
Just a few lines to send you my love & [torn-away] say "How do" to you a cross the deep Atlantic
Things are going on with us here much as usual & the days succeed each other in
all too rapid succession, each bringing its duties wh: have got to be done & wh:
are done in some
fa[cut away] then & with these I have been
kept rather busy of late
I send you a Bolton Chronicle containing an account of a
fatal accident to one of our firemen, Joe Wilkinson, who was
buried alive beneath bags of cotton waste & debris of a building wh. collapsed
after a fire. As soon as his mates realised that Joe was missing they set to &
worked like veritable heroes to extricate their poor friend. Never shall I forget
the scene—the gleam of the torches flaring upon the brass accountrements &
helmets of the blue coated firemen working in that death trap with its suffocating smoke for the
cotton was still smouldering & every now & again rushing out gasping for
fresh air, their faces blackened & grimy streaked with
perspiration—the
superintendant quietly giving his orders—Kind for moving about in the
semidarkness with jugfuls of steaming hot coffee wh: [cut away] thoughtful soul had kindly sent—the digging,
the pulling & the wrenching [cut away]
get at poor Joe—the discovery of his helmet still on his head the rapid
clearing of his face—the cry of "Now Doctor here he is! Is he dead?"—the
rapid
examination
& encouragement to go on & get his chest freed so that artificial
respiration could be tried—the renewed efforts—the hush while I was down
in that pit of death performing artificial respiration (for his feet were still
immovably fixed by [cut away] timber &
resisted the united efforts of six men to dislodge them—the moan of disappointmenkt
when the opinion was given that re-animation was impossible &c &c all made
up a scene of weirdness & tragic horror I shall never forget.

A letter from JWW says that he has not been so well this week—got a bad cold while working or rather superintending some work on a canal.
I sincerely trust that things are well with you
R.K.G just called & sends his love as does
Yours affectly J Johnston

