Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1869-09-17
THE GREAT MINING CALAMITY
Particulars of the AvOndale, Pa, Disaster
The Dead Miners Found i'm Ilea ps-AI-
tempts OF the Doomed Men Save their
Llves-Bnrrtcades to Shut off the Gases
The Scenes In the Recesses Of the Mine

The certainty OF the horrible fate OF the
miners at Avondale, Pa. was announced
in the dispatches yesterday. The New
York papers of yesterday contain addition
al details, from which the following ex
tracts are made. A correspondent of the
New York Times, under date of Scranton,
Pa, Sept. 8, says:
The terrible calamity at Avondale was
proved to the most doubling at the dawn
of morning. when the eastern gangway was
penetrated 1,2OO feet from the bottom Of
the shaft, and the explorers came to bar
ricade that had been securely placed across
the gangway. Tearing this down, hor-
rible sight was encounter I'd. The lamp
shone upon heap of dead. A pile of hu-
man beings choked the passage as though
they had fallen together in the last agony.
Even Hughes, the inside superintendent,
lay but little apart from the mass. He
had been resting on his hands, and there
was look of placid content upon his rigid
| features. This was true, too, of nearly all
the great heap. Some few had abrasions
of the skin. as though they had been in
| iured in falling down, and some had an
expression of horriied supplication, as
though their last of earth had been an ag-
onized protest against their fate. These
were exceptions. The vast majority look
ed like men who were sleeping rather than
dead, or like men who accepted the inevl-
| table with dignitied resignation; but none
had died until they had exhausted all
means OF saving life.
WHAT PROBABLY OCCURRED IN THE MINE.
AS has been promised, it was found that
at the first alarm of danger these brave
men had not been appalled, but taught by
instinct and experience, and knowing the
! I. H.. E.. 1HNr
OF egress from the mine except by the
| shaft, then choked with fire, they fled to
the furthest parts of the mine. They had
not fled in panic, but had gone back in
order and with full knowledge that their
lives might depend upon their actions, for
they bad but closed all the air-tight doors
behind them and thus kept the fresh air
already id the mine and the foul air out
When they had retreated behind the last
door, and found poisonous vapors still fol-
lowing them, they had then hastily thrown
up the barricade and filed the intcrstices
with clothing, which they had stripped
from their persons.
THE WORK OF REMOVAL.
| When this mass of dead had been care
fully examined it was found to contain six
ty-three persons, and without exploring
the mine to discover the spots where the
others met their fate, the work of remov-
ing them to the surface was begun. The
air in the mine was still very bad, and the
horrible heap was necessarily slowly di-
minished. The raising apparatus had been
destroyed by fire, and an improvised plat
form and rope and tackle was a poor sub
stitute. The actual raising of each corpse
from the bottom of the shaft to the tunnel
consumed eight minutes, and the horse in
winding the rope upon the drum travelled
something over a mile. Only one body
could be brought up at once, and with the
time occupied in getting it to the bottom
Of the shaft and bringing it out through
the tunnel, it can be readily understood
that the work is not to be completed in a
day, or even two.
AT THE MOUTH OF THE MINE.
The scenes outside the shaft were
scarcely what were anticipated. The
crowd was as great as on the previous
days, and hardly more in keeping With the
scene. AS each corpse was brought out
upon stretcher, and covered with a
coarse canvas cloth, it was placed under a
tree, and the cloth rumoved. Mr.. Phillips,
the outside superintendent of the mine,
then stepped up to identify the dead. The
coroner's jury viewed the body, and it was
Cd1A4Ou " WIG oCL1HOARAy uO1u AOuSCs AO
name and residence of the deceased was
then announced to the surrounding crowd
by Jas. George. Very rarely did a violent
outbreak of feeling follow. The friends
of the dead came forward, claimed the
body, aud it was removed. In some cases
a wall of woman's anguish was heard. in
others low cry of woe rippled through
the crowd. but generally the dead were re-
ceived without audible sorrow and hurried
away with decent ceremony. In every
! case q coffin WAS on hand. provided hY the