The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-26 00:00:00

The Calamity at Gethin Colliery.

On Saturday most of the sufferers were buried.
Nineteen funeral processions followed each other
through the streets to the Cefn Cemetery, a great
crowd attending. The contrast to the formality of
English funerals was strikingly shown. Behind the
coffin followed the nearest mourner, widow, or
child, and the long link succeeding was arranged
according to the degree of relationship existing.
Thus behind some followed widow, children, brothers,
sisters, and cousins, and all looked mourners in
reality. The tottering widow was in some cases
borne between two friends, and at the grave
grief, loud and passionate, had its vent, un-
affected by the crowd of lookers-on. But for
restraining hands many would have fallen on
the wet, cold earth, and clasped that which hid a
near and dear one from the sight. It was in
truth a sad and a sorry scene, and as we looked
into the deserted houses after the funeral the sorrow-
ful feelings were deepened and increased. There in
the little whitewashed cottage, with its lowered
blinds and sanded floor, had hung a few short days
ago the holly and the laurel, and a stalwart man had
sat by the hearth, a child on his knee, chatting with
the good wife as she busied herself about the house.
The holly is gone ; where hung the holly cypress
should hang; the gleeful man, full of life and humour,
is brushed away, and the smiling wife is a heart-
broken widow and a pauper. Thirteen widows, 27
fatherless children, and 39 dependent friends form
the immediate results of this tragedy, but the long
shadow seems to lengthen as we examine more
closely.
According to custom, when one of; the sufferers
in these catastrophes had been a resident in another
county a separate inquest is held on his body. In
the present case two of the sufferers, named Price
and Thomas, lived at the village of Cefn, a few
miles from Merthyr, and in the district of another
coroner. On Friday an inquest was held there, at
which important and interesting depositions were
made by one who escaped.
The witness is named Selah Thomas. He is a
collier, working in Gethin all the week, with the
exception of Saturday, when he puts aside the
mandril and takes to the razor and profession of
a barber. He is a young man, sharp and intelligent,
and the substance of his evidence is as follows :
On Wednesday morning, the day of the explosion,
he descended the pit with many others, and saw
Daniel Price Thomas, one of the killed, in the
lamp-room, as they were getting their lamps
ready. He worked in the same vein as Thomas,
but farther away. Thomas remarked to them that
his old stall, a disused one called No. 11, was full
of gas, so was his brother Tom's. The gas was so
abundant that it came out of the stall to the part-
ings, a place where there is a considerable thorough-
fare. They discussed this subject for a time, the witness
remarking that there was enough gas in the stallto
blow the pit up, to which deceased assented. They
however, went into work, hardy, rash, and reckless,
as usual, and witness never saw Thomas alive again.
In about an hour he felt a ringing noise in his ears.
He started up, and a companion shouted out " The
damp is off," meaning there had been an explosion.
He rushed away, and met a man who ran, too, in
the same direction ; but suddenly the man stopped,
and retracing his steps into the gloom of death
they had left, said, " I must go for the boy" (a
lad who worked with him), and he went back and
fell among the list of the dead in his calm, quiet
heroism. The next thing he saw was an upturned
tram, and a lad underneath—the horse, too, was
down. By this time the place was full of coal dust
and suffocating. Another minute and he came
amongst a terrified group ; a horse had broken away
wildly from its shafts, and was plunging violently.

Near it stood many door boys, little fellows from 12

to 14, some without a light, and all ignorant of the
way, and terrified by the danger. These were saved,
and witness, too, by great exertion, reached the bot-
tom of the pit and escaped. The last sight that met
his eye was a man blown literally into the sump, the
lower end of the shaft ; stones, too, were whirled up
the shaft, and there the noise was so loud as to be
heard at the Cyfarthfa Railway. It will be seen
by this man's evidence that a great quantity of gas
was in the pit, and that the fireman, or man to whose
duty it had fallen, had neglected to take serious pre-
cautions. By closing a door for half an hour, said
witness, enough gas could be collected to be exceed-
ingly dangerous. Thus, so far as evidence yet
goes, Gethin coal measures are so gaseous that an
hour's neglect by an official and a momentary
rashness of a collier will at any time conduce to one
of these appalling tragedies.
The inquest will be held before G. Overton, Esq.,
at Merthyr, on the 3d of January, Mr. Wales, the
Government inspector, is understood to report fa-
vourably of the condition of the colliery, and for-
tunately he is in a position to give material evidence,
having reached the pit a few hours after the occur-
, rence.