Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-02-06

ter Being Buried Three Days-Geo.
Alsop Found Dead-Position and
Condition of the Buried Men-Ihe
Most Remarkable Escape in the
History Of THE Mining Regions-A
Day Of Deep and Tragic Interest
in The History Of Dubuque Mining.
Dubuque Times, Sunday.
ALsop's DREAM.
One Of Mr.. Alsep's neighbors
told u reporter yesterday of o
strange dream Thomas Alsop, (the
old man, had the night before the
accident. He awoke screaming, II
am smotkeringl" and struggled and
groaned for some time before he
could be made to realize that he had
been dreaming. He then explained
that he had dreamed that he was In
a mine, and the ground cavcd in up
on him, and was suffocating him. 1t
produced such an effect upon him
that he,shrank from going out to his
daily work at the mine next morning
but finally he summoned up his
courage, declaring that he was too
old to be scared by q dream, and with
his son went out to the mine where
his dream was to be SO soon literally
fulfilled.
WORK CONTINUED,
in both shafts, from the point where
our account Of yesterday left them.
A noble band Of miners continued
diligently laboring all night at both
the shafts-hopeless, of course, Of
finding anything more than the
corpses. With the morning there
came to the apot an immense throng
of spectators. Scores of horses and
carriages might be seen tied to the
adjacent trees and fence-posts. A COR
don of ropes had been put up around
the two shafts that were being sunk,
to keep curious spectators from
crowding upon the miners, and i'm
peding them in their work; and
outside the ropes there was at
any time during the forenoon a
dense crowd Of not less than q thou
sand persons, and sometimes there
must have been fully two thousand.
About q quarter past nine o'clock
the two men then in the shaft-the
eastern, or new shaft-Messrs. James
Hilary and Ralph Fawcett,
HEARD A VOICE
calling to them from the very walls
of the shaft, it seemed to them, and
to which they replied. 1t proved to
be the voice Of Thomas Alsop, tho
older of the two buried men: A
small hole was broken through and
the greetings repeated. Enquiry was
made as to George Alsop, the young
man /; to which the father replied,
"He is behind me, dead" The open
ing was enlarged and work contin-
ued with renewed zeal. The air in
the drift was so foul-the more so
from the odor of the decomposing
corpse of the young man-that the
experienced miners could work little
Ion ger than they could hold their
breath A curious fact was that
here where Thomas Alsop had sur
vived go long, a lighted candle would
go out almost instantly.
POSITION OF THE MEN.
Thomas Alsop was found lying
down, his head nine or ten inches
lower than his feet, his face nearly
upward but turned slightly toward
the right, with a heavy timber across
the chest and another across the loins,
His son was standing up against the
wall, with a beam or plank resting
against his temple or cheek, pinning
him there.
A man and team was at once sent
for a hose and windmill such as are
used to force fresh air into foul mines
and with this, air was forced down
for the benefit of the workmen and
the man they were working to rescue.
The
WORK WAS VERY SLOW,
necessarily slow, on account of the
danger lest the least careless move
would bring down a ton or so more
Of earth, and at once smother not only
the man who was fastened there, but
quite possibly the workmen who
were trying to rescue him. 1t took
from q few minutes after nine until
a few minutes after one-four hours
Ito get the man loose after he was
found. AT last m Of his boots had
to be cut off in orderto get him loose.
Then he was brought to the foot OF
; the shaft and left there to accustom
him to the colder and purer atmos-
phere. Then James Baxter fastened
: a rope about him, and fixing q looI
. in the rope, put his own foot therein
: and cnuirciing Alsop with his arms
the two were
DRAWN TO TIL SURFACE.
Here he was wrapped in overcoat'
and laid upon a lounge, and taken il
q wagon to the residence Of Mr. e. j
Richards, about an eighth of mile
: clans showed that no bones were bro
ken, and the prospect is that he will
soon recover As soon as he wa
q found a cup Of coffee was given him
and other nourishment afterwards
q He was of course very weak, and oc
casionally a little "fighty." He say
J. that the boy, George,
LIVED ABOUT SIX HOURS,
. and that they conversed together con
siderable T; that finally the boy becam
discouraged and said that he was &c
ing to die afterward the father call
ed him again and again, but receive
no reply {; the boy was unconsciou
and when Inconsistencies faded int
IL death, no one will ever know. TIL
father says the two were at work nes
tho foot of the shaft, when they hear
~ a sudden breaking and crushing, AM
the thought struck him that the sha
was caving in both started for til
!. other end Of the drift, but wei
!. caught. If they could have got tw
10 feet further they would have escape
3s unframed.
he ALsoP WAS ASKED
IN what time of day this accident occuI
r ed: He answered, "About te
u o'clock this morning" He SCENE
to think he had been there but a fe'
hours. After being taken to Ricl
ards, he was informed that it wa mo-
Mt Saturday afternoon. He was bewi
dered and exclaimed, "My God, hay
a L been there all this time 2"
THESE MERE OUTLINES,
the unadorned facts of the case, stri]
az ped of many interesting matters
detail which would be deeply int
Oh esting, can convey little idea of Il
Sc, intensity of feeling and excitement
I'M the scene of the disaster and the re
IA cue-especially when the word WI
sent up the shaft that at least one
the men was living. The excitemeI
at, spread, though to q less degree,to Il
d. city, and seemed to be nearly Il
sole topic of conversation upon Il
streets, in places of business and e
e%rywhere. 1t was day the deep ar
III tragic interest Of which will not soo
be forgotten In Dubuque.
lal "Aarthur" Gilman writes to Il
ay Literary World concerning "spelil
III refaurm": at is eezi eenuf to assn
i. that our spelling ant to bee maid mo
simpl and moer neerly foenetic, b
NJ it IL bic no meenz eequali eezi to {
ie hou it aut to be changed. Four m
part Ie am suer that q refaurm w