As the miners emerged from beneath a half-mile of rock, the media experts analyzed their physical and mental condition.

Though pleased, the experts seemed perplexed as the miners emerged in obviously good mental and physical health. But the mystery is understandable because these miners are of an almost extinct species; they are of the stuff that gained independence from England and conquered the American west; they adapted, improvised and overcame; they are “real men.”

Chet Barber

Vicksburg