The story of the release of these miners is familiar to all the inhabitants of that region. The pupils of the Mining School of St. Etienne composed a ballad, of which the following is the opening stanza:—
“Mineurs, écoutez l’histoire
De trois malheureux ouvriers,
Restés sans manger ni boire
Pendant six grand jours entiers.
Au fond d’une galerie
Serrés comme en un local,
Ils auraient perdu la vie
Sans la coupe verticale.”
This ballad was sung two or three times daily, at the beginning and end of lessons when the master was not present. One of the teachers of the school assisted at the rescue of the miners, and used to tell the story to his pupils. He added a moral to it, after the manner of Æsop with his fables, and endeavored to impress upon the school the importance of vertical shafts from all the principal galleries to the surface. Many lives have been lost in mines in consequence of the absence of these shafts, and in every locality where mining is conducted on an extensive scale, the law should compel the owners to make at least two openings to the outer world.