The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-10 00:00:00

TSE COAL-PIT ON FIRE

~~...,,~

GLASGOW.—Ou Wednesday at half-past 9 •o'clock
every available means was being made, and con-
tinued to be energetically made, by the workmen
connected with the pit and others who praiseworthily
tendered their services towards the extrication of
the poor sufferers below from their perilous position.
Much praise is due to Andrew Hunter, ironstone
miner ; Robert Hutchinson, collier ; James Harris,
fireman, in the employment of Mr. Nisbet, coal-
master, and Richard Graham, all of whom descended
the shaft twice and searched for the unfortunate
men, and succeeded in getting them drawn up.
Others also assisted in this way whom we are unable
at present to name.
.During the remainder of the
night, and sometimes in the midst of heavy showers
of rain, stretcher after stretcher was to be seen car-
ried along, bearing the bodies of the dead alternately
with the living. The medical gentleman named on
Thursday, besides Drs. Millar and Condon of Hamil-
ton, and Dr. Forrest of Motherwell, who arrived at
a later period of the evening, had an arduous task
to perform in ministering to the wants of the men
immediately after being brought to the surface.
They passed and repassed from one house to another,
devoting their professional skill, and applying the
best of restoratives for the resuscitation of many
apparently more dead than in a dying condition.
Death after death was reported amid the sorrowful
ejaculations of the bereaved relatives, and altogether
the scene presented to the beholder was heartrend-
ing, and beyond the power of description. Captain
Mackay and the other members of the county police
force had a difficult and yet painfal duty to discharge
among the different families in preserving order.
By half-past 12 o'clock on Thursday morning the
whole of the men, to the number of 50, who were
ascertained to have gone down the pit at an early
hour to their work on Wednesday morning, were
brought up to the surface. Eleven were then found
to be dead, viz.:—Claude I\i ielson,aged 41, Cas-
sey, David and Alexander Hamilton, John and
Thomas Potters, Hugh and John Craig, Thomas
Miller, Thomas Currie (a boy about 16, it being his
first day in the pit as a driver), and M'Clutchie
Baxter, the bottomer, besides another named Neil
Thomson, who died during Thursday forenoon.
The parties named Hamilton, Potters, and Craig,
being two of each name, were brothers in one family
respectively, which makes the casualty the more
affecting. There were thus 38 workmen rescued ;
but many of them are now lying in a very preca-
rious state, and some not expected to survive. At
a late period of Wednesday evening and early on
Thursday morning, the bodies of those who were
dead were removed in carts to their several homes,
situate in Larkhill, attended with expressions and
lamentations of their sorrowful and bereaved rela-
tions and friends. Captain Mackay placed several
of his constables in charge of the colliery during
Thursday. So far as we can learn, the catastrophe
is supposed to have been occasioned by the accumu-
lation of soot in the air-shaft from the rarefying
furnace below, and this conjecture gains ground
when it is considered that only five minutes previ-
ously three meu ascended and saw nothing—the
soot being of such a nature as to ignite instantane-
ously, and make the shaft a column of fire. Un-
fortunately, the person in charge at the tube,
M'Clutchie Baxter, who acted as bottomer, is dead,
and his evidence is placed beyond the reach of all.
His was the last body extricated from the pit, and
from the rigid appearance it presented, the right arm
being extended at full length, and the other arm and
the knee contracted, it seemed as if he was among the
first who died and the last found. The mine, which
was so praiseworthily started from the workings of
Messrs. Simpson & Co.'s pit, was stopped when the
men were being so rapidly got out, as it was only
in the event of the woodwork or bratticing in the
shaft giving way, and the consequent closing in of
the pit, that it would have been required. The dis-
tance to drive this mine was only 30 feet (instead of
60 yards, as formerly stated), and this could have
been accomplished in eight or 10 hours. Messrs,
Simpson and Austine, coalmasters in the vicinity,
were most active and unremitting in the manage-
ment of the proceedings, as well as Mr. Binnie, the
manager of the Summerlee pit. Alexander Ross,
manager to Mr. Nisbet, coalmaster ; Mr. Barr,
manager at Merryton Colliery ; Mr. T. Hepburn,
builder; Mr. Eadie, baker, were all of them un-
wearied in their exertions on behalf of the sufferers.
Dr. 'Weir, Larkhall, medical officer of the works,
was also in constant attendance. Early in the morn-
ing, Captain Mackay and Superintendent Dewar„
with some constables, were again present and giv-
ing directions. At 10 o'clock on Thursday morning
two men descended the pit to ascertain what state.:
the pit was in below when they found that the coal
workings were on fire, and the smoke being so dense
they were compelled to relinquish their efforts, and
came up again exhausted. Mr. Walter Neilson,
Mr. Wm. M'Creath, accompanied. by Dr. Sloan,
Coatbridge, were also present at the place, They
had the pit mouth covered over with wood and clay
in order thereby to extinguish the serious confla-
gration below. We understand that the lessees,
Messrs. Wilson and Co., have given instructions for
the burial of the dead, and payment of all expenses
connected therewith, besides rendering every as-
sistance to the survivors and those lying in a pre-
carious condition. Such an act of kindness will be
most acceptable under the deplorable circumstances
cf this lamentable occurrence.

EXTRAORDINARY ATTE3IPT TO
MURDER A FATHER.

A frightful attempt at parricide formed the sub-
jectest, e
or
ni a I
Thursday
tGreatappeared G r i mfsr bo yin,
e that a young man, about 28a shoe-
maker, named Benjamin Betts, living wtLhien c eeo fvl nimds
evidence
ngi rei
'ith his
father, John Betts, the sexton of the parish, having
received some religious " impression" at the baptist
chapel on Sunday, laboured under a highly nervous
state of excitement, betraying evident symptoms
a deranged mind, but from which his family did not
apprehend any serious results. However, on Fri-
day night, he told his father that he would not
sleep in the same chamber with Hollingshead, a
lodger, for he was a "fiend," but would sleep with
him, to which the father assented, and about
eleven he retired to his father's chamber, leaving
the latter up reading, At one o'clock the son came
down stairs to his father, who was still sitting up,
and said he was hungary. After eating something
both went to bed, the son taking with him two of
his shoemaker's knives. The father, not fearing
any danger to himself, did not oiefferiroenttuoorftehadkis n
take
oithem
f
away. Both then undressed, and got into bed. The
du r
son did not betray any ill-feeling towards his father,
anythinging a
to leasdhotrotatismuesp,
the son got out obed, locked the chamber door, and a
He afterwards got out twice, and
inten-
tion. say
After
on getting into
bed the last time, which was about _ three o'clock
and quite dark, the father being awake, he
seized upon the old man, and began stabbing
him with one of the knives. A closed stre, ggle
ensued, in which both fell out of
bed,
and the struggle was continued on the, floor,
the son making his stabs at randoth. The father, at
last, getting the uppermost, obtained a mastery,by
seizing his son's arm and wrenchinc, thr knife out of
his hand. Both then got up and '
p and sat on the bed.
The old man opened the chamber door as soon. as
Possible, and ran down stairs to a neighbour's
house, John Mumby's, for assistance. There being
no light in Bett's house, Mumby obtained one from
his own, when a fearful spectacle presented itself,
the house being like a slaughterhouse and the old
man being literally covered with blood, which was
running down from several severe wounds in his
side and legs. Seeing that he was beginning to
faint from loss of blood, Mr. Mumby asked forsome
brandy, which the son (who had come down stairs)
got, ana gave to his father, showing every anxiety to
render him assistance. There being a frightful cut in
the thigh, from which the blood was flowing rather
fist; Mr. Mumby took off his garter and tied it
tightly above the wound, which stopped the hemorr-
hage. Mr. Cupiss, surgeon, was then sent for,
who shortly arrived and dressed the wound. on
examination he found several stabs in the side,
which, taking an oblique direction along ti
ae ribs,
were fortunately not of a dangerous characiter, and
also several stabs in the thighs and legs. The old
man lost a great quantity of blood, and is
in a very
weak condition, but is now progressing
favourably.
The son, whilst attending to his father said he had
let the devil out of him, and if he hadnoth
done so e
would have gone to hell • ,but if he had only killed
that " fiend," pointing to the would have been
cat, he
saved. Mr. Mumby took road, and
walked about to . him into the
calm him until the arrival of two
policemen, into
being locked
up he commenced whistling and sing-
ing hymns.
He was remanded.

THE FRENCH AND TILE ENGLISH.--The
documents of 1859 show that the mortality Fa that year in
Great Britain was at the rate of 2.196 per cent., in France
2.670, but this latter is considerably above the average of
that empire owing to the prevalenc/3 at that time of
epidemics. The mar•
per cent. in France
d ringsy dysentery,
rtaertye,indiGphrtehaetrißar,itanaind swomase other
1.638. The birth rate in. Great Britfilion. was 3.482, in France
ar.d the birth rate being
lower in France than in Great P.
2.778. Thus the marriage rate
—ritain and the death rate
higher, the natural increase of population is less in France
than in Great Britain.. The bi•ttlas in France in 1859 were
1,011,787; there is no record of the births in Ireland, but
it is estimated that 'the births in the United Kingdom
ns
amounted to nes7,:iy u
the same number ; but the deaths
France yerP, 972,556, while the deaths in the Unitedliang-
d°l4 " ere estimated at not exceeding 661,171, fewer deaths
);.03/ 300,000, with about an equal number of births.