Answers To Correspondents.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS .

All Letters and communications must be addressed to the Editor of THE FREEMASON ' CHRONICLE , 67 Barbican , London , E . G .

W . J . T . —Your communication never reached ns . Will you kindly inquire into the matter , and let us know the result . F . W ., Notts . —Many thanks for your offer . We shall be pleased to hear from you .

WARDEN . —The decision , in our opinion , was correct . W . M . —If properly represented to the Provincial Grand Master we should think the matter conld be arranged . T . Q . —So mote it be . But we are not the contrivers of such things .

JOHN T . —Webave already hid an article on the subject , or rather a summary of the work . Perhaps Bro . Freemason has taken a leaf out of our book . Of this you are as good a judge as wc .

Down A Mine.

DOWN A MINE .

I will not attempt to describe that descent . There are things of which no description can convey even a shadow , and this was one of them . We are indeed " like them that go down alive into the pit "a passage which recurs to me with tenfold force as wo sink away

from the busy , green , sunny world , and the cold , silent cavern engulfs ns deeper and deeper in its dismal gorge . At the mouth of the pit we are surrounded by multitudes of little birds , which flutter around us as if bidding us farewell ; their beautiful plumage , that glances in the sunlight as they flit to and fro , contrasting strangely with the dismal shadows into which we are about to plunge ; but as we descend , even these leave na , and we are utterly alone . An immense solitude—¦

Down A Mine.

a crashing , overwhelming silence . I think I never conceived the idea of perfect silence before . Even in the stillness of midnight , or of a calm in the lonely tropical seas , you have echoes , vibrations—the shadows , as it were , of sounds that have been—but here there ia neither sound nor echo ; it is the stillness oi mid-air combined with the stillness of the grave . Inthatenormousisolation , even the presence

of my comrades gives me no feeling of companionship—with two men close beside me , I am as utterly solitary as if I were quite alone , We are now midway . The cheerless dimness which rises from below gives a wan , ghastly look to every crag and hollow of the great wilderness of buried mountains through which we are passing Strange and monstrous forms , such as those with which the grim fancy of the Norseman peopled his native solitudesloom giant-like

, through the leaden haze . Grim faces scowl at na as we pass ; clawed hands stai"t forward , as if to bar our way ; gaping jaws gnash at us , and huge half-seen monsters seem striving to topple loose crags upon our heads ; but in all this multiplicity of furious life there ia not the faintest sound ! It is a hell iu dumb show ! Suddenly the bucket is jarred by a heavy shock which shakes it from top to bottom .

We have just grazed a huge jutting crag , vast and shadowy as the fragment of some ruined planet—such as Martin would have peopled with the remnants of nations fleeing from the terrors of the Last Judgment . And now at length , after an interval which seems immeasurable , sounds from below begin to break the tremendous silence . We hear , faintly at first , but ever more and more distinctly

the stroke of pickaxe and spade , the rumble of the barrows rolling to and fro , the cheery shouts of the workmen ; and the sense of having been exiled from human companionship for a limitless space of time is so intense as to defy even the palpable realities of time and space . Moment by moment , the shadows below grow less and less dark , the tiny figures of the workmen more and more distinct , the features of the strange panorama larger , and firmer , and clearer , till at len » th ,

a , our bucket dashes itself upon tho great sheet of ice and gravel at the bottom , and the journey is over . Instinctively I look at my watch , and start to find that the whole descent has occupied only seven minutes . ' I know now what men mean when they talk of living a lifetime in one moment , ' remark I to my companion , as we disembark . " —From " Cassell ' s Family Magazine " for March .

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