times and had discovered a hole in the pipe and then he lowered a fire pot containing charcoal In which to heat a soldering iron and while working he was in all probability overeóme by the fumes of the burning coal. Mr. Caniield secured held and Drs. Palmer and Powell immediately went to the scène of the accident, but the man was not taken from the well until he had been down about an hour and a half. Grappling irons were lowered but could get no hold. Ben Paine, a young man, then vouinteereü to go down and he was lowered and fastened a rope about Mr. Prudden and both were drawn to the surface. Work was at once commenced to resuscitate Mr. Prudden, and aftcr about four hours lie regained consciousness, and word was received here this morning that he was feeling all right. Mr. Paine's bravery in goingdown in the well was commendable. A good si.ed purse was presented to hitn by those present. Later Trof. A.A. Hall and.Rev.Thos. Holmes, after examining tlie well and finding the air incapable of sustaining combustión, sprinkled a few quarts of air-shicked lime intothe well and in ten minutes' time restored the oxygen to the air so that a lightburned as brightly at the bottom as at the top. In this case the devitalization of the air in the well was caused by the consumption of the oxygen by the firepot, but "death damp" in a well, wliich is always the presence of carbonic acid gas. can be chati ged tothe normal (■ondition of atmospheric air in a few minutes, at any time, by sprinkling into it dry air-slaked lime. This is a fact everybody would do well to remember.