Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-07-22

break sank down about eight or ten feet, anc
the water is now standing foot or two deel
in the bottom hole.
Immediately after the acsident word was
sent to the police station in Jersey City. Sec
ond Captain Edmundson haStened to tht
scene with FIVE of his men and kept back the
excited crowd of men and women. Ropes were
stretched across. large throug OF mer
and boys gathered at the scene as soon as INT
news spread abroad. Many were attracted by
mere curiosity, but among the throngs were
the wives and friends of the men caught II
the tunnel aud drowned.
When full details of the calamity were
known and it was found that these men were
drowned and
BURIED BENEATH TWENTY FEET OF EARTH
and silt, and that it would be impossible to re.
cover the bodies for two or three days, many
of these women were led to their homes by
sympauhizing friends, but curiosity-seekers re-
mained, and their number constantly In
creased. Two Catholic priests arrived upon
the scene and did much to quiet and console
/ the sorrowing women. The crowd was very Or
derly and the policemen had no difficulty in
keeping them outside of the lines.
| The following is CLEANED from the state
ments of survivors The eight men
saved had been doing some work
| about the tunnel for the night superintendent,
|
into the tunnel through the cylindrical barrel,
six feet in diameter and fourteen feet in
| length. This is called an air lock and serves
| to preserve the density of the atmosphere OF
| the tunnel, which in turn is secured by forcing
| air through pipes from the pumps. There Is a
| door on each end of the air lock. They both
open inward. At each side of the doors are
round windows of thick glass, through which
| from outside the air lock view can be OBJ
tanned of the work and workmen inside OF the
| tunnel. Moses Peason, night engineer, at this
moment approached the engine room. While
nearing the huge iron compressed air chamber.
he suddenly stopped with an ejaculation OF
| alarm. Then quickly running to the super
intendent he exclaimed, mike
FOR GODS SAKE
what does that mean?' Mt the same time point
ing out to iust beyond the mouth of the working
shaft, near which both men were standing. In
the glare of the lamps cloud of dust was dis
cerned in the air, and in an instant 1t was OBJ
served it was being forced upward as though
by q gust of wind directly from beneath, accom-
panied by sound as of rushing wind. Bird
sail sprang to the ladder where the men had
gone down, and soon reached the bottom and
FASTENED to one of the round glass windows
inside the door of the air lock and known as
''oead eyes," He tried to tear it open but it
was fast because the one at the other end was
air in the tunnel was full upon the
nearest him. As he looked and raped loudly
on the window and door, all of the eight men
who had last gone down had not yet left the
air lock. They were in the act OF passing
through when by motion, and gesture the su-
perintendant signaled them to return. Suddenly
he saw them start and turn there gaze toward
| the work and in the next instant heavy sue
cession of thuds was heard and felt, for they
shook the earth.
HORRIBLE FRIGHT 49,
in fash appeared on the faces Of the men in
side and one with crowbar rushed to the
outer dead lights. and, in an instant, had
crushed them outward. This gave vent to the
compressed air that filed the tunnel. 1t re-
lieved the pressure On the outer door, which
Birdsall pushed inward, allowing those in the
air lock means Of egress. No volition OF theirs
was necessary to carry them out, for amid the
dseavy tbnd of falling earth and the crash of
supporting timbers the
MORE TERRIBLE SOUND
of rushing water came fast upon them.
moment, in which Superintendent Wood land
with those who had gone il cried to those in
the air lock to 'hurry, do the very beat you
can for yourselves" and then his voice was
choked by the rush of water that surged
through the air lock and swept the eight men
into the working shaft where, with Birdsall, they
were lost to each other lin the maelstrom of
the depth of thirty feet. The men rose to the
surface and reached the ladders in safety, leav-
ing twenty of their fellows crushed or drowned.
AwoRKMANs s STORY.
workman says: "We strove to stop the
leak by showing our clothes into the break. ALI
worked with might and main. Some of the
men removed their trousers and their shirts to
fill up the terrible gap, but still the leak en-
lareed and the volume of water increased.
The water was soon nearly up to our hips. and
we saw it was useless to endeavor longer to
stop the leak. In the meantime Anderson
the Swede who was last to come through the
inside door, had got iammed by the door
pressing against him, and some OF the men
strove to get the door back from hl1e to allow
him to get through. Both doors opened inward
ly. The pressure of air from within the tunnel
5afled our attempts to release him from his
awful position, and we were obliged to leave
him, All emergencies failed,to extricate the poor
Swede. We had to get the deor shut before we
could open the other. By this time, you see,
were unable to open the outward door which
is the entrance to the shaft inside the air lock.
We suffered by the pressure of air from the
tunnel, At last one the men went
tc break the headlights on the side. stopped
him. 1 was afraid if he broke the dead light
the air pressure from the tunnel would prevent
us from opening the door. Right afterwards,
as nothing else could be done, seized crow
bar and used it to break the dead lights. We
then got through the opening we made. The
Swede could have got out. too, If ne had got
clear of the inner door. From the air lock we
landed on the platform in the shaft, which is
about thirty feet down from the surface, and
then were safe. By the time we reached
the surface the thing was all over. We found
there was large falling in of earth on the side
of the shaft. The door of the air lock must
be shut, the one that opened into the shaft.
The other is wedged partly open by the Swede's
body. The frightful noise we heard right after
we were made aware of the leak was like the
shot of gun.
THOS. VAN NOSTRANT,
oae of the rescued men, said the main shaft Is
sixty feet deep and from the bottom of this
shaft the entrance to the tunnel is effected
through cylindrical barrel, six feet in diane
ter and fourteen feet in length. This is called
an air lock and serves to preserve the density
of the atmosphere Of the tunnel, which in turn
is secured by forcing air through pipes from
pumps. There is door in each end of the air
lock- They both open inward At each side
of the doors are round windows of thick glass.
through which frcm the outside of the air lock
view can be gained of the work and workmen
inside the tunnel. There were twenty-eight
men at work in the tunnel, They went on at
IL o'clock last night for an eight hours shift
l was at work near the east end of the lock and
in the west end of the tunnel. 1t was at about
A .o0 ~ Jcloclr that I heard the