Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-02-19
THE NINE HORROR.
Previous Reports of the Terrible Disas-
ter Confirmed - Seventy Persons
Drowned or SuffOcated.

| Previous Reports of the Terrible Disas-
ter Confirmed - Seventy Persons
Drowned or SuffOcated,
CHICAGO, Feb. ia brief interview,
held with A. L. Sweet, President of the
four mines comprising the Diamond Mine
Company, confirms the report of the terri
bic disaster at Braidwood Mr.. Sweets
| information is that 800 men were in the
various shafts yesterday afternoon when
the ground swagged in under the weight
of the water that had been secured and
! lOOsed it. SiXty-twO were in one shaft,
which caught the bulk of the falling de-
bris, and which was instantly flooded.
| Every one of them was drowned or
smashed inside of five minutes. Their
bodies are now buried under many tons
of earth. One hundred acres have been
| eXcaYated, and the miners who were not
! in the unfortunate shaft all escaped.
| BRAIDwOOD, ILL.,, Feb. 1.-THE city is
| filled with lamentations owing to the ter
rible disaster of yesterday, which resulted
in the death of seventy persons, A num-
! Der Of those killed leave large families.
The accident occurred in the northeast
| part of the shaft of No. 2, Wilmington
Coal Mining and Manufacturing Compa-
| ny'S mine. This company is one of the
four which form the Wilmington Coal
Association. The shaft in which
the accident occurred has been
working Tor the past eight years. 1t
is situated at Diamond, a little village
ABOUT Iour miles southwest of Whining
ton ana two miles northwest of Rraid-
wood. The country thereahouts is as
leVel as flOOr, with perhaps a slight in
cllnattlol.nfl toward the mines. The sudden
thaw and heavy rainfall transformed the
prairie into lake for miles about Dia-
mond. The water sounds from inches
to feet in depth. With soarcelV any
warning there suddenly appeared an
anenlng Trom the surface of the earth into
the mine. The surface being covered with
water, it took only short force of water
to permeate the entire mine, drowning all
who were unable to get out before the
rising water caught them in the opening
The shaft is seventy-five feet deep. sunk
into the earth at right angles. To this
TWO main galleries were run nearly paraI-
lei with the surface of the earth. and
about seventy-fFe feet below it. From
gangWays, are dug out in various
directions, These spurs rise and fall with
the ledge of coal, sometimes rising to with
IN twelve or fifteen feet of the surface. 1t
was at such point very near the top
where the break occurred. While living
on his back, picking away at the coal
above, the earth must have fallen on the
doomed miner. Through the opening thus
made the water poured in, filling one
gangway after another and cutting off es-
cape TO the central shaft. There was lit
tie time to give an alarm, for in less
than an hour from the time the break
occurred every avenue of escape was cut
OIL, and every occupant of the mine at
that time must have been drowned. These
galleries were low and narrow, and only
by painfully slow crawling could the vic
tins escape. No noise accompanied the
rising of the water, and the first indica-
ton had of their danger by many of the
dead was the chilling sensation of cold
water trickling along the pathway in
which they lay at work. There was the
air shaft, Offering an additional avenue of
escape, of which many availed them
selves, but the water rushed in too rap
idly for all to reach it.
especially dangerous, though a break had
occurred once before at about the same
place. There is no chance of rescue, but
in order to reach the bodies of the dead.
Mr., Eardyce, the General Manager of the
company, has gone to the scene of disas-
ter with two steam pumps. 1t is said an
effort will be made to reach the mine from
shaft No. 1, but there is not the remOtest
possibility of finding any of the men alive.
Only drowned or suffocated remains can
be recovered. The majority of the work
ers under ground are oreigners-English,
Scotch and Irish.
JOLIET, ILL, Feb. 1S.-The number
of drowned at the BraidwoOd mines Is
now definitely fixed at seyepty.fopr:: AS
already stated, the greater portlon of the
families who suffer are of foreign birth,
and have been residents of this country
but short time.