Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-06-03

VIRGINIA New. J. June 2d.-Y esterday they
did not gain on the water in the Alta.
From 80 in the evening till about midnight
they were only able to hold it at about hve
feet on the station floor This left space
of eight inches below the roof OF
the drift. At Midnight they got
both bailing tanks 10 work, and began
IN lower the water again. It was
determined to send il the boat when the
water was lowered another foot, which would
leave a space Of eighteen inches below the
roof Of the drift. The wooden boat being
thought too large, they sent to this city
ana got a canoe huntiug-boat eight feet
long and two and half feet wide.
This was taken down at / o'clock this morn
ing Physicians were also taken down to the
miue to be ready to render assistance. At
4:30 the water was sufficiently lowered,
and William Bennett, cousin of Richard
Bennett, the shift boss, and Dennis
Callahan, went out into the drift
in the boat. They have not been heard from
stree, and it is feared that both have been
sutfocated by the heat and gases. A German,
called Dutch George, went in to look for
them by wading out in the drift. He
presently came back delirious. He
said when be revived that he
saw light and the boat, but no men. He
was then taken with cramps, and is in very
bad condition. Two other men then tried to
90 out in the drift by wading, but only got
out 100 feet when they came back, saying
they could not stand the hea. and gases.
Nine men are now missing.
Word has just come that from the raps
received on the pipe all the men are alive but
one but this is contradicted by report
coming close on its heels that all remains as
above stated.
By telephone at this time IL o'clock word
comes that the water is four feet five inches
on the station, and that rsps have been heard
to-day on the pipe.
SECOND DISPATCH.l
Continued Enorfs-ConiradIciory Reports.
VIRGINIA, June 2d-Superintendent Pat
ton came from the Alta at noon He thinks
that all the men in the drift, now nine in
number, are dead. The large air pipe-not
the compressed air pipe-is disconnected 100
feet in from the shaft. Patton is going down
in a few minutes with ten men from the
Union shaft. He will take his men and
apparatus, and connect the air pipe as he
goes along. He thinks the gas complained
of is from the dead bodies.
The last report says there is only little
now supposed that all the reports of rappings
on the pipe were due to stones dropping on
it and the excited imagination of the men.
In the last few minutes reports have come
that q light has been seen in the end of the
drift, and it is supposed that the men are
clustered about the end of the compressed air
pipe; but the story is not credited by old
miners.
THIRD DISPATCH.i
The Miners All safe, Except the Two
Reseuers.
VIRGINIA, June 2d.-A man named Pike,
of the Union shaft, by wearing helmet, has
penetrated to the end of the Alta shaft He
found the seven men all right, sitting in the
cooling-off house 200 feet from the end of the
drift. The only lives lost are those of the
two men who went in with boat this morn
ing.
FOURTH DISPATCH.I
How the Men were Reached.
VIRGINIA, June 2d.-The man who pene-
trated the drift to the imprisoned miners was
Jack Vandusen. He had on an apparatus
consisting of box containing pounded ice,
which rested on his back, and from which
was rubber pipe leading to q mask which
covered his face, the air passing through the
ice to the mask. He found the seven men
all right, though weak. They were in the
cooling.room, about 100 feet from the face of
the drift. They had broken the compressed
air.pipe with pick, and turned the end into
the cooling house. When their ice water
gave out they poured hot water
from the drift into the barrel, then
twisted the end Of the compressed
air pipe down into the barrel, and let it ex-
hsust in the water, thus cooling it, while
they stood about the barrel breathing the
air that came ur through the water. When
they found that Vandusen had ice in the
box on his back, they pulled open the slide
and began eating the Jumps of ice. One of
them told the others that they must not eat
the ice, as Vandusen had yet to go out but
they had then devoured the greater part, and
it was the lack of ice which caused Vandusen
60 faint in going out there being belt of
SEINE 300 feet of foul air to pass through.
Vandusen teld the men that he would in
form their families of their safety, and as
sured them that all possible was being done
to get them out. They had light, and
seemed of good cheer.
At first this story was thought to be a de-
lirious fancy of Vandusen, but tonight six
men penetrated to the cooling-room, carrying
ice and water, also some milk-punch. The
physicians had thought the men should have
Rourishment before an attempt was made to
bring them to the surface. The six men who
went in were in a worse condition when they
arrived at the cooling-room than those they
found there. The men tried to persuade the
six new arrivals not to attempt to go back,
but they thought it necessary, in order to re-
assure those outside.
The imprisoned men said they saw lights
out in the drift this morning, and asked who
had tried to come to them. These were the
lights of Bennett and Callahan, the two men
with the boat who lost their lives.
About o'clock they got the bodies of these
two out. One shift could only endure the
foul air long enough to carry body half
way, then another shift went in and brought
it the remainder of the way. One body was
found 400 feet from the shaft, and the other
500.
At this time they have got the large air
pipe repaired, SO it carries air back to the end
of the drift, and hope to bring the seven men
out in two or three hours.
A message has been sent here to Superin-
tendent Mckenzie for fresh gang of men,
A. L IL