Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1873-09-24
TO-

before II. E1Oiuts, SOiOu0t VI SsoaSy
county, upon the bodies Of George
B. Mudd. James Waters, James Niles,
Louis Louizelle, Thomas Cusick and
w. S. Broadwater, victims OF the
great mining disaster Of last Saturday
in the Gold Hill mines:
james Ldngdn. s,eorn-I reside In
| Gold Hill; am n OF the underground
foremen of the Crown Point niue /; had
charge of the upper levels at the time
Of t6e fire : was ON the ii o'clock shift;
I ate supper ut the 11O0-foot station ;
the cages all hung up and the men all
went to eat supper; sat at the station
till the south cage came Gown gam
lookedRt my watch, and It was htteen
minutes past three o'clock; thought It
unusual for the cage to come down so
soon. as we are allowed twenty min
utes for supper; one Of the station men
pnt a car on the cage and rang 1t up;
n cage came down rs this n went up,
and a man with q lantern came down
with IL: when lie got on the station he
said there was fire In the Jacket, or
something was wrong; l think he said
that the 1900 blacksmith shop was on
fire ; he ran in las he seemed to know
the wayl to what we call the Jacket
switch: [ followed. and when I got to
our first switch n carman met me and
.aid there was something wrong, aud
asked me IL I felt an explosion or con-
cussIon; / said | did not; he said they
had felt something Of the kind; l told
them that a man had said there was a
fire In the Jacket, and told him to
keep cool; l followed the man with
the lantern till we came to the jacket
switch the switch was full OF timbers,
and the man with the lantern crawled
over them and went north; | crawleu
half over the tlmbers and laid down,
when | saw the lantern coming back ;
| then got up and stood on the switch
and asked the man what was wrong In
there !; he said he could not get in for
smoke; | told my carman to take the
upper tier Of tim6ers of; that II any
thing was wrong In there we would
need n passage-way ; after giving this
orler | came out to the incline switch
and met the underground boss OF the
1900, MI. Mahoney, who said he came
to send word to Mr.. Dimond to come
down into the mine; he then said to
me that we should 90 into the mine
and see the men, SO as not to create =
panic, and I asSented there was just
then a terrible explosion, which threw
some OF the men down, but | did not
fall /; all was then excitement ; a rush
Of air blew of my hat and blew 1t
some distance; while we were there
the men who were clearing a passage
way to the Jacket came rushing out
and said to me, "Jim, we are dead ;
we are ruined We are burnt up )" a
great volume Of fire came through
from the Jacket. ard some n said to
me, "Jim, look out for Broadwater,
he must be dead )" all now rushed to
the shaft l came back and went to
| where we have O curtain to keep out
more mir than Is necessary, thinking OF
going In to see the men l had working
| south, also Broadwater, all OH the
100 foot level; I raised the curtain
and found 1t all smoke inside OF the
curtain ; 1t was impossible for me TO
90 In | drew the curtain aside to let
In the air to drive the smoke back, so
that we might go In to where the men
were ; came back to the switch again
and waited till Mr.. Dimond came
down-Dimond and ID. Moore | told
| Dimond that I feared the four men
were dead. and asked him to come and
see II we could get them out d.
mond, d. Moore and myself went In
as far as the curtain; Dimond tore
the curtain down from the timoers n
we then passed on ; | said. "Hold Oh
to the timbers, as we may have an
| other explosion :" We got to the Jacket
switch, turned south AMI found a man
living about nine feet from the switch,
and another Just behind him we took
them up; the first was John CusicH'
and the next was George Mudd we
we cot them to the shaft; Cusick's
pulse was beating, but lie looked to be
dead Mudd was alive, and the boys
nut water In his mouth and ON his
neck and tried to revive him l lett
them there with the men on the sta
zion and turned back to see after the
others, when | found that some men
were bringing them out ; the men they
were bringing out were James waters
and James Niles; Waters and Mudd
were mariners, and Niles aud Cuslck
were partners; I helped get the men
to the surface | then came oack
thought Of going In for Broadwater,
but had no n to 60 In with me 10 ges
him; | then went to the surface ana
a,ked for six volunteers; Dan Donovan'
Mr.. BAND and n Mr.. Mulligan volun.
tesred. and we went down went
ahead to show the way In the east
drift from the Jacket switch we iouho
the dead body of Broadwater It was
about fly or sixty feet a ; Oh the
switch we took the body and brought
It to the surface.
Dennis Hurley, s,c0rn-i reside In
Cold Hill : am station tender at the
IlOO.foot level Of the Jacket mine ; |
was at the 100 when the smoke rushed
mon me: | was at work about ~
o'clock at the station when Mr.. Cos
grove came I'D from the 1500-foot lev
Ell: he said you will be burned out one
ot these days IL you are not careful,
"a there ia u fire down at the Belcher
| blacksmith SuOps ou shO Ao0S
vent down and came back and said he
had put It out |; ho with Others then
went back ; about an hour ana q haii
after | noticed smoke coming Into the
station: told the pump man, James
Bennetts, he had best 20 down, as the
shop was on fire ; he came out to the
station aud said he could snel the
fire !: he took n lantern to 20 down ana
waited for the incline car to come up
from the l3OO-foot level; just at that
time the car with the pick-boy came
mn from tho l300-foot level to the
hoo. and as the incline car came up
the smoke came upon me from the
north end OF the Jacket 100; It hlied
the station with smoke as quick as q
shot ont Of a gun ; 1t seemed to be All
smoke might have been mixed with
gas; I called to James Bennets, say
Inc. Let us take the cage and 90 OH
ton :" he rushed after me for the cage,
but the engineer did not let the cage
down. Inc having seer the smoke ON
inc out of the shaft ; l turned back to
90 into the Crown Point HOO; l took
q lantern that was In n water tank n
with a candle in my hand started for
the Crown Point; | then told james