The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-24 00:00:00

rows" who had been at work since 2 ; two sets of
the first shift men had been drawn to bank and

were being followed by the third set, eight men,
when, as already reported, about 10 o'clock in the
forenoon the huge beam of the pumping engine
snapped in two, and the arm overhanging the mine
plunged down the shaft, sweeping away the brat-
tice which divided the shaft into the " up.cast and
the down•cast," and tearing away the timber and
planking which protected the sides of the shaft.
The broken beam, being the more ponderous body,
seems to have rushed past the timber and brat
tieing it tore away, and has settled either upon
the edge of the yard seam, or has fallen to the
bottom of the shaft. The timber and bratticing
lodged in the shaft between the high seam and
the next, leaving the former open to bank, but
cutting off all connexion with the latter. If
the men had remained many hours in the low
seam after the accident they would have speedily
been drowned. But there was a staple, a kind of
man-hole, independent of the shaft, and up it the
men and lads clambered by means of an iron wire
ladder. The distance up the shaft from the yard
to the upper seam is from 50 to 60 yards—but there
is a means of egress from the yard seam higher up
the shaft than from the archway leading from its
workings by means of the furnace drift—a sort of
sloping chimney leading from the furnace in the
yard seam into the shaft. It would appear that the
more bold and adventurous of the buried miners,
including Amos, the overman, and Tennant, one of
the deputies, had found a way up this drift, and
from saws and adzes, and other tools found there,
had employed themselves down to Sunday after-
noon in trying to cat a way through the timber
blocking the shaft, and so force a passage up to the
outer world; and the entire energies of the sinkers
who have been engaged in the shaft have been
directed to reach this furnace drift. Yesterday
afternoon, after the cloth brattice was finished, the
air was considerably improved in the shaft ; and, a
hole having been cut through, two volunteers,
miners, belonging to Cowpen Colliery, were let
down in the gin and forced their way through this
hole into the furnace drift, and thence into the yard
seam, whence on emerging at bank they announced
the awful intelligence that the men were all dead.
As already stated by telegraph, they were followed
down by Mr. Humble, the resident viewer of the
colliery, and Mr. Hall, viewer of
_Felling Colliery.
Their return to bank was anticipated with much
anxiety. I have already forwarded to you by tele-
graph the result of their explorations in the mine ;
but the following is a more detailed account by
another hand than from telegraphic arrangements
down here I was enabled to despatch last night :

" At 20 minutes to 6 o'clock Messrs. Humble and
Hall came to bank both suffering considerably from
the combined effects of noxious air and the sad sight
of which they had been the spectators. Both
men were very much affected, and had to be
assisted out of the slings and led to a seat in
the horse-hole, which has been temporarily fitted up
for the purpose of carrying on the workings during
the last few days, much inconvenience being expe-
rienced in sending the men up and down by the
staple. As speedily as possible some hot tea, which
has been constantly kept in readiness, was admini-
stered to the suffering men by Mr. T. Pyle, of Ears-
don, and Dr. Pyle, of Sunderland, who were in at-
tendance at the month of the shaft. In a short time
both men were sufficiently recovered to relate
what they had seen in the workings below. Mr.
Humble was visibly affected, and it was only be-
tween his half stifled sobs that the painful recital of
the scene he had just witnessed could be obtained
from him. His first words, on returning to con-
sciousness, were, ' Oh, dear ! oh, dear ! so many of
my fellow-creatures killed. My canny fellows.' In
answer to Mr. Pyle, he said, ' Yes; they're all dead.
If they're only happy. May the Lord have mercy
on them !' Here the trial was too much for him,
for he again gave full vent to his harrowed feelings,
and was unable to go on with his distressing story.
It was considered advisable to lead him from the
painful scene, and get him conveyed home, which
was done, Mr. Pyle accompanying him thither to
watch over his recovery. Before going, however,
he enjoined those left in charge not to allow the men
to go further than the first door, ' as,' he added,
mourn fully, ' there's plenty of work there yet a bit.'
Mr. Hall, though suffering in an equal degree with
Mr. Humble, was rather more collected, and from
him we learnt that they had seen, they expected,
every one in they pit, and they were all dead. The
men had evidently not had to succumb to hunger,
as,'although the corn bins were found to be empty,
many of the men now lying dead had their pockets
full of corn. There was only one pony in the
seam, and that was dead, bat had not been
touched by the men. The men, he said, were all
at the shaft, and the boys were lying among
them, side by side with their relatives. It is
scarcely possible to imagine a scene more touch-
ing than this—fathers and sons, uncles and nephews,
after undergoing almost unheard. of misery and
privation in that dreary dungeon, quietly resign-
ing themselves to their horrid and impending fate,
their last remaining consolation being that even in
death they were not divided.' One man, Mr. Hall
said, seemed as though he had not died without a
struggle, as he was lying with his body extended
and his hands firmly clenched. Several men then
went down the pit for the purpose of carrying out
the necessary operations preparatory to removing
the bodies, and were stationed principally in the
high main, so as to be available when requisite—
Mr. Maddison, the viewer at Burradon, also going
down to superintend the work.

" In fulfilment to the promise made to the people
about the heap—who by this time had congregated
some hundreds strong—Mr. Taylor addressed them
from the platform, informing them that the greater
portion of the men had been found dead, the nume-
rous corpses having been found gathered together
near the door. In reply to a voice in the crowd, he
said they had not got so far as the staple, but they
had gone as far as they could with safety. He then
requested them to communicate the sad intelligence
to any of the friends of the deceased who might
not be there. As yet they had waited patiently, and
he trusted they would continue to do so for an hour
or twe longer, when all would be finally settled. It
was of no use, he said, throwing away the lives of
living men to obtain the bodies of dead ones, and as
yet there was great risk of that, and several of those
who had been already down had been brought up in
a most dangerous condition. A thrilling sensation
seemed to take possession of the people at the an-
nouncement of the fate of so many of their fellow-
creatures, and in many cases their friends and ac-
quaintances. No demonstration of any kind, how-
ever, followed the recital of the result of the sad
event, which had brought woe and desolation to so
many hearths, the effect produced upon the people
being evidently one of calm resignation to the will
of Providence, and of deep concern for the mourn•
ins families. A desire was, however, expressed
by many that some of their number should
go down the pit and relieve them from further
anxiety and suspense by ascertaining, if possible,
the full extent of the calamity. Upon this, two
brothers, named Richard Boyd and Thomas Boyd,
of North Seaton, volunteered for the arduous duty,
and at once made the necessary change in their
clothing, and went down the pit. With a spirit of
dauntless perseverance they prosecuted their search
for about two hours, and contrived during that
time to penetrate further into the seam than any
previous party of explorers had then been, having
succeeded, in fact, in getting right round it. The
air, they said, was good' in-by,' and was only to be
called bad when they approached the shaft on the
road out. Richard—apparently the stronger man
of the two—nearly succumbed to the effect of the
noxious vapour, but was prevented from so doing
by his brother, who
got hold of him and literally
slings, and so got him
dragged him to the h
ss
aaffet
oa sbsain sting
k . hoi n
arriving
rnrtiov
itnhge
there they described the scene that presented itself
to their gaze as most harrowing,
many
ance of the men indicating the general appear-
at n'tn
of them had
been dead some time, and were f
decomposition. TLe hole throughths yt
approaching
the rubbish they
described as being so small that it W
culty they could get through it—in faacst, withth diffi
ey stuck
fast two or three times in their upward
g
Many of the men who had gone down on the
melancholy duty of sending the bodies to bank, had

to be sent up fainting, the ventilation not admitting
of their remaining for any length of time together
in the shaft. One or two men, indeed, were all but
lost in their humane attempt; but by proper and
efficient means being resorted to, and restoratives
being promptly applied by the medical gentlemen
in attendance, they were ultimately restored to
coescionsness. Dr. White, of Newcastle; Mr. Pyle,
of Earsdon ; Dr. Pyle, of Sunderland; and Messrs.
Nichol, Lambert, M'Allister, and Ambrose, were in
attendance the whole of the evening, and were
most assiduous in relieving the temporary suffering
of the men as they landed from the shaft.
"It was at first intended to send the bodies direct
to bank, but this was found from many causes to be
entirely impracticable, the chief of those causes
being the impossibility of bringing the bodies
through the furnace drift to the shaft in consequence
of the narrow passage through the rubbish already
alluded to, the bad state of the air at present in the
shaft, and lastly the state of the bodies."
The Bishop of Durham and his chaplain kindly
came yesterday in the company of the Rev. Mr.
Mason, the incumbent of Earsdon, and visited the
bereaved families. Several clergymen and other
Christian ministers are also attending to them, as
are also a number of Christian ladies. The kind
and sympathetic inquiry sent by the Queen yester-
day has touched the heart of every one in the north!
It will long be held in affectionate remembrance,
especially by the pitmen down here and their fami-
lies. The message was to this effect :
" General Grey, Osborne, to the viewer, New
Hartley Pit, Shields.—The Queen is most anxious
to hear that there are hopes of saving the poor peo-
ple in the colliery, for whom her heart bleeds."
To this the following telegram was returned :

" Charles Carr, viewer, to her Majesty.—There
are still faint hopes of the men, or a portion of
them, being recovered alive."
On the fate of the men having been ascertained
another message was transmitted to her Majesty,
informing her that upwards of 100 men had been
found dead, and it was feared the rest had shared
a similar fate.

A local paper describes the following scene in the
village last night :

" At half-past 4 o'clock the intelligence of the
discovery of the bodies was conveyed to the village.
It is impossible in the limits of language to con-
vey an idea of the terrible scenes in every house in
this doomed village. Every house of mourning,
and that is every one, is filled with sympathising
friends and acquaintances, and the ministering
hand of woman is busy in affording consolation to
those unhappy women—now too surely widows.
In every house may be heard the hysterical sob, the
agonised wail of suffering woman, weeping for the
husband of her love and the father of her orphan
children, now lying cold and silent in the depths
of the fatal pit. It is also peculiarly painful to hear
the wailing of tender infants whose mothers are too
sorrowful to attend to their wants. The street of
the village is filled with women who steal noise-
lessly from house to house on their mission of mercy
endeavouring, by arts only known to women, to
impart solace to these bereaved ones. Truly, they
are the very realisation of the poet's fancy—

" ' When pain and sickness wring the brow
A ministering angel thou.'
So they have been, so they are, and so they will
doubtless remain to the end of time. Not women
alone, however, are engaged in this hallowed mis-
sion, for a few ministers of the gospel may be seen
hurrying to and fro, in the semi-darkness, engaged
in the walk of their Master, and endeavouring, by
their spiritual consolation, to cheer the weary and
heavy-laden.' It is scarcely possible to conceive a
more sorrowful scene, and it is heartrending to re-
flect that every house is tenanted by grief-stricken
widows and fatherless children, many of them left
fatherless at the very threshold of the battle of life,
and deprived, at one fell swoop, of the hand that
should have guarded their infant years. May He
who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb be their
solace and stay in this their hour of adversity! In
our hurried passage aleng the street many scenes
came under our notice almost too sacred for us even
to allude to—here the weeping mother spasmodically
pressing the crowing infant to her breast, who was
lisping out the name of its ' dada,' and a gush of
tears and a hopeless shake of the head told too truly
that the heart of that loved dada' was cold in death
at the bottom of the There might be seen a
fine little boy sobbing as if his heart would break,
and looking wistfully towards the pit, as if he ex-
pected to see some well-remembered form, and
perhaps wondering, poor little fellow, what his
unhappy mother meant by telling him he was an
orphan. There, too, might be seen an aged and
infirm man, with his gray hair tossed to and
fro by the wintry blast, endeavouring to comfort
his little grand-daughter, whose outstretched
hand was pointed towards the spot where her '
father was wont to work, and who eagerly scanned
the countenance of every passer-by, in the hope,
probably, of recognizing her long absent father.
That father is now cut off from all earthly ties, and
is now where the wicked cease from troubling
and the weary are at rest.' Here even may be
seen the strong miner, the tear in whose eye be-
tokens the agony of his spirit, endeavouring, in his
rude yet kindly way, to impart consolation to the
bereaved. Cheer up, hinney,' he says, 'the Lord
is good to all ;' and perhaps the poor woman may
appreciate his homely kindness in a greater degree
than if it were couched in the most polished
language.

" The schoolroom of the village has for some time
past been transformed into an office for the owners
of the colliery, where tea and refreshments have for
many days been ready prepared to be sent down to
the unfortunate men the moment a communication
was opened up between them and the brave hearts
toiling incessantly in the shaft for their deliverance.
But now all these kind preparations are of no
avail, and it is melancholy to look into the school-
room, and see the loaves of bread and hampers of
provisions prepared for the men, and to think they
are now so far removed from ali earthly comfort."
NEW HARTLEY, JAN. 23, Noox.
_ _ _

The sinkers are now busy clearing their way down
the shaft to the yard seam, and workmen are also
making " wood cribs" to secure the sides of the
shaft from further falls of stone and timber, but it
will be late today before this can be accomplished.
When completed Mr. Coulson, master sinker, with
his exploring party, will then proceed through the
workings to ascertain the full extent of the desola-
tion. Mr. T. Robson, viewer of Wyiam, and Mr.
Coulson are in full charge of the various workings
to-day.

THURSDAY, 8 P.M.

Mr. Coulson and his men are busily engaged
cribbing up the sides of the shaft. He expects the
sinkers will recommence some time to-night to re-
move the obstruction. He has no fear of effectually
clearing out the gas before the men go into the
workings to remove the bodies. It will be Saturday,
however, it is feared, before they can be got out of
the pit. The Bishop of Durham has continued his
visits to the bereaved families to-day. He will
leave hero to-morrow, it is expected, to attend the
public meeting to be held in Newcastle to raise a
fund for their relief. A similar meeting will be held
in Shields to-morrow.

Another telegram has been received from her
Majesty to-day, through Colonel Phipps, as follows:
" The Queen has been deeply affected by the
dreadful news from Hartley. Her Majesty feels
the most sincere sympathy for the poor widows and
orphans."

BENSON'S WATCHES AND CLOCKS.---" Perfection Of
mechanism."—Morning Post. Gold watches, 5 to 1(0 guineas;
silver watches, 2 to 50 guineas. Benson's new Illustrated
Pamphlet, free for two stamps, descriptive of every construc-
tion of watch, enables persons in any part of the world to
select with the greatest certainty the watch best adapted to
their use. Watches sent free and safe by post on receipt of
a remittance. —J. W. Benson, 33 and 31, Ludgate-hill, 46 and
47, Cornhill, London, E.C.—Established 1749.
[ADVERTISEMENT.]—HoIIoway's Pills.—Health always
Obtained.—With some necessary precautions health may
generally be regained by taking a course of these purifying
Pills at this season. They thoroughly depurate the blood,
search out all noxious matters, and carry off all morbid
humours from the body. Their alterative properties place
them in the foremost rank as correctors and improvers of
the secretions. They discipline disordered functions, re-
move the cause of the irregularity, and restore its regular
and natural action to every organ without inconvenience,
pain, _or any other drawback. When the blood is its-
poveri
the constitution broken down, or the nervous
system
shed'
• shattered, every invalid should make trial of Hollo-
way's , • their benign action will speedily reassure the
most despondent.