The Miner Who Went Back to Warn Them
In the Franklin mine disaster, young Joseph Dawson chose to save his fellows and lost his own life—an editorial page's portrait of ordinary courage.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Among the dead of the frightful Franklin mine disaster was young Joseph Dawson, who nobly went back to warn and save the others and lost his own life through this act of humanity and courage.
It is always so in these great disasters on sea or land. There is always a hero, and he is always a hero of every-day, common life; some sturdy, manly fellow, who never read any poetic tributes to heroism; never made a heroic speech, prepared for a public occasion, or saw heroic dramas on the theatric stage, or fed upon heroic literature of any description. These heroes of every-day life are as unconscious of their heroism as a man of real genius is of his exceptional power. A genuine hero does what he must; he does the heroic thing at the right time and place, not because of vanity seeking praise, but spontaneously, because he cannot do otherwise.
“A genuine hero does what he must; he does the heroic thing at the right time and place, not because of vanity seeking praise, but spontaneously, because he cannot do otherwise.”
The Franklin mine explosion of 1894 killed dozens of coal miners in King County, and this editorial turned one of them into a symbol of ordinary courage. Washington's coal towns were dangerous workplaces, and the disaster fed a growing labor demand for safer mines. The question of whether warnings are acted on before the next collapse still defines workplace safety today.
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