Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1876-07-29
DEATH IN A LIMEKILN.


Terrible Fate Of TIVE ChilArss ssd .
Woman II Pssssyivasss.
John e. Cameron lives on farm one
mile from Pottsville, Pa. He has a
limekiln . quarter Of mile from his
house. near the main road. He started
fire In II and went away TO his work In
. bayfield,. Two OF his children, & boy
nine years old and girl aged Ave, were
playing about the kiln. Over the mouth
Of the kiln Is o windlass by which o
large bucket Ii lowered TO the bottom.
The oldest Of the two children thought
IL would DO nice to ride his little sister
up and down in the bucket. She clam
bered in, and he lot her down into the
pit. The fire had by that time got under
good Roadway, and the stone was be-
coming heated and emitting poisonous
gas.
The little girl screamed 10 come up,
and her brother tried to pull up the
bucket, but could not start it. After
several attempts he started on run for
home, where he told his mother and
grandmother, who were alone in the
house, the situation a. above. The two
women ran to the kiln. Mrs. Cameron
saw her child lying on the bottom. She
had fallen out Of tho bucket, being over
powered by the gas. Thinking that the
child might be restored II taken out at
once, Mrs. Cameron drew the bucket up.
She placed her little boy in II, and telling
him to place tho body Of his little sister
in it as quickly as possible. and get
back into it himself, she lowered him
s..k Al
succeeded in placing the body in the
bucket, and, clinging to the side OF IT
himself, was drawn few feet upward,
when he succumbed to the influence OF
the gas and fell back unconscious to the
bottom.
Mrs. Cameron drcw the body Of her
little girl to the top and hastily removed
it from tho bucket and placed it on the
ground. She then gave the crank of
the windlass to her mother-in-law, lady
nearly seventy years old, and told her
to lower her quickly into the pit, to the
rescue OF her other child. She then
got into the bucket. Her weight was
more than old Mrs. Cameron could con-
troll, and the crank slipped from her
hands, and whirling round, struck her
on the head and knocked her senseless
to the ground. Her daughter-in-law
was hurled violently to The bottom of
the kiln, and no doubt rendered uncon-
scious before the gas affected her.
The Pottsville stage came along about
the time Mrs. Cameron was precipitated
into the kiln. John Kane, the driver,
seeing the bleeding body Of the old
lady, and the apparently lifeless body OF
the little girl, stopped the stage and
jumped out. He discovered the bodies
of the other two in the kiln. Calling
gentleman in the stage to his aid, he
went down into the kiln by means Of
the windlass rope, and placed the body
of Mrs. Cameron in the bucket. It was
drawn up, and the bucket lowered.
Kane succeeded in getting into the
bucket with the boys body, but became
unconscious soon afterward, and was
taken from the bucket in that state. 1t
was some time before he was restored.
Old Mrs. Cameron was brought to
consciousness in a short time, her
wounds not being serious. Her daugh-
ter-in-law and the two children were
dead. As soon as Kane recovered srlti-
GENTLY, the three bodies were placed in
the stage and taken home. and Mr..
Cameron summoned from his work.
Mrs. Cameron was thirty. five years old.
This makes ten deaths that have occurred
under similar circumstances at this kiln
during the past seven years.