Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1879-09-26

ny tn0
OF Accidental Death and No One
10 Biamo.
Between 8 and o o'clock last evening
John Rowe. Q native OF Cornwall En-
gland, was thrown from q cage in the
Utah shaft into the stump below and
killed. The circumstances attending
this unfortunate occurrence will sufi.
GENTLY appear from the testimony I'D.
duced before the Coronsr's jury, ct the
inquest held at 10 A. n. today.
F. +. Doe, foreman. testified: The
accident happened In the shaft where
| the incline starts Of from the main Per.
psndicular shaft. Il appears that the
| night foreman had sent some men,
among whom was Rowe. to get some
pipe. The shaft and incline = both In
good repair and perfectly safe to work
in. The giraffe il . sslf.dumper. II It
is pulled up Q little higher than 1t ought
to be 1t sticks. Knowing this. the sta.
ton tenders had been given special
orders about running the giraffe back
again after 1t was dumped. In case the
giraffe was stuck they had orders to ring
q stop bell and 60 up and see that every
thing was right. II anything wal wrong
they were to have 1t fxed right. They
could always have plenty Of help. II
does not often get stuck. The girafie 10
| about the same pattern OF self.dumper
as il used in other mines. The station
tender last night was ]. L. Macbeth.
]. Halligan. night foreman. testified !:
We were getting ready to put on some
pipes to lower the pumps. I told Mr..
| Stephens to 60 up to the station and get
Q couple OF short lengths. Mr.. Rowe
was with US and he got In the giraffe and
went to the station, and the first that l
knew that anything was wrong was
either a sound ON the pipe or the air was
shut of. That IL o signal that some
thing is wanting and then I heard them
hollering terribly. started up the in.
cline as fast a. I could 60. and at the
station I heard there was o man In the
shaft, 80 I called the boys below to come
up Us quick as they could and I went on
aud got into the stump and helped Mr..
Stephens hold Mr.. Rowe until q rope
was passed down to Us and put around
him. I could not tell whether there was
life in him or not. We got him out and
put him in the station and rubbed him
for quite o while to fetch him to. He
was then taken up. From the head OF
the incline to the water in the stump Is
about IS feet. There was nothing wrong
with the giraffe. This 10 the first time
IL has stuck since I have been in the
NINE. 1t was Rowe's third shift and
the accident happened between 8 and 0
o'clock last night. The cause OF the &C.
cident was the giraffe sticking in the in
cline and some Of the slack going down
the perpendicular shaft.
]. L. Macbeth testified: ! was work.
ing at the 1150 station and running q
small engine there last evening. Be.
tween Z and 7:30 I went on top for q
box OF candles, and while there the g.
raffs was rung up from below with q
load Of dirt and two men on 1t. When
I got back to my station the giraffe had
been rung up to the dump. / stepped
to the bell rope to watch 1t while II was
dumping. While I was on top I told
the engineer he had lost his tags. as he
had raised the giraffe about two or three
feet too high. and he said. al wonder
how it will 90 at the dump" Az the
giraffe got up far enough ! gave him q
bell to stop. After 1t dumped ! rang 1t
| down and then saw that II had been
raised q little higher than necessary. /
gave him two bells to lower and after
an instant gave him one bell to stop.
I could not tell from where ! stood
whether the rope had come down or
not. ! went up to sec and found the
cable very slack and lying on the ground
and I told Stephens to ring three slow
bells and I watched the cable to see the
slack taken up. and then gave q stop
bell. supposed the slack had all been
taken up, ss the portion in front Of me
had moved away; I then went to 60 on top
to notify the engineer. a. he was q new
man and this had not occurred with him
before. Mr.. Rowe offered to 60 and !
RUG him up. I then started back to
the incline station and heard Rowe hol.
Ter. When I got to the station I saw
something falling down the shaft into
the stump. Stephens and I went down
into the stump and found deceased there
and pulled him out. Two OF the men
then went on up and found the cage 80
or 40 feet above the bob pit. After they
came back they found the slack rope Of
the incline shaft in the cage compart.
ment and ! suppose that 10 what
knocked him OF the cage. ! did
not see there was 70 much slack
when I looked at the giraffe. It was
GO or 20 feet above the giraffe. I sup.
posed / had taken all the slack up. II
has caught before and I did then just
what I had done before. The slack
getting into the cage shaft has never
! been so before. There has been q lining
| between the pump n cage compart-
| ments but some cf the boards are of.
The incline cable runs in the pumpshaft.
The foreman here explained that be-
| fore connection wal made with Sierra
Nevada the partition was put in for ven.
tilation. Since then, In putting In ma.
chinery some Of 1t has been taken Oh
to make a passage way. There il no
use for IL in the shaft now.
William Bowen confirmed the testi.
mony already given and said that there
vas from 6 to s feet OF slack incline
cable in the hosting shaft over the Gen.
ter and 4 or Q feet in the pump shaft.
Mr.. Stephens confirmed previous tes-
timony and testified that when he
reached deceased he vas alive and lived
ten minutes and died in witness arms.
Thomas Gribble, spgineer. testified:
Was running tho engine on top when
the accident occurred. After dumping
the giraffe at the time mentioned by the
witnesses I got two bells and lowered. ]
noticed that the cable was slack and
stopped OF my wi accord. l then got
two bells and lowered 60 or 20 feet and
stopped again without . signal. ] then
got one bell and did not hoist on that,
and got another right away. ] hoisted