The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-02-23
Further Details Of the Diamond Mine
Disaster.
A MINERS EXPERIENCE.

Thomas Smith, one of the miners at work in
the mines, gives his experience as follows.
81 went into the mine about six o'clock and
made my way at once to the west Dip about
one mile from the shaft. When / arrived at
my layout went to work, after making some
observations upon the strength of the roof, as
it is my usual custom to do. With me there
was working man whose name / do not
know. About eleven O. clock we ate our din
ner, and had just begun to make new inser-
ton into the seam when the voice of the
driver. Joe Kelley, was heard not far away
calling that the water was coming into the
mine. had been in the mine when it
was flooded in 1880, and so I knew
of the danger that we must run if we
stopped to block up our coal, as me of the
men did, and so we made forfhe s"aft, a mile
distant. at the top of our speed. As
yet had seen no water and / was just begin
ming to think I would get out safe and dry
when heard rushing sound Of moving wa
ter, and in a few seconds a wave of water
about one and half feet high came rushing
around US, compelling us to retire before it to
place not far from where we had started, and
where another side gallery led to the air-shaft
Spurred on by the belief that now escape was
almost impossible, we ran as hard as we could
down on the undulating surface of the road
way. When we were about 200 feet from the
main shaft the water again struck us, and
quickly rose to a depth of three feet, so
high. indeed, that it was utterly impossible
for us to make any speed toward our
escape. Near the air-shaft there are
several places where the passage dipped and
then rose again, forming pit between each
rise of the roadway. When we reached this
place the water was so high that we had to
swim across these holes, and in doing so we
damned our head against the roof, and, al
most fainting from exhaustion, we at last
came out at the air-shaft and were helped up
the stairs by willing hands. I forgot to say
that when was nearly up to the shaft came
across two boys who were swimming in the
same direction l was going. They cried out to
me to help Them for they were tired out, but I
knew my only hope was in rapid move, and
SO was compelled to leave them behind to
perish" ats ~ u4 3# eut5g
Smith was the last man VINO ever came outof
the mine alive, and he was as happy man as
could be found anywhere. tesear sr-.
AFFECTING SCENES AND HEROIC DEEDS.
Thomas Daily, the cageman, said: When 1
got to the top terrible scene struck my
view, and one that shall remember for the
rest of my life. Near the top of the shaft had
collected nearly all of the village of Diamond
women, men and children-all intent upon
finding some friend who had gone into the
mine in the morning, and who had failed to
appear. One young lady was especially notice
able on account Of the distress which she ex-
hibited when gray-haired man announced to
her the fact that her lover had persisted in an
isolated corridor and would never be seen by
a Inv no fIll
attention on the part of her friends that
she was kept from throwing herself into the
murky darkness of the pit below. Near her
was a young mother with her newborn babe
in her arms crying wildly the name of her
husband who had persisted in the reIent-
less flood one hundred feet below the
earth on which she stood. She had been mar
ried only two years, and had just given birth
to her second child few days before and
which she now held in her arms, in spite of the
relentless cold wind that swept over the bleak
rrairse The cries of the feeble child would
have turned heart of stone, and the awful
surroundings added to the piteous effect ]
hope that 1 may never be permitted to see
such sight again."
If we were to make list of the heroic deeds
done at the mine yesterday, such record
would chronicle vast amount of ValOr and
bravery Many of the men risked their lives
in endeavors to do something that would less
en- the number of the dead, and many more
able-bodied heroes would only have been glad
to have risked their lives for the men had OPP
portunity offered. A young man-Frank Onley
had fought his way to the bottom of the shaft
and unable to ascend the steps, had chung to
the boards for moment, and then sank back
into the water, never to be seen again alive.
Frank Motto carried his exhausted son
through the rapid current, and saved him by
an almost superhuman effort, much to the
joy of the mother, who eagerly watched the
man as he carried the inanimate form up the
slippery steps and placed it in her extended
arms. One of the saddest of the sad cases
was that of man named Pierson, who was
standing near the top of the main shaft
looking down and intently watching for the
arrival of some new form from below, which
he hoped would be his son, who had
not been rescued. An arm appeared above
the surface of the water, and then the small
features of a boy rose to the surface, and re
manned for moment, only to sink again be
meath the blackened waters. A glance was
enough for the father, who recognized in the
features his youngest son. With despairing
look the father sprang into the water, and
no avail, for it had sunk and floated under the
arched wall. The father had to be lifted out, SC
exhausted was he in his struggle for the child
JOLIET, ILL.,, February II.
1t is thought by practical miners that no
bodies will be recovered for atleast afew days,
and until that time many heart that feeds
upon the hope that the men are still alive
will beat hopefully and will never be satisfied
until the lifeless bodies are laid out at the
mouth of the shaft and identified as those they
hoped were still alive.
The greatest excitement still prevails, and
every one has at tongues end some new tale
of woe-some story of brave and loved rela-
tive, cut off from friends and home, perishin 3
in the bowels of the earth.
One of the saddest features of the case is the
fact that most of the drowned men were men
of families, who were depending on them for
support. What scene of devastation and
restitution the town of Diamond presents one
can readily conceive when ne thinks that
forty-sx widows are left to tell the tale of this
one of the most horrible disasters that has ever
been recorded in this State.
ENTIRELY UNEXPECTED.
In commenting on the Braidwood disaster
the Chicago Inter Ocean says:
day morning that there was a possibility of
the earth sinking under pressure of water
gathered through natural causes on the sur
face, they would have treated such SUPPOSE
ton with contempt. The calamity was as
clearly in the line of the unexpected as was
the hurricane that swept through Kansas last
year, and it would seem that with the condi-
lions that existed there was as little efficacy in
any precaution that did not contemplate aban-
donment of the mine
Neither owners nor employees seem to have
thought that accumulation of water on the
surface meant danger to those at work so many
feet below the surface. The sudden slide OF
Lincoln Park into the lake would probably
create no more surprise in Chicago than did
the sudden dash of lake into the mine al
Braidwood. 1t is almost as useless to NOR
alize on such disasters as it is to indulge in
theories in regard to what might have been
done to prevent them. But after what has oc-
CURED at Braidwood there can be no excuse
for such horrible mishap at any other mine
similarly situated. A new danger, or new
possibility of danger, has been pointed out,
and precautions against even the remotely
possible may be taken"
A BLIZZARD story from the Northwest:
man went for bucket of water, and spilled q
little while returning to the house. He put
one foot on the wet spot, and before he could
take another step he was frozen to the
ground. He had to leave his boot behind and
q =