The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1883-03-01
Further Details Of the Diamond Mine
BID. @ Disaster.
A MINERS ExPEBfBNeB.

AHe AltneSs gives MS e8 Feflenfee as A9liOWS.H
Il went into the mine about six o'clock and
nude my way at once to the west Dip about
one mile from the shaft. WhcnI arrived at
my layout went to work, after making some
Observations upon the strength of the roof, as
1t is my usual custom to do. With me there
was working Il man whose name L do not
know. About eleven o'clock we ate our din
ner, and had just begun to make new inser-
tiOn into the seam when the voice of the
driver, Joe keeley, was heard not far away
calling that the water was coming into the
mine. / had been in the mine when it
was flooded in 1850. and SO / knew
of the danger that VIC must run if we
I stopped to block up our coal, as some of the
men did and so we made for he shaft mile
distant, at the top of our speed. As
/ yet had seen water and ! was just begin
! ming to think I would get ont safe and dry
when 1 heard rushing sound of moving wa
| ter, and in few seconds a wave Of water
| about one and a half feet high came rushing
1 around US, compelling as to retire before 1t to
! a place not far from where we had started and
where another side gallery led to the airs haft
| Spurred on by the belief that now escape was
! almost impossible, as 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 us, and
/ quickly rose to a depth of three feet, so
/ high, indeed, that it was utterly imp 1sslble
/ for to make any speed toward our
/ escape. Near the aiT-shaft there are
| several places whore the passage dipped and
then rose again, forming q pit between each
rise of the roadway. When VIC reached this
| place the water was SO high that we had to
swim across these holes, and in doing so we
| jammed our head against the roof, and, al
most fainting from exhaustion, we at llSt
came out at the air shalt and were helped up
| the stairs by willing hands. forgot to say
that when was nearly up to the shaft ] came
fvytn HOY ynn swim ami
| same direction was going. They cried ont to
me to help them, for they were tired out, but
| knew my only hope was in a rapid m We, and
/ 80 was compelled to leave them behind TO
perish"
Smith was the last man who ever came outof
the mine alive, and he was as happy man as
could be found anywhere.
AFFECTING SCENES AND HEROIC DEEDS.
| Thomas Daily, the cageman, said: " When i
| 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 chiIdren-alI intent upon
| finding some friend who had gone in'o the
mine in the morning, and who had failed to
| apTear. One young lady was especially notice
able on account of the distress VIII ch she ex-
hibited when IL gray-haired man announced to
| her the fact that her lover had p rished in an
| isolated corridor and would never be seen by
| her alive. 1t was ouly by tn most careful
| aG,61T on on EA0 part OF nSE lTiGuNS bAAdb
she was kept from throwing herself into the
murky darkness of the p t below. Near her
was young mother with her newborn babe
in her arms crying wildly the name of her
husband who had pershed in the relent-
less food 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 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 a heart of stone, and the awful
surroundings added TO the PiteOus effect.
hope that l may never be permitted to sec
such a sight again"
| If we were to make list of the heroic deeds
done at the mine yesterday, such a 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 M n had op-
| portunity offered. A young man-Frank Onley
had fought his way to the bottom of the shaft
and, unable to ascend the steps, had clung to
the boards for a 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 a man named Tierson, who was
standing near the top of the main shaft
looking down and intenty watching for the
arrival of some new form from below, which
| he hoped would be his son, no had
not been rescued. An arm appeared above
the surface of the water, aud then the small
features of a boy rose to the surface, and re-
manned for a 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 despaiTinR
look the father sprang into the water, and
worked long and hard to find the body, but to
no avail, for it had sunk and hoated under the
arched wall. The father had to be lifted out, SC
exhausted was he in his struggle for the child
JOLIET, Ill, February H.
IT is thought by practical miners that no
bodies will be recovered for atIeast a few days
and until that time many heart that feeds
upon the hope that the still alive
will beat hopefully and win never be satisfied
, until the lifeless bodies laid ont 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 a brave and loved rela
tive, cut off from friends and home, pertshiu q
, in the bowels of the earth.
One of the saddest features of the case fs the
feet that most of the drowned men were meT
! of families, who were depending on them fol
: support. What scene of dey astatfon and
] destftuti on the town of Diamond presents one
r can readily conceive when nc thinks thai
forty-six widows are left to tell the tale of this
one of the most hOrr bic dis asters that has evel
? been recorded in this State.
ENTIRELY UNExPBCTED.
In commenting on the BrIidwood disaster
/ the Chicago Inter OCEAN says:
I . Had any of the miners been told on FRI
! day morn ng that tn re was pOss blity OF
! the earth n1ing under pressure of water
8 gathered through natural causes on the sur
+ face they would have treated such supposi
z ton with contempt. The calamity was a'
! clearly in the line of the unexpected as was
the hurricane that swept through Kansas last
year. and it would seem that with the condt
tions that existed there 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 tho
/ surface meant danger to those at work so many
feet below the surface. The sudden slide oi
! Lincoln Park into the lake would probably
! create no more surprise in Chicago than dif
the sudden dash of a lake into the mine a
, BraidwOod It is almost as useless to MOI
alize on such disasters as il is to indulge il
! theories in regard to what might have beer
) done to prevent them. But after what has oc
CURED at Braldwood there can be no excus'
Z for such horrible mishap at any other mint
, | similarly situated. A new danger, or a new
.
? and precautiOns against even the remotely
/ possible may be taken"
A BLIZZARD story from the Northwest: 4
man went for bucket Of water, aud spilled
little while returning to the house. Hepu
one foot on the wet spot, and before be couI'
take another step he was frozen TO tn
ground. He had TO leave his boot behind am
I bop to the house.-M = Sun.
Ir the Egyptian war one English bullet il