Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-08-26
NARROWING SCENES.
Details of the Fearful COlltery Acci-
dent I'm SaxOny-0ver 400 Lives Lost.
A letter dated Dresden, Saxony,


A letter dated Dresden, Saxony,
August 5, says:
Early on Monday morning last
intelligence was received here that
at short distance from this city
upwards of four hundred men had
fallen victims to a terrible colliery
accident. At first it was hoped that
the numbers were considerably ex-
aggerated, but it is now nearly GER
tain that the figures will prove even
greater, 420 or moro being absent
from the roll call on Tuesday.
The following are the details as
exact as it is possible to arrive at
them during the CONSERVATION
caused by this sad calamity. On
Monday morning, at 5 O'Clock,
shock like that of an earthquake
alarmed the neighborhood of Pots
Chapel, a pretty little village
somewhat resembling Matlock, in
Derbyshire, situate about five miles
from here among the hills beyond
Planen, and it. was Immediately
surmised that an explosion had ocS
cured in one of the great mines be-
longing to Baron Burg. Two men
were blown out of the shaft by the.
force of the explosion, but in such
fragments as to be altogether I'M
recognizable. The gas ignited the
coal, and for some hours the pit
was in flames. Up to Tuesday
night only Is bodies were recover
ed. Some were burnt to cinders,
others singed black with the ex-
plosion, the scene around being past
description. The crowds of poor
women, some of them having lost
three or four oftheir family, standr
ing in the widest grief round the
pit, hoping against hope that their
loved ones might still be rescued
alive, the heart breaking sobs or
children, and the sterner grief of
men, made the scene agonizing in
the extreme.
On Wednesday morning / went
TO the spot and found that altogeth-
er fifty bodies had been recovered
and were placed in q neighboring
shed for recognition. En- route
thither / met cart after cart carry
ing away one or two collins andtwo
large vans loaded with empty shells
for the reception of the bodies as
they were brought to the bank. !
saw altogether thirty corpses, and
their state defies description. Here
long shapeless black mass, which
the miners told you was one OF their
comrades, but in which it was diffi-
cult to recognize the slightest like
ness to humanity-here one had his
head blown off, there one his arm !;
one lay on his bed of leaves with
his face split open, another as
though much bruised by the coal
falling on him. The sad work Of
recognition was proceeded with with
as much dispatch as possible, and
the bodies were then placed in their
shells and their names written on
the lid in chalk. A shrek in yon
corner would tell of a mother re-
cognizing her son, or a wife her
husband lying among the long row
of unsightly corpses, while the
plaintive wall throughout told OF a
far wider spread grief.
/ conversed with one Of the
miners who had just como up, and
he said the labor of recovery must
be very slow (about one body every
three hours) as the sides of the mine
had fallen in, and they had to work
the coal away. In most cases they
found the men lying under the sides
of the mine, some buried in coal,
others on whom the coal had fallen
and then burned up. One was
found near the mouth of the farthest
shaft, hardly injured at all, and as
he lay in the shed he formed a
striking contrast to his compan-
ions, being extremely white and
well dressed. The appearance oil
the few recovered seems to indicate
that most of them must have been
killed from sutfocation, being much
swollen in the face.
Among the many distressing
cases one hears of, one alone L Will
mention, that of . poor girl trav,
cling in the same carriage with
friend of mine, who had lost her
father, two brothers and A step
brother, her whole family being
swept off in one day.