The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1883-02-22
SWIFT DEATH.

CHICAGO, req. ia DTl6l lnCeT-
view just had with A. L. SWEET,
president of the four mines compris-
ing the Diamond mine company, con-
firms the report of the terrible disas-
ter at BraidwoOd. SWEET informs us
that 800 men were in the various
shafts this afternoon when theground
sagged under the weight of water
that had saturated and loosen
ed il, and SiXty-twO were in
the mine which caught the
bulk of the falling debris and which
was instantly flooded. Every one of
them was either drowned or smother
ed inside of five minutes, their bodies
being buried beneath many tons of
earth. One hundred acres of ground
have been excavated and the miners
not in the one unfortunate shaft, es-
capped. Digging and pumping Is going
vigorously on. but it will be many
hours before the first bodies can he
reached. The mine was of the Ordi-
nary kind, supplied with regular
shafts and supposed to be well pro-
tected from accidents.
SCENES oFEMIsERY.
CHICAGO, Feb. 1.-THE Tribune's
special says Of the scenes of
misery: SiXty-eight men and
six boys lie dead in the
mine. 1t may be even weeks before
the melancholy satisfaction of recov-
ering their bodies is accorded. No
such calamity has befallen this sec
ton OF country or any other mining
region. This blow carries death into
a hundred families; in several in
stances all the male members of fam
lilies were swept away. n section of
prairie land, 40 by 80 feet, over which
the floods had extended until water
stood three or four feet deep, sud-
denly caved in, resulting in the in
slant flooding of the mine in which
300 linen and boys were working. In
side of half an hour the water
reached all parts of the works, and
tonight stands five feet in the main
shaft. Seventy-five human beings
were choked to death in the grim re-
cesseS of the mine.
All possible hope of rescue of any of
them, by an opening from an older
shaft in the emptieS, was abandoned
when the water poured into the last
named shaft and the worImen were
COulpCIlCtl GU uColoOs 1lO p1b MhlCu
was the scene of yesterdays horror
has been operated about two years,
and 200 to 400 men and boys have
been regularly employed in it. This
morning 200 or 800 went in, and those
who escaped did So by miracle
Shaft No. 2 is ninety-two feet deep,
and above the coal il seventy-five to
100 feet of earth. News of the
accident soon spread, and great
crowd gathering about the mouth of
the pit where wOrkmen were fishing
out the almost exhausted and nearly
drowned men who were alive at the
bottom of the shaft. Many wife
and mother knelt on the ground and
prayed fervently for the safety of her
loved ones, and the heart-rending
character of the calamity appeared in
the survivors, which was OutspOken
and painful to behold. \ wife bent
over the shaft while her husband
climbed up the ladder with the dead
body of his son in his arms. She eX-
tended her hands to receive them, but
was disappointed and doomed to
greater grief, for the man. worn out
by the desperate struggle for life and
for the body of his son, fell back into
the pit and was lifeleSs corpse. He
has not been seen since. Mrs. Nc
Question, whose husband and three
sons were buried, upon learning the
news was Frustrated and lies in pre-
cariOuS condition, with her mind per-
manently injured.