The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1883-02-22
a MINING HORROR,
SeVenty-FIve Men Buried IN a Gazing
Mine Near Joliet, IlI.-FOrty-


SeVenty-f1Ve Men Buried IN a Gazing
Mine Near Joliet, IlI-Forty-
Five Dead.
CHICAGO, Feb. IA special TO the
Daily News, from Joliet says: 4 mine
at BraIdwoou, mining town twenty
miles south of that point. caved in and
imprisoned 70 men. A subsequent dis
patch to the same paper says forty five
of those miners were dead.
A brief interview just held will
A. l.. Sweet, president OF the four mines
comprising the Diamond Mining com
pany, confirms the report of the terrible
disaster at Braidwood Mr.. Sweet in
forms us that 800 men were in variou:
shafts this morning, when The ground
sagged under the weight of the water
that had saturated and loosened il.
Sixty-two were In one shaft which
caught the bulk of the falling debris and
which instantly flooded. Every
one of them was either drowned OF
smothered in side of five minutes. The
bodies were buried beneath many tons
! of earth. One hundred acres had been
eXeaRated and the miners not in the
! unfortunate shaft escaped. Digging and
| pumping is going ON vigorously. but il
will be many hours before the first bod
| les can be reached. The mine was OF
the ordinary kind, supplied with
regular shafts and supposed &c
! be we'll protected from accident.
The Tribune's special says: At the
scene of the disaster sixty-eight men and
six boys lie dead and it may be weeks
before even the melancholy satisfaction
| of recovering their bodies is accorded
| No such calamity has befallen this sec
! ton of the country or any other mining
region. The whole OF the diamond re.
gion was devoted to mining and
| this blow carries death into
hundred families. Ia several in
| stances all male members of family
| land 40 by 80 feet, over which the flood
had extended. until the water stood
three or four feet deep, suddenly caved
| in, resulting in the instant flooding OF &
mine in which 500 men and boys were
| working. Inside of half an hour the
water reached all parts of thu
works and tonight starts with five
feet of water in The main shaft
IA human beings choked 10 death in the
! grim recesses OF The mines. All hopC
| of the possible rescue of any of then
| by the opening Of an old ore shaft wa!
! abandoned at dusk, when the watel
poured into the last named shalt anC
the workmen were compelled 10 dcsist
The pit, the scene Of TO day.
horror has bten operated for about TIVE
years and 200 TO 400 men and boys havl
been regularly employed in it. Thi
morning 800 or 800 men went in. Thos
who escaped did so by miracle. Shat
| No 2. is 90 feet deep and above the Goa
is 75 to 40 feet of earth. the new
of the accident soon spread
and great crowd gathered
about the mouth of the pit, where tn
workmen were fishing out the almos
exhausted and nearly drowned men VIII
were alive at the bottom of the shalt
Many wife and mother knelt on III
ground and prayed fervently for tn
safety of her loved ones, and heart
rending feature of the calamity was tn
grief of the Survivors. which was out
spoken and painful 20 behold. A wifi
bent over the shaft and he
husband climbed up the ladder with tn
dead body of his son IN his arms. Sh
| extended her hand to receive them, br
was disappointed and doomed to create
grief for the man, worn out by the de-
perate struggle for life and for the bod
of his son, tell back into the pit an
was corpse. lie has not been see
| sincs.