, 1873-07-14
CRUSHED TO DEATH.


tro-clay pit owned and oporatod by Parker. Rus
sell q Co., in connoction with their tlro-brick
works, between tho Grayois road and tho Inna,,e
Asylum, about four or five milea from tho Court
uouse. Besides two clay Pits there ,aro several
mnos OF coal III the locality mentioned. Oak 1Iill
y tho Eanoral name applied to tho section III quos-
tion. Tho employed in the claypit ncarost tho
works wont to work yostorday morning, ~ usu-
a, tho sllft consisting Of 10 mon and boys, uu-
der tho charge Of Edward Kendall, an export
eneod miner, who Ind a contract with Parker,
Russell d Co. to excayato tho clay, and hired bis
own, subordinatcs. Tho fro-clay is worked
much aftor tho samo manner rs coal. It lics at
this mine, In vctna aomo foot thick betweon'
tue post-rock above and inferior clay, called bas
tard clay, beneath. The shaft is Bo1no 100 feet
deep. From this tunnel, called an entry, runs
OF for some distance. Out Of this entry arc
rooms, called chambers, Il feet wide and foot
hgh' where the clay is dug out Theso cham
or as far as tho clay can bo proatab1y worked.
In this mine they e1tond homo eighty yards from
the entry. between each OF tho chambers body
Of clay oightoon feot thick is loft standing as
= chamber has been worked out, tho miners bo-
gin at the end and cut through tho next cllam-
hor, making pasaago-way sig yards wide. Then
sago-way cut till tho entry is reached. Tile mon
thon 60 back aud cut away the pillars of clay
which support tho rock being Ia foet by IS in
sizo, aud leave what arc called stumps, when,
generally in from ono to four days, tho roof falla
in, and blocks up the exhausted chanbor.
In this pit the entry formerly e1touded 200
yarda from tho bottom Of tho ahaft, md five
chambers havo boon worked Three Of these
have bcen cloared Of clay aud abandoned to
their natural destruction By tho caving in Of tho
Foof, tho remaining two had been about cleared
of Gay. and the ~ ,plllars botween them wore lo-
gagged in cutting across the fourth pillar. three
htumps having already fallen in, and were somo
forty rods from the entry md $50 yards from tho
SHIFT, working in the face end Of tho chamber,
&-An it'll
itself upon thom aud hurried them into otornity
In the twinkliug OF IN ego, leaving their crushed
hodlos behind as evidence Of ita mighty
force. The persons engaged in that inane-
Kendall, the head Of the shift, Joshua N. Judy,
Thomas platt. Parloy Morris, and David Gowan.
They, were working in the chamber when they
heard the rook crack, and Kendall callod out to
for the entry, and fed for their liycs a. they
run they came undor tho danger. hugo mass
Of rock, forty-hve foet long, twelve feet wide,
and two feet thick, caught them il, its descent
noath. Twenty yards either way all was Bafo.
Had the men flod to tho fartlor ond Of the
chamber, they would have been safe, but obey
ing their first impulse, and striving to gain tic
shaft, they were overwhelmed by the descending
ruin.
Three Of the worlEmon woro killed-Kondall,
Judy, and platt. David Gowon, boy, escaped.
Ho Ind asePRsd asdo ., to get drink of wator
ping. He walked down tic chamber to put tic
jug in bottor place, when the roof fol-. parloy
Morris w9a badly bruised on tho right side, from
tic shoulder to the hip, where la5go pieco Of
work setting props. some forty-nvo' feet away, at
the timo. He heard Kendall tell the boys to run,
and ran himself to tho falling rock, caught Par
Icy Morris by tho arm, and anatohod him from
horrible dcath, pulling him out beyond tho fall
ing mass just as hugo flake Of tho rock, somo
eighteon inchoB thick came down. So narrow