The Cage by Norman Cornish

“As we stooped down to enter the cage… I was confronted by the fact that I was amongst experienced men, quite used to the descent into the pit. The cage dropped very rapidly. About half way down I felt that I was coming upover. We finally landed at the shaft bottom and I was relieved to find that it was well lit by electric lights. My mining career had begun. I had been dropped into a man-made world and I was to learn that the dangers of gas, stone falls, the darkness and the restricted space, were all to shape these men into industrial gladiators with strict codes of behaviour. “

Norman Cornish