The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1884-02-23
SMOTHERED IN A NINE.
NINETEEN PERSONS MEET DEATH.
An Explosion OF fire.Damp Gensrn,es POI
sonOus Gases In Which Miners are
Sutfocated - Only One Survivor
Of . Large Gang OF Men.
A SAVAGE BLAST.

UNIoNTowN, Pa, Feb. 2l.--The little
mining village .of West Leisenring, four
miles north of here was yesterday morning
the scene of the most terrific explosion ever
known in the coke region. The Connells-
vile Coal AMI Iron Company, OF which
Judge Leisenring, of Mauch Chunk, is Pres
dent, have two hundred coke ovens here
which have been in operation about year.
The works give employment to about one
hundred men, and quite lit e town has
sprung up, named after the President OF the
company. The coal for the ovens is OBJ
tanned by means of shaft which reaches
the coal at distance of four. hundred feet
from the surface. Yesterday morning
part of the force who had worked all night
left the mines a little after three o'clock and
seventy others took their places, making the
usual morning shift. About $50 O'Clock,
while the men were digging, suddenly, with.
out warning, there occurred an explosion
that convulsed the mine in every apartment
and threw the men into the ut
most CONSERVATION. The scene OF the ex-
plOsion was in one of the apartments fully
eight hundred feet distant from the bottom
of the shaft, and therefore about twelve
hundred feet from the surface opening;
yet the report was heard Oh the outside for
a considerable distance and caused such
jar that the top Of a derrick one hundred
feet high was knocked off. Two mules
were standing at the bottom of the shaft
eight hundred feet from the explosion, and
the rush of air blew one of them through
wooden cage, Shattering it to pieces. The
other mule died of sulfocatOn
OF all the men who were in the heading
where the explosion occurred, Dick Balsey
alone escaped to tell the awful story.
When the explosion came, and all the lights
were blown out, Balsley was just changing
his clothes. He at once wound part of his
to keep the foul air from choking him, and
gave the rest of his garments to q com
paniOn with instructions to take the
same precautions. He then started for the
main entrance, bidding his companion
follow. They ran over the bodies
of men, and over shattered wagons. They
could see nothing, but could hear the groans
of dying men. Presently BalSley's com
0anion protested that they were not going
in the right direction, and turned back.
lie persisted. Balsley pushed on until final
ly he saw light, and was taken out His
escape is regarded by experienced miners as
one of the most marvellous on record lie
says that some men kept their heads under
water as long as they could, and were
forced to change from water to after-damp,
and at last they gave up the unequal strug-
gle.
The work of rescuing the neil went on
rapidly by willing volunteers, and at noon
nineteen bodies had been carried out. The
company's books were then examined, the
roll called, and it was announced that all
the men had been accounted for. The bod
les were taken to the homes hear by and
laid out. Most of the dead bore no
visible marks of Violence but died
of sutfocaliOn.