The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1869-09-24
DEATH IN THE MINES.


the details are gradually brought to
light. There is part of 1.-THE clos
ing moments of the awful agony OF
those two hundred men,-which can
never be described. Even the manner
in which the catastrophe originated is
mainly a matter of conjecture. In all
human probability, not one of that
wretched company survives to tell the
tale of their prison house, and so to the
actual horrors of suffering and death is
added the gloom of an impenetrable
mystery.
The colliery in which this terrible ac-
cident occurred is entered by perpen-
dicular shaft, 32T feet deep, on the side
of a mountain. From the bottom of it,
40 feet below the surface of the valley,
run two main galleries, slOping upward,
one 800 and the other 1,2OO feet long.
Smaller passages and chambers, 50 in
number, branch off from these. There
is no access to the open air except by
this single shaft. which had to serve all
the purposes of hoist-way for the
workmen and the coal, and channel
for the Ventilating current which in all
mines must constantly be forced by ma
chinery through the various galleries
and drifts. The sides of the shaft were
built up with wooden supports, and
wooden partition ran perpendicularly
through its whole length, dividing it
into two passages, one for the upward,
the other for the downward current.
Right over its mouth stood wooden
building, containing the machinery for
hosting and for breaking, sorting and
cleaning the coal. To assist in creating
a current of air fire was always kept
burning i'll a furnace at the foot of the
shaft, and from this it is supposed the
woodwork must have caught. On Mon
day morning two hundred men went
down that shaft to resume work after a
| long strike. They were followed, about
| 8 O'Clock, by one of the mule-tenders,
with hay for his beasts. AS he reached
the bottom he was heard to cry Fire !!
| but what he saw we shall never be able
to know, for in an instant a fierce col
umn of flame rushed up the shaft, caught
the breaker as if that had been house
of paper, and wrapped the whole struc-
ture in sheets of fire. The mouth of
the pit belched forth destruction. Hun
dreds of tons of coal i'll the chutes and
bins were soon i'll a white glow, and
dropped with the falling beams into the
shaft. 1t was seven or eight hours be-
fore the engines which were hurried to
the scene of disaster from all the neigh
boring towns succeeded in eXtinguish-
ing the burning mass. Workmen had
| f1Ocked to the spot from the entire min
ing region, for it was known that two
hundred of their brethren were impris-
Oned in that awful pit. The rubbish
was cleared away from the mouth, and
fifty experienced miners volunteered to
attempt the descent. 1t was now about
six in the evening. To test the purity
of the air dog and lighted lamp were
first lowered into the shaft as far as they
| Of foe
they were drawn up; the dog was alive
and the lamp still burning. A man
named Charles Vartue then went down
to recOnnoiter, but about half way from
the bottom he found the shaft blocked
with fallen timbers. Two fresh vOlm-
teers were then lowered with hatchets.
After twenty minutes they were drawn
up again, faint and breathless. They
had penetrated 20 or so yards into a
| gangway, finding three dead mules, and
| coming at last to a closed door. They
hammered at it and waited for an ans
wering sound, but no answer came, and
through the creVices poured clouds of
sulphurOus vapOr-the fatal ''black
damp" Several other parties, in the
course of the evening and night, made
attempts to penetrate into the gang
ways, but with little more success. Few
could remain more than five or six min
utes, and when drawn up they were all
SPECIFICS and exhausted. Several were
brought back by their companions in
sensible. Two brave fellows, Daniel
Jones and Thos. Williams, were brought
back dead. There was no hope now
that any of the miners remained alive
unless possibly they had succeeded in
walling themselves in at some remote
part of the mine so effectually as to pre-
vent the entrance of the foul gases from
the shaft. It was only the shadow Of
hope, still the work went on, while
women sat wringing their hands and
weeping for their husbands and children
and miners from distant regions came
in hundreds to offer their assistance
BY 9 o'clock on Tuesday morning al
f engine and fan had been placed in posi-
ton to force fresh air into the mine
All day long parties went down at in.
tervals, but the black damp drove them
back, and the fan did not seem to gaiT
upon it. About in the afternoon il
, was discovered that the fire at the foo
of the shaft, which was supposed to be
entirely eXtinguished, had been revived
by the fresh current, and communicated
with mass of coal lying near. Thus
, the Workmen had been actually accele
rating the generation of gas, and de-
strOying what little vestige of hope
might remain for their imprisoned com
rades. A stream of water was will
some difficulty brought to play upor
the flames, and the greater part of the
night was devoted to the suppression o
the fire, the clouds of gas that came NJ
the shaft being meanwhile so aWfu
that workmen at the mouth were re
moved insensible. Between two anC
three O'Clock OH Wednesday morning
: two bodies were found, both fearfully
Aicfinurad anH nnracnnnizakia A hnni
6: 80 party of four succeeded in pen
Grating some distance into one of thu
7 principal galleries, and came upon thu
e bodies of over sixty more where they
had met their fate together. They haC
constructed two barbados of cars an(
refuse coal, and stripped off their clothe
to stuff the crevices. One poor fellow
whose duty it seems to have been t.
close the last aperture after all haG
passed beyond il, had fallen dead OF
the outside, his work not yet completed
Fathers and sons were found in eacl
others arms. Some lay with thei
hands clenched as if in agony, som,
with their faces buried in the ground
some in the attitude of prayer. Will,
> we write the labor of bringing out tn
bodies still goes on:
t The causes of this horrible affair seen
:. plain enough. The shaft upon which
the lives of these 200 men depended
was Undertook, and fire was mad
i'll the bottom of It'll Not stick o
. wood should be used in such places j
iron can be substituted, as for most o
the equipment of a mine it certainly cal
be. And that there was not a separat
shaft for ventilation is simply mon
:. strOus. The miners are said to declar
that not another days work shall b
done in any mine which has not a vent
Hating shaft. Doubtless they are il
earnest, but we have no confidence tina
their resolution will he kent The mos