The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1871-10-05

Suage: feade ana the requisite rolling stocks.
and that ifthe South .Carolina Bail Road
will take half the stock, the balance can Be;
easily raised among themselves rs. s -
CHESTER.
A DiYision of the Sons of Temperance,
was instituted last week at Armenia Church,
eight miles from Chester, by D. G. W: p,
F. P. Beard There were seventeen appli-
caRts for the charter. < ~
Last week negro farm laborer on Mr..
BENEFITS place, in the upper partsof Ches-
ter county, was shot BY awhite man in that
gentleman's employ. The negro owed the
other for a watch, and being dismissed by
Mr.. Bennett, was attempting to remove his
possessions without paying for it, when the
young man .endeayored to retain one Of the
negroes hogs as security for his so doing,
and. this led to tho attercation in which the
negro was killed.
Major Van Voast, who has beenin com
mand of the post at Chester since last April,
has been promoted, and has left for his new
command in Mississippi. y He will be sue:
eeeded by Capt Brown9 Of the 21st regi-
ment Of Infantry, who is now in Oregon.
Horrible Accident in Indianapolis-A
Sewer Caves in-Eight Men Almost
Instantly Killed s&.s
= Between 9 and 10 o'clock yesterday morn
ing the city was startled by the report that
a section Of the Kentucky avenue sewer
had cayed iu, and that large number of
laborers were buried under the earth and
ti1nbers. Hurrying feet at once 4 carried
large crowds in that direction, when it was
found, ,thatin this instance :rumor had lot
exaggerated The point where the. accident
occurred is something less than one hundred
feet above the Lafayette railroad track, where
the excavation was about twelve feet wide
by twenty-five in depth. s ~ =.
4 The sheeting or heavy plank driven down
toguard against such occurrences as happened
yesterday are only Notwithstanding to
the statement of one of the contractors-to
reach as far as the centre of the brick work
Of the sewer proper. From the termination
a rounding ditch or semicircle is dug to a
depth sufficient to accommodate one half of
tho masonry.
The immediate cause Of the accident ap-
pears TO have been the carelessness or igno-
ranceSof the workman in. digging almost
d rectly down on a line with the sheet
ing. Immediately above, ION the south side
of the sewer, were the immense quantities of
earth thrown out, and these combined with
the grayelly character Of the soiksat the
base, forced the mass beneath the planking.
When once started, the cross braces dropped,
and the enormous pile came crushing down
with irresistible force. After one cross piece
had given away, the resistance offered by
balance amounted to nothing whatever, and
the heavy planks, joists, md beams were
crushed like so many pipestenls.
From the time the first alarm was given
TIN Inv yunip setsll-aaf
more than one minute elapsed, and gen
tleman who stood within thirty feet informs
us that he heard crash, looked around
instantly, and all was over. AS may. be
supposed, the report Of the disaster spread
like wild-fre, the dire news appearing to
reach the5families of the unfortunate men in
the lower part ofthe city before it was hard
ly heard Of on Washington street. These
were among the first to reach the ground
and it was we'll that number of policemen
arrived almost simultaneously, as the female
portion of the relatives appeared to be almost
beyond control, A few desultory efforts
were made to reach the bodies, when it was
discovered there was danger of further
catastrophes, and it was found ncces ary to
proceed Systematically, and resheet both
sides the full distance Of the break.
Considerable time elapsed in doing this
though the utmost speed possible was made
and in the meantime large force was placed
at work removing the sand and gravel from
the neighborhood of the edge of the ditch
For nearly an hour after the accident the
voices of some of the men could be heard
quite distinctly, and there was n hope that
being protected by the timbers, some, if not
all of them, could be rescued alive. AS the
minutes dragged their slow length, however,
the mcst sanguine lost all faith, and it there.
fore caused great astonishment when cries
were heard from the upper edge oftbe fallen
mass between IL and II o'clock. Several
men instantly proceeded to the spot, and
through the timbers they could indistinctly
see the face of one of the victims, and dis
tinctly hear his voice. He said that his
name wasJohn Gibson, that he could breathe
comfortably, but that bis legs were fast in
the timbers, and that he was suffering terribly.
He also said that there were two dead men
touching him, and that he could hear nothing
more among those further in. Stimulants
were passedto him, but no hopes were enter.
tanned Of getting him out
On the lower side Of the mass few
shovelfulls of earth were thrown of, when
the head of a man was discovered, but the
extremities were ia t, and as he was beyond
chances of earthly assistance, the body was
left for the time, and all efforts directed to
getting at those whom there might be even
the faintes prospects ofsaving The admirable