The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1869-09-13
The Avondn1e Horror,
DISCOVERY OF THE BoDIEs-A TERRIBLE
SPECTACLE.
[Avondae Sept. 81 dispatches to- the New York
papers.1

DISCOVERY OF THE BOD1ES-A TERRIBLE
SPECTACLE.
[Avondale Sept. 81 dispatches to- the New York
papers.1
The horrors of the scene at the collierv are
Just being developed. The mine which has
proven the death-chamber of two hundred
men is opened, and the dead have been
brought forth. Men who went down happy
Monday morning, eager to resume their long
suspended work, came forth stark and cold
in death to-day. The miners homes, which.
in long row, front the opening of the tun-
mel, are swept of every male member; and
the women sit, with stified cry and pallid lips,
at the doors, waiting the arrival of their dead,
About eight o'clock this morning the first
door OF the gangway was broken in, and sixty
bodies were found there. Their situation was
awful; fathers lay stiff in death with arms
about their sons. Some were kneeling, as
though IN prayer; strong men were hand in
hand with their fellows. The pick-axes and
shovels, which they had used in making an
embarrassment to prevent the entrance of foul
air, lay one side. 1t seemed then, that they
had fled few steps, when in an agony thew
fell in one another's arms, suffocated by the
deadly damp. In another chamber every
man was without shirt. They had stripped
themselves of clothes to use them in filling
up crevices and crannies. One man had
pushed part of his garment into an amer
ture, when gust of the gas rushed through
and strangled him to death. Wagon loads of
collins line the road, and litters filed with
sheeted dead pass along the line every few
minutes. As they are brought out of the
tunnel an inquest is held; the dead are ex-
posed for recognition; and. when one is iden-
tiled, the Justice calls out his name and
home; his friends take the body and convey
it to their house. Already the dozen mules
have caused an insuferable stencil, having
swollen and bursted. The men who 90 down
to bring up the corpses have to pass these
carcasses in order to get at the dead; and the
stencil, together with the gas, which has not
yet been pumped out, makes it difficult to
bring them up. The solemnity of the place
is not alone that which impresses the specta-
tor: The weeping women and loudly crying
children strike the spectator with sadness;
but the active rescuers, and the Provision
Committee, and the police and hucksters, and
the Unconditional miners, make it painfully OBJ
vious that the present is time for business,
and not for mourning alone.
WHAT OCCURRED IN THE MINE.
As had been promised, it was found that at
the first alarm of danger these brave men ad
not been appalled,, but, taught by instinct and
experience, and knowing the horrible fact
that there was no means of egress from that
mine except by the shaft, then chOked with
fire they had fled to the furthest part of the
mine. They had not fled in panic, but had
gone back in order, and with the full knowl-
edge that their lives might depend upon their
actions, for they had but closed all the air
tight doors behind them, and thus kept the
foul air out. When they had retreated be-
hind the last door, and found poisonous va
pors still following them, they had then hasti-
ly thrown up the barricade and filled up the
interstices with clothing, which they had
stripped from their persons.
AT THE MOUTH
All is confusion about the shaft, and as
each car or basket comes up freighted with
its lifeless cargo, there is always some one to
discover that he is "My husband! o, Godp
"Oh, God! he is my brother, he is nv ia
Their" ETC., and after witnessing with their
own eyes what experienced wisdom failed to
make them believe, they fell PROSTATE to the
ground, worn out and distracted at the
elimination of the most agonizng calam-
ity that ever occurred in this country
Up to the last moment the wives, children
and relatives hoped against hope that the
doomed men might be found alive, but as one
blackened cospse after another was brought
out, the low sobs of the women broke out in
to shrieks and walls of agony as they recog-
Ognlzed the remains of their friends, Even
men were not unmoved by the piteous spec
tacle, and many an eye was dimmed with
tears as the bodies of the comrades, relatives,
and friends were laid side by side upon the
grass. The men who were engaged in fore
ing their way into the mine worked with I'M.
firing energy, and, if any spur was needed
the ag onized entreaties of the women encour-
aged them to superhuman exertions. 1t was
sad to see the little children clinging to their
mothers, and wailing in sympathy with
them, although they were unable to under
stand the full meaning of the fearful disaster.
Some shrank back in alright from the al
most unacceptable corpse of father or
a brother, unable to comprehend that
this could 10 the strong, active body so
full of life and health few days ago. The
spectacle of these poor creatures wailing over
the mangled remains of their loved ones
would suffice to fill even the most hardened
with narrowing memories for lifetime.
PREPARATION FOR INTERAIENT.
The friends of the dead came forward,
claimed the body, and it was removed. In
some cases wall OF woman's anguish was
heard, in others a low cry of woe rippled
through the crowd, but generally the dead
were received without audible sorrow and
hurried away with decent ceremony. In ev-
cry case coffin was on hand, provided by
the Delaware, Lackawana and Western Com
pany, and it was decent, being of polished
wood, and mounted in imitation silver In
consequence of the slowness with which the
bodies were removed, the idea of great pub
lie funeral of all together has been abandoned.
The bodies are delivered to friends for imme-
date burial; most of these, however, will oc-
cur on the 9th and 10th, and Mayor Hall, of
Scranton, has requested general suspension
of business on those days. Samuel Sloan.
President of the Company owning the mine,
has also telegraphed orders for general stls-
pension of work and free trains on these DAYS.
The flags on all depots and building generally
are now displayed at half mast. ~ WV