The Portland daily press., 1869-09-14
Terms $500 per anmuna, I'm adramce.

"aS appointed for the funeral OF an lrlsn
miner, and all the Irishmen employed at Av-
oiIuale resolved to attend it. Over fifty work
| ed In the mine and over fiftv are now living
70 lliahk that funeral for escaping a terrible
death. truly may it be said in their case tha.
| throuSh death they found life. Half dozen
| iflshmen were among the victims: all the
rest, about one hundred We're Welsh, and of
the same nationality were most Of those who
perilled their lives in the rescue of the dead
bodies. Only two native Americans were
found.
Tuesday morning rumor prevailed that
two gentlemen from Philadelphia, visitors to
the mining districts, went down the shaft and
were never afterwards seen. This, of course,
could receive neither confirmation nor denial
until the pit was cleared and now that IL is
the report is found to have had no founda-
.lom' III was sad commentary on the pre-
JUDGES that warp the miners minds against
tnose VINO are placed in any position over
them, that the body of Evan Hughes, 'the
inside boss" though found first, was COM
PEELED, in Difference to these unholy preiu-
dices to be lett in the pit until twenty other
bodies were removed, though at each removal
it was necessary to brush against the dead
body of Hughes, who was found sitting on a
pile of coal in one of the main passages. Had
Hughes been brought up first, dead, disfigur-
ed and blackened as he was, the miners would
have murmured against this grim partiality;
so there he had to stay, an actnal impeachment
to the progress OF the exploring gangs, until
twenty others were removed.
HOW Lua5H THE IMPRISONED MINERS LIVED.
great many opinions have been given on
the prooaDe length Of time which the i'm
| prisoned mon lived after the fire in he shaft
broke out at nine O'Clock Monday morning.
| Yesterday some people believed the question
| was entirely set at rest by the finding of sew
| eral dinner and water cans full, from which
| fact it was inferred death resulted before IL
| o'clock, noon, the time when the men are ac-
| customed to take their dinner. This theory
| is plausible enough; but then it is by no
| means hard to believe that when the miners
| discovered the dreadful nature of their situa-
ton all thought of dinner and dinner cans
fled from their minds; and had they lived for
twenty-four hours it is not unreasonable to
think the same indifference to food would
have continued. Anybody who has been
amid the dangers of battlefield will readily
recognize this feeling.
THE WORK DONE IN THE RESCUE.
To stranger looking at the vast amount of
| debris strewed around the scene and aware Of
| the fact that another vast amount tell down
| the shaft depth greater than from the top
| OF the traceried pinnacle OF Trinity church to
| the sidewalk beneath and choked up the only
| means of ingress and egress to height OF
| forty feet from the bottom, 10 seems marvel
| lous how the rescung party ever got to work
| in so brief a time. Then again the machinery
| was all destroyed, the flames burned with the
| fiercest violence in the shaft and below 1t,
and for hundred yards outside the mine on
the slope descending to the railroad track a
| most intense slow fire made the atmosphere
| ntolerable for wide circuit Of space.
| There were no fire engines on the ground, no
/ machinery to replace what was destroyed
and none of the conveniences at hand to
meet the exigences of the occasion.
Almost everything had to be brought from
| Scranton, distance of twenty-three miles.
| The fire in the shaft was finally put out, but
the slow burning anthracite that flowed down
the hillside in fiery stream, like lava, still kept
| up its white heat, and uniting with the blister
| ing sunrays made the work of excavation fit
| only for gang of salamanders. A beam of
| timber was laid across the partly dismantled
| walls of the engine house, a couple of young
| oak trees were telled on the mountains to sup
| port this beam, a drum was rigged up, rope
| put around it and run over pulley attached
to the beam just mentioned, horse was pro-
| cured to drive the drum, and a bucket being
| attached to the rope over the shaft the next
| question remained, who was the man to ven
| ture down that black and streaming mouth,
| with all the anticipated horrors to be met with
below
| THE HERoIsM OF THE RESCUE.
| Ihe crowd arounl the shalt was tremen-
dously excited at this time. The bravest fell
back appalled, at the prospect of venturing
alone in bucket down into the gloom of that
awful ruin, not unlike living picture of hell
itself. The beams of timber in the partition
across the centre of the shaft still smoked
from the recent fire. Whoever should ven
ture to go down took his life In his hands;
for all the sulphurous gasses had been let
loose by the consuming fire, and one breath
of such was sure asphy xation.
Mr.. Charles Vartue, of the Grand Tunnel
colliery, was the first man who ventured
down the mine. He stepped forth to the sac
rifces looking the beau ideal of hero, with
| a well cut, resolute face, athletic build, and a
clear blue eye of unwavering steadness. 1t
| is here the hcrolsm was shown to which 20
mere words of praise and admiration can do
| adequate justice. Vartue was the first to go
| down toe sbait but others as heroic followed
and penetrated in darkness and amid rushing
clouds of sulphur into gangways and cham
bers which death in frghttul shapes had vis-
tied. The courage OF the battle field has
nothing in it nobler or more self-sacrificing
than the conduct of these brave men, who,
| coaceivlng that in some remote chamber of
| the mine their fellow men were waiting and
| painting for delverance struggled through the
foul air, the awful gloom and oppressive still
ness to rescue them or perish in the attempt.