The Evansville daily journal., 1856-05-16
'CBe 9ailg Journal,
RESCUE OF THE MEN BURIED ALIVE-FULI
PARTICULARS -

PARTICULARS.
The four miners who were buried alive il
j the coal mines below. GAINESVILLE, were reached
about one o'clock Saturday morning, ane
/ taken from their dark prison house. rs. S
Il c." Brother Cox) visited the scene of the ac
cident, and the Statesman of yesterday give,
a very interesting account ofthe accident. We
lquote as follows: .4 s.
4 The caving of the coal bank, by which they
i were shut IN, took place two weeks ago last
Friday, at about eleven O'Clock in the morn.
ling. The men had gone into the bank very
early in the morning of that day. so that they
have been shut out from light and pure air for
nearly fifteen days. They had only one din
ner, and after being shut up, found the dinner
OF another man, who had with sixteen others,
at great risk barely escaped the catastrophe.
1t IS not true that they lived on the lamp oil.
| They had but little of it. One of the men
/ swallowed some of the oil to relieve his throat,
viii had become very sore from drinking
the copperas water. SO that the marvel re-
mains off four persons rescued after two week Is
| deprivation of food and water; and not in very
bad condition either, considering.
The excitement consequent on this affair
has been at the highest pitch all along the
Muskingum, from GAINESVILLE to Marie tta.-
There has never been less than five hundred
persons on the ground-all brought up to the
most intense agony of excitement. On Sun
day last there were over two thousand people
lat the scene. From every farm house along
the road, eager enquiries are put to every re-
turning visitor; and GAINESVILLE has been in an
intense fever on the subject.
THE LOCALITY
of the accident is Oh the west side of the Mus.
kingum, in Blue Rock township, half mile
Oh -1oA -, nm
owned by Mr.. Guthrie. The mouth of the
bank is but few feet from the river, and some
twelve feet above the ordinary stage of the
river. The bank opens into hill that is some
three hundred feet high; and when the bank
gave way, the caving extended into the hill
about the same distance; SO that when the
work of rescue began the men were hundred
yards from sunlight in every direction
THE CAUSE OF CAyING
was the unskillful manner in which the bank
was worked Instead of working the vein,
which was a four aud half feet vein-to the |
ordinary width of about twelve feet, and Ieav-
ing at short intervals pillars of ten feet square
to support the superintendent mass of rock |
and earth-there were large rooms made and |
few pillars left, and those small; so that when |
the crash came, which it did with a. report that |
sounded to the men like thunder, it fairly pull |
verized the pillars and crushed into fragments |
the rocks above. Upon the top of the hill |
there were found creyiceS wide enough for a |
mans leg and perceptbly extending twenty |
or thirty feet down. Perhaps these crevices
supplied the men with pure aE-and thus en-
abled them to support themselves with com
parative ease. Again, the caving began at the |
mouth and ran inwards, shutting in, perhaps
Ecompressing the air. There was considerable |
roOrn for tha mon "a a yaroicn in |
ing the extent of the caving
THE PERSONS
who were thus entombed are named Edgin
Savage, Pearson and Getwood. Pearson is an
old man and Savage a boy about Is years.
The old man suffered most; the boy least from
exhaustion. Edgin and Pearson had families;
who were constantly present under an almost
insane agony of mind.
The work of rescue Wasa a herculean work
but bTavely undertaken and heroically con-
summated 1t was the more difficult as but
about eight men could work at time. There
were eighty men constantly laboring day and
night relieving each other in gangs. The pro-
gress was Slow and became slower the further
they went into the bank so that since Sab
bath last not more than a foot an hour has
been realized. And this progress was inter-
rupted by the rock falling in, and by the i'm
| pure air, winch put out the llghtS.
| THE RESCUE.
! Let it be known that these heroic Workmen
were in constant peril of their lives in all the
fortnight's work. Of course they had propp-
ed up with timber bent like reed under the
immense pressure, and at times, gave way.
1 The fragmentary condition of the rock pre-
vented the workmen from making themselves
secure. They could not work without light,
1 and when, on Sunday, they had cut in 236
feet, and were about to despair, owing to the
bad atmosphere and the counsels of some who
thought it to late too save the men-they took
new vigor and new hope, and still pressed on
until Friday, when the attention of the work
men was arrested by a knocking within.
/ They paused, and halloed. Again and again
halloed when the voices of the entomed was
heard family in responsive Hurrah!
The crowd without, on the river bank, soon
caught the cheering news and "Hurrah
Hurrah!' rent the air with such Joy as new
er awoke the echoes of that beautiful valley
before. The scene just then was most thrill
ling. How differently it affects different men,
this rupture of joy. Some ran aside II silence
land tears! Some laughed wildly as 1dnatics!
i Some whooped like Aborigines! Sor1e caper-
ed and cavorted like dancing Dervishes in
8 their inspiration! 1t was a rare scene, and
mot discreditable to our fallen human nature.
The next thing in order was to hold con-
); versation with the entombed. Thefirst intelll-
r glbe question propounded by the insiders
was:
5 "Was anybody killed by the caving."
"None," said the workmen.
"Hurrah! hurrah!'' was heard from within.
This jubilee of the entombed was reported
Eoutside to the crowd, who responded to it by
d g spontaneous hurrah of their own.