The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1883-04-05
4 HIDEOUS SIGHT.

Removal OF tho bodies from tho Diamond
Minc-Tho Remains In Horrible Consli-
ton.
Correspondents Of the Chicago papers at
Braidwood, under date Of March 20, give the
following particulars Of the recovery Of tho
bodies OF the miners overwhelmed by the
fioodin the Diamond mine:
The workmen Mt the Diamond mine were
engaged all night removing the bodies OF the
dead. The first two corpsss were brought
into the chill. night air ut midnight Fully
500 persons OF both sexes were there hover
ing about the entrance to tho subterfanean
chnrnel-hOus anxiously hoping that some
near and dear one would be brought M first.
Mothers who had lost SONS, and young wives
were standing shivering IN the cold, with
their little children clinging to their skirts
and whimpering There was no noise hut
that made bv the pumping and hoisting ma
chinery The tumbling OF the wa
ter from the pumps kept up
Q monotonous swish a. It struck
ward the oyerfiowed prairie, whence 1t had
rushed into the mine. The water was black
from contact with the walls Of coal, and
seemed tinged with . more sombcr hue by
the pickering torches Of the watchers and
workmen. The miners who were engaged
come TO the surface to breathe fresh air and
get relief from the oppressive nausea OF the
mine. In their mining clothes, their faces
scanned with oal-dust, and the little Ian
terms attached to their heads. these laborers
among the dead looked weird and almost
terrible In the darkness.
The scene was indeed ghastly one 6obs
were breaking from the women, and strong
men spoke with bated breath In the pres
ence of the first body brought out Tho
hoisting apparatus had scarcely deposited
the blackened remains upon the landing
when the expectant crowed swayed forward,
hoping to get . glimpse Of the horrible
sight It was Q horrible sight, and required
stout heart to look upon It unmoved For
thirty eight DAYS the bodies had remained
underground In the water, and decomposi-
ton had set In and was already In m adj
vanced stage: It was expected that the
corpses would be putrid but putrefaction
was not yet thorough and they were easily
handled The first body was hoisted
up in q large oblong box and
hurried into shanty thirty feet
distant from the hole, where the Coroner
and the jury and few others waited to
view the remains and identify them II
possible. The box was opened and the crowd
gazed upon the sickening sight The face
was black as ink, AZ was the entire body,
and 1t seemed impossible to recognize In the
disigured heap Of clay the man who had
been represented by it The clothing alone
served a. . mark of recognition, and the
another body came up, and the creaking OF
the machinery continued until daylight
dawned. when fifteen had been brought to
the surface. As fast rs one body was iden-
titled 1t was placed in coffin and removed .
short distance to the fiat-cars, TO be trans
ported to Braidwood
The Identification in number Of instan-
ces was necessarily imperfect, because Of
the disfguration of some OF the bodies and
the advanced stage Of decomposition. The
scene in here was sickening. The saturated
remains were exposed for few minutes and
eagerly gazed upon by bereaved relatives
No women were permitted within the
morguc. The bodies were contorted into
all manner of shapes some Of them almost
doubled up, with the heads stiffened down
upon the breast. One man had his hands
uplifted, as Il to protect himself from
them to ward off death, and when it
came 1t left him still appealing. The eyes
of nearly all were gone. the noses flattened
close to the face. which in . great many
cases were laid bare to the cheek bones
Great gashes caused by falling stones rem
possibility. The lips, thickened into exag-
gerated unnaturalness, the matted hair, cor
roded hands and blackened faces and limbs
had SO disguised al Of the bodies that rec
ognltion was more guess work than Ger
tainty. As an evidence Of this uncertainty,
Mr. Pearsops, who had lost three sons in the
mine was brought in to identify one Of the
corpses that it had been insisted was one
of his boys The old man looked with quiv-
eiing lips upon the hideous spectacle and
turned away murmuring: Its not him!
It's not him. There was . weight of woe
in these words, TREMENDOUSLY. spoken by .
father who had for weeks been tutoring
himself to bear the sight Of his dead when
they We're brought to him. The positive
ness of the parent did not convince those
who had known the young man intimately.
but the fathers verdict was accepted and
the Coroner recorded unknown"
The only one brought out up to 10 o'clock
i'll the morning who was unanimously ident-
ified was young man named John Boyd
He was known by his clothing, and this be-
came the only approximate means Of identi-
hcation One man was known by patch
on his boots, another by . patch on
his shirt, and q third bv button on his
drawers solitary white button on this
garment satisfied the mans wife, who had
sewed it on, that the putrid corpse. bearing
no semblance to man, was her husband
There may have been other men with sim
liar buttons on their under-garments. but
the bereaved heart was satisfied and the re
mains were identified.
As soon as the bodies were recognized, or
admitted to be unacceptable, they were
taken from the plain wooden boxes
and incased In coffin. The cotfins
were ranged around the room,
and were OF neat imitation mahogany.
Each coffin was supplied with glass cover
ing at the head. permitting the upper por-
ton of the body to be seen without unscrew-
ing the lid As soon as the coffin bearing q
body was placed on q fiat-car the women
and those not allowed in the morgue would
Chamber up the car and peer into it All
I'll 81. -
funeral cars was pitiable one. The
crowd kept steadily increasing until
SEQ persons were clustered together
near the tracks Walls came from the
women. heart broken sobs betokenng un-
told woe, and stout-hearted men who had
worked in the mine, and had saved them
selves almost by miracles from the awful
rush of wa eys, wept in conn any on looking
at the crumbling clay. Tears trickled down
rugged cheeks. and fond mothers, wives
and sisters wrIng their hands in fearless
grief. A wife would be told that her hus-
band lay In certain coffin, but, look ever
SO hard. there was nothing to tell her tina:
they were right
BY 10 o'clock seventeen bodies hal been
recovered, and these were placed upon the
funeral train of three asSenger cars draped
in mourning and taken to Bra.dwood, where
they were inferred after religious services
over some of them, while others were taker
! directly to the cemetery
Twenty two bodies had been taken out to
day. OF which twenty were identified
1t was q noticeable fact that the bodie.
were in . much better condition while ii
the mine than they were after removal t
the outer air. They began to smell imme
diately after the boxes were opened and
fresh air touched them
The Old Story.
He thought it wasn't loaded, again Thil
| time the cataStronhe occurred Mt n Crosse