Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1880-06-18

Of the Yellow Jacket shaft.
At 1880 today occurred ct the Yellow
Jacket shaft n Of those terrible acci.
dents which seem inssparabls from deep
mining. At that hour Frank Hammond,
shift boss, with seven Of his men. stood
on the skip in the bottom Of the shaft.
They had just rung Ave bells, the signal
to hoist men, Il being their intention to
20 to the surface and eat their dinners.
Just then. with q terrible thunder, and
dealing death In all directions. there
cams down upon the men q carload OF
tools and the truck Of . car. -Four Of
the eight men were instantly killed and
all the others wounded.
Following IL the list Of the dead: Neil
Gallagher. Alfred Tsmby. Tim wilkins
and E. whiteomb.
Tho others with Hammond on the
cage were John Trezona, who had his
thigh broken; II. Williams. arm crushed
and nearly torn of. and Barney Coyle,
who was hurt In the side and shoulder,
but was able TO climb to the 5000 level.
Hammond received q slight wound In
the left jaw, but was otherwise unin.
jured, while Gallagher. who stood next
him on the skip, had his head taken
completely Of.
The scene at the bottom Of the shaft
a. seen by Hammond was most fearful,
a. indeed 1t must have been, with the
dead and mspglsd lying all about and
he alone able to render them any imme-
diate assistance.
Fortunately there were at the 5000
level four men at work who were unin-
jured. and by their assistance the dead
were removed and the living cared for
a. vol a. possible till they could DO
taken to the surface. This was done %
soon a. possible. and the dead were laid
on rude couches temporarily placed IN
the changing o and the wounded
were taken into the bathroom where
beds had been placed and whore physi-
clans stood ready to attend to their
wants. $500.
The cause OF the accident was plainly
| visible from the surface. A cage was
coming up tho south compartment on
which was o car loaded with tools. 1t
had reached within forty feet OF the top
when the truck Of the car escaped from
under 1t. fitting the body and throwing
both truck and tools from the cage into
the adjoining compartment north and
| precipitating them all to the stump Of
the shaft 5000 feet below whsro the men
stood waiting to DO raised to the surface.
The body Of the car was firmly wedsed
in among the timbers Of the shalt and
had not the engineer been watchful and
instantly stopped the engine when he
saw something was wrong. very likely
the entire cage. q tank OF water under 1t
and another car ON II would all have
gone to the bottom, killing everybody
there.
The news OF the accident few to Gold
Hill, and even before the unfortunate
men were raised to the surface the
works were crowded by men anxious to
know the particulars OF the accident.
who was killed and who hurt. The
gathering increased rapidly and strong
men stood at the top With bated breath
and tear.dimmed eyes waiting for the
appearance at the surface OF the cage as
il came slowly from the depths below.
Never moved funeral procession 20 slow.
ly, 90 sadly, 70 solemnly. When at last
the cage reached tho surface and the
agony Of suspense was over, tears OF
rejoicing mingled with those OF bittsrsst
grief.
The killed and wounded are all well.
known in Gold Hill.
Temby leaves q young wife and two
children, his wife having recently given
birth to the second.
Neil Gallagher leaves . wife and two
children and his wife IL about to DO con.
fined.
whitcomb also leaves a wife and fam.
lily. He has worked in the shaft from
the top to the bottom. .
wilkins was the only single man OF
these killed.
P. S.-Sincs writing the above vii.
liams has died. His arm was literally
torn from his body and he was other.
wise badly bruised.
From the breast OF Gallagher Q piece
OF iron weighing about six pounds was
taken.
The bodies Of the dead were all very