The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1883-03-03
Further Details OF the Diamond Mine
Disaster.
4 MINERS EXPERIENCE.

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 somo
observations upon the strength of the roof, AZ
il is my usual custom to do. With me there
was working man whose name | do not
know. About eleven o'clock we ate our dim
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. l had been in the mine when it
was flooded I'm 1880, and so knew
of the danger that we must run II we
stopped to block up our coal, some of the
men did, and so we made for The shalt, mile
distant, at the top of our speed. AS
yet had seen no water and was just begin
npg to think / would get out safe and dry
when heard rushing sound of moving wa
ter, and in few seconds wave of water
about one and half feet high came rushing
around us, compelling us to retire before 1t 10
place not far from where we had started, and
whore another side gallery led to the air-shaft-
Spurred on by the belief that now escape was
almost impossible, we ran us hard as we could
down the crooked passage, bobbing up and
down on the undulating surface of the road
way. When we were about 200 feet from the
main shaft the water again struck u.s. and
quickly rose to n 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 whore 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 Mt last
a.,
the stairs by willing hands. 1 forgot to say
that when was nearly up to the shaft came
across two boys who were swimming in the
same direction j was going. They cried out to
me to help them, for they were tired out, but
knew my only hope was in a rapid move and
so | was compelled to leave them behind to
perish"
Smith was the last man who ever came out of
the mine alive, and he was as happy n man as
| could be found anywhere.
AFFECTING SCENES AND HEROIC DEEDS
Thomas Daily, the cageman, said "When
| got to the top a 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
aprear. One young lady was especially notice
! able on account OF the distress which she
| 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
her alive. 1t was only by the most careful
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 young mother with her newborn babe
| in her arms crying wildly the name of her
husband who had persisted in the relent-
| 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
10 her second child a few days before and
which she now held in her arms, in spite of the
relentless cold wind that swept over the bleak
prairie. The cries of the feeble child would
have turned heart of stone, and the awful
surroundings added TO the piteous effect. I
hope that | may never be permitted to SEQ
such sight again"
done at the mine yesterday, such record
would chronicle n vast amount of valor and
bravery. Many of the men rsked 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
bad 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, WAC eagerly watched the
MN as he carried the inanimate form up the
slippery steps and placed II n her extended
arms. One of the saddest of the sad cases
, was that of man named Person, 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
the surface of the water, and then the small
features of 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
tb ms nto the an9
l worked long and hard to find the body, but to
no avail, for ii had sunk and t1oated under the
arched wall. The father had to be lifted out, so
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 a few days,
3 and until that rime many a heart that feeds
7 upon the hope that the men are still alive
3 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.
I The greatest excitement still prevails, and
3 every one has at tongues end some new tale
of woe-some story of a brave and loved rea.
I tive cut Off from friends and home, perishin q
, in the bowels of the earth
n One of the saddest features of the case Is the
= feet that most of the drowned men were men
r | of families, who were depending on them fol-
support. What scene of devastation and
, destltution the town of Diamond presents one
: can readily conceive when he thinks that
forty 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 saysi
. Had any of the miners been told on FRI
day morning that tn ire was possibility OF
: the earth sinking under pressure of water
:, | gathered through natural causes on the sur
}, lace, they would have treated such n supposi
| wifi calamity "a