The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1869-09-23
HOYT & CO., Proprietors.

succeeded in penetrating some distance
into one of the principal galleries, and
came upon the bodies OF over sixty more
where they had met their fate together
They had constructed two barriers of
cars and refuse coal, and stripped off their
clothes to stop the crevices. One poor
fellow, whose duty it seems to have been
to close the last aperture after all had
passed beyond it, had fallen dead on the
outside, his work not yet completed.
Fathers and sons were found in each 9TH
er's arms. Some lay with their hands
clenchcd as if in agony. some with their
faces buried in the ground, some in the
attitude of prayer. While we write the
labor of bringing out the bodies still goes
on.
The causes of this horrible affair seem
plain enough. The shaft upon which the
lives of these two hundred men depend
ed was tindcr. box, and fire was made
in the bottom of it! Not stick of
wood should be used in such places if iron
can be substituted, as for most Of the
equipment of mine it certainly can be.
And that there was not separate shaft
fer ventilation is simply monstrous. The
miners are said to declare that not an
other days work shall be done in any
mine which has not ventilating shaft.
Doubtless they are in earnest, but we
have no confidence that their resolution
will be kept The most reckless of men
are always those whose occupations are
most perilous. Miners we know are not
ignorant Of their danger. Mine-owners
are not heartlcss But both manifest a
propensity to run fearful risks, which
seems to us entrey y ineXpicable. If
men are the victims of such suicida ten
denotes, it is the duty of the government
to protect them against their own folly.
A correspondent Of the New York
Times, writing at a later period. thus
sketches an experience of the time en-
ploved in rescuing the dead
The history Of the catastrophe, like
that of a battle. will probably never be
complete. The minute details in which
lie the dramatic force Of the event can
never be fully gathered. One man could
NO more absorb the events momently oc-
crrrny during these four intense days
and nights at Avondalc Shaft, than could
Il single observer take in the minuti;e of
battle like the Wilderness. But as
these incidents are culed from the mem
cries vt the actors in the great drama
they are as worthy of record as though
seen by the fresh individual.
Everything in the work of rescung
the emtombcd was done, devised and SUI
pcrviscd by committees Of miners On
the last day OF bringing mp the dead, the
person in charge OF the rope that was at
tached to the platform used for that pur
pose and letting down the rcscuerS, be-
came convinced of its insecurity, and a
committee" went to examine it. These
men. after minute inspection, pronoun-
rcd the rope perfectly reliable and even
better than new one. and would not
have il changed. A little later another
committee was called, and another in
spection being made, arrived at the same
conclusion, whcreupon the person in
charge, by merely shaking the rope vic
lcntly, unloosencd the ends where it was
Spiced. and despite the protest' it was
removed and new rope substituted.
No men or set OF men we've probably
ever before called upon to endure such
extreme hardships in the midst of q
thickly- y-peopled country, as were the men
engaged about the mine. A field telc-
graph Office was established on pile OF
boards, near the crater, and there an op.
orator sat, without adequate protection
from the weather, for fnrty-eight hours,
without IL moments relief. The miners,
sheriff, coroner, jury and others, were
engaged, night aud day, during the four
days, with short respites for some of
them, and even the brutcs were called
upon by the magnitude of the disaster
for extraordinary exertion, as the little
bay horse was required to trot around
the drum, coiling the rope that was
hosting the dead for thirty consecutive
hours.
There were many weird night scenes,
especially during Tuesday and Wednes
day nights. when The great crowd did not
diminish and there were no other means
of illumination than few lanterns. The
imagination can scarcely conceive the
solemn weirdness of the scene when one
of the dead was borne out Of the tunnel
upon the little plateau, and the dim lam
tern light being thrown upon the face,
the coroner's jury gathered around for
The official viewing of the dead. Nor is
it an experience of everyday life for
man to spend stormy night in It freight
car piled high with cotlins, with, Il little
way above him, on the mountain side, a
miners dwelling, where Il woman walled
all night long over the dead bodies of her
husband and two stalwart sons. | have
spoken as was bound to do of the sub
lime courage and devotion displayed by
the men who went down the shaft TO re-
move the dead, but there were others not
called on for that hazardous service who
were constant in their response to all de-
,,n,l,.,d ,-illiu,r " and uucplS