The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1869-09-23
THE AvONDALE HORROR.
TIE CoRoNER's INQUEST.

When the platform came up, early this
morning, the first sign they had of it here was
The rushing out to a tree of pale and gasplng
miners, whose Injured lungs had given in to
the carburcttcd air below. and who were laid
under this tree for resuscitation. But no
other restorativcs than fresh air have been
used or needed all day, and now that the fan
Is working so well the new arrivals are indls-
tingul,hHhe from their comrades OF the upper
r. except by an additional smear or two of
crime After the wreckers have emerged,
the groups before the tunnel part, and a
rctcher appears covered with Il sheet, eX-
rept ut the foot, where two ponderous hob
nailed boots are thrust out. The stretcher is
deposited the Jury is mustered, and the fore
man inquiries:
WHO brought up this man?''
miner steps forward with 81 for one,
Did You bring him out Of the shat?"
Yes, sin or sometimes pcttshly, why OF
course did"
WAS he dead when you brought him
uut ?'
(Revcrcntlv) Yes, sir
Then the man at the head draws down the
cloth from the dead face, and any miner who
can identify it is invited to do so. What fol
lows is something like this =
did You know the man."
II did''
"What is his namc?"
"OWcn jones'
'sWhcrc did he live"
cover the river, somcWh2rcn
cover the river turns out to mean Hanover,
and when the identity is assertaned to the
satisfaction of the jury, the big miner with the
beard goes 10 the WALL edge and repeats his
formula ut supra. The sheet is drawn over
Me face again, the bearers carry the stretcher
through the lines, and deliver their burden to
hi friends to be taken TO his own house. This
the scene that has been enacted to-day in
almost every one of these houses in sight, and
viii have been enacted before the week is out
IN quite every one. Sometimes there is dis
,ute about the identity Probably it is mere
mistake of names for | have seen no dead
face to-day that had been so tar disfigured as
Ia be Recognizable.
THE APPEARANCE OF TIE bead
The appearance of the dead men is awful,
~ how could il fail to be But it is merely
!hLt. 1t is not in the least nauseating. These
golfers bodies, now to decent burial slowly
borne, are unwoundcd, in by the most cases.
sometimes clots OF blood, exudcd from the
nostrils. are stitl'ened on the lips. One or
Two only have frothcd at the mouth in the
lgony OF death, and the bubbles of spume
pun over their mouths when the cloth is drawn
Dae man was badly wounded in the cheek
and this was the only real Disagreement saw.
lhe expression is, for the most part, peace
l;li, and denotes that the contamination of the
aSphyNia had been almost perfectly painless.
II is not likely that it is agonlzing, for this is
the same form Of death which Paris, laonop-
dist of Injuries, for so long enloined, in the
form of the charcoal brazicr, upon such OF
her children as wished to leave life There
j. a wonderful ruddiness about the faces
md bodies of all these men. 1t pleases
some of the bystanders to call it ''bloat," but
it is not attended by any puffy look of the
h',sh, and |, at least, cannot distinguish it
from the glow of health. 1t seems as if their
destroyer had the grace to perserve them
from corruption Killing, he died upon a
Kiss. ! have seen only one man whose face
was ghast,y, and it was also the only face |
had seen cuntorted. But he was spare and
ronsumptive looking, and it may very well
lie that what seemed to me deathly pallor
by contrast was his normal hue in life But
nearly all were torti0 corpora rirunl-tit to
he the mighty bodies of heroes. l have Ger
tainly never seen in any like number of men
in the same rank OF life so many noble heads
and frank faces rs those which this mortclotl
has uncovered here To-day. They were al
most all Welshmen, for few Irish names APP
Itdl upon tuc IlSl vi lIlcIll, ttllu OILY one
American, Peter johnson, is known to have
been in the mine and certainly this dead ar
ray speaks well for sons of Cymri When
The smears Of the mine are washed away,
there appear close curling locks, fine clean
rnt features, and columnar necks and busts
Leaving out the Transforming effect that death
has, When death comes thus suddenly with
out emaciation Or disease, these bodies show
their owners to have been noble ply 'scal
men. One man remember especially, whose
grand torso as it hy bare upon the sfretchcr,
might optvie many model moulds Of marble
He was one of the sixty-three, and his clench.
ed hands were poised over his placid face, as
this last gesture might have been a defiance
of the dark power that had borne him down,
or an appeal to a power higher still.
THE GRIEF OF THE WOMEN.
Not all the women who came to see the
dead bodies taken out had relatives in the pit
Many We're moved to travel long distances tC
see this sickening spectacle from motives OF