Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-09-16

Il l. - IL n Il O41A =
| except, strange to say, the doctors, f
3 whom calls were made, and againi
D whom much Indignation was exhil
| tied.
: I'M FRONT Of THE TCNSEL-A PIC
TURE AFTER DANTE.
The space in front of the tunnel wa
a busy place near midnight. Score
of miners, with lamps in their hand:
went flying around, while as man
men with lanters kept moving in an
out to preserve order and keep pas
sage way clear for the dead bodies
A group of men with lanterns Ia ham
stood at the mouth of the tunnel, int
the dense darkness of which the ey
peered in vain to see an object. Fort,
| feet inside the tunnel the shaft Is me
going down It's dizzy distance Ofnearl!
300 feet.
Bringing out the biers laden will
their ghastly loads in the heavy black
ness of the night relieved only by the
dim lanters, made picture Of as fear
full moment as could enter a poets
| Imagination. At ones back tbs
whole valley was wrapped In gloom
and darkness up above the dismal
mountain tops, along which the light
ming coursed ineessantly, on either
hand rough, grimy men, and coming
from the tunnels mouth every few
minutes corpse, bloated and shock
ing to look at; while out upon the air,
from the houses near by, came the
shrieks of women, piercing the very
souls of men, and making even the
strong ones cry. Then again might
be heard the endless creak of the
windlass drawing up bodies from the
pit of death; the gHflng Of the don
key engine, fOrcinAalir into the shaft,
and, at intervals, the great, strong
voice Of James George, announcing to
hill and vale the name and address Of
each rescued miner. Altogether the
scene and the circumstances can never
be forgotten by any one who witnessed
them.
A DEPOPCLATED VILLAGE.
Some adequate conception of the
great disaster may be formed from the
fact that in the village or town of
AVOndale only five heads of families
are left, including MIR. Conrad, the
superintendent.
From the New York World Of the 1Ith.
LA POSSE.
To those who have read the fearful
story told in yesterdays World of the
horror Of AvOndale, there is hardly
need of further testimony of the ddif-
gers Of coal mining and Of the terrOrs
Of the shaft. That entrance-but too
often the sole entrance TO the mine
has been appropriately called hy the
Belgians Ia fosse, the tomb or grave,
In Cornwall, the old open workings
on the lOdes are called cOffius. Else
where, miners have never descended
the shaft without crossing themselves
and muttering silent prayer against
impending dangers. There have been
known wary superintendents who
could never be induced 70 descend
these sbysses when other means Of
ingFass could be used. But NJ. SimO-
min, in his fascinating, though In some
parts terrible, work, La Vie Souter-
raine," gives the history of some ca
tastrophes which bear such an analogy
to that Of AvOndale that brief sum
mary of his account will be invalua-
BILE at present, NJ. Simopin rightly
points out that not one Of the terrible
accidents connected with shafts can
equal the closing Of the shafts them-
selves when the mine Is only provided
with One means Of egress. This was
the case at Av0ndale.
THE HARTLEY C0LLIERY ACCIDENT.
One of those accidents Of a similar
character was that at the Hartley Col
liery, near EeWcastle-On-Tyhe, Eng
land, which happened in 1862. Tue
beam of the pumping ehgiEe brBke,
and falling Through the shaft, killed
five out of eight men who were then
IN the cage. below, the
mine was In tuli work, engaging 1893
men and boys, together with forty
three horses, under ground. The cast
iron beam was enormous, weighing
more than forty tons. OF conrr-asee, = II II
the wall; in its descent. In
Il few minutes the rubbish, hIokeR
ttmbas5, puAp sheafs, and iron beam
filed the shaft to an immense height.
EgresS was impossible. The unfOr-
tunate men were cOrked into a huge
bottle. No communication was pos
Sible with the outside world, and the
Immense ventilatlng furnaces did the
rest of the destructive work, for on
the day succeeding the accident the
died of sufoeation.
Some of the men had attempted to
force an outlet by cutting and saving
the timber, and to add to the horror,
those outside heard distinctly the et-
rorts made bY these within; but these
attempts were short and useless. The
crowd of relatives and friends, says
n. Simonin, who stood around the
finding that the attempts
at rescue were not carried ON fast
enough in their opinion, threatened to
the duty themselves, and
boldly demanded the bodies for which
they were waiting. Butsll this lm-
patience was salmed, ana then the
dead, brought UP one by one, were
hurried. Htfs epep a kdfqef
or more alol97yia procession 6ehetd IN
time Of arGr or pestiteHces All! Nj.
In preparing another edition
of his work, will be able to tell of the
Avondale disaster.
THE CATASTROPHE OF FoDER-NUovo.
This was another horror of the same
class. The mine was situated at Po-
near NOlterra, In Italy.
On Holy Thursday, 1861, three miners
descended the shaft. They Noticed a
Of the tiinbers, which
were sunk IN soft clay, but, neverthe-
less, they continued on. At the bot
tom a young man was loading one of
the tubs with debris which had fallen.
He felt uneasy, for he had heard
cracking noise of the timber. Stones
falling, he signalled to those above to
draw him up Immediately. tie begged
those below to come with him. They
at him scoFnfully and re-
mained in their tomb. In few min
utes Ii was sealed on them, living
men. The falling timbers had been
midway down, and no egreSs
was possible. There was no one out
side the mine competent 10 direct the
operations of the rescue, and for four
days no efiectual attempt was made to
deliver them. Then an English engi-
neer (Rrown), engaged in neighboring
mines, attempted the work of mercy,
and, after seven days of unaided
in clearing ont the shaft, he
an air opening through the
rubbish. One of the officers OF the
mine cried out to those below, and he |
heard the melancholy reply, I" Be
quick" and that the speaker was nigh !
death. Mr.. Brown then proposed to
90 down and release the victims, dead
or alive. But while going down with
the timberer" of the mine, more
planks fell and struck Brown on the
iace and shoulders. The Italian then
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