Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1884-03-14
Third Dispatch.


LYNcHBURG, VA, March 13.-It is i'm
possible to get detailed account of the
explosion Mt Pirrepont mines, as every
thing is in the utmost confusion. The
telegraph operator there has been on duty
two nights, and is unable to handle the
business Of the office. Pressing kilograms
for particulars receive no response.
Another operator was sent there tonight.
A telegram received at o'clock to-nigl
says the whole mine was shattered by the
explosion, and everything in front OF the
main entrance demolished. Both the
mine engines are safe, but most of the
mine cars are completely wrecked. Fire
can now be seen at the mouth of the mine,
and no one can enter The fanhouse
and fan are total wrecks, and as soon as
repaired efforts Will be made to go into
the mines. Everything possible is being
done to reach the victims. A party of ex-
perienced miners, under charge of Col.
George Dodds, from the Coalfield mines,
Chesterfield county, passed through
Lynchburg this evening, and will arrive
at Pierrepont at midnight. The men in
the mines were mostly Hungarians.
A number of negroes from this
city and the surrounding section were
also employed there, and the excitement
here is, consequently, very great. What
effect the disaster will have upon the op-
erations of the mines can only be con-
jectured until the full extent of the dam
age is known. The mines have not been
long open, but the company had gotten
well under way, and were supplying a
large section OF country with coal. The
prospect was most encouraging. A large
coaling station for the supply OF ocean
steamers was in course of construction
at Norfolk. While the accident will
have the effect of retarding work at the
mines it is not believed that it will
cause a permanent discontinuance as a
great amount of money has been eXpend-
ed there by by Northern capitalists COM
posing the Southwestern Improvement
Company. Pierrepont is in Tazewell
county, III miles west Of Lynchburg in
the Flat-Top mountains, and is the west
ern termini of the5New River Branch OF
the Norfolk and Western railway.
Midnight.-A telegram from Pocahontas
is as follows The night relief went into
the mines at the usual hour last night,
$50 strong. A little after midnight the
town was startled from its sleep by re.
port that sounded like the rumbling of an
earthquake, followed by clap of thun-
der. Soon a messenger came from the
mines, three-fourths of a mile away, with
Information to the superintendent that
there had been terrible explosion there,
The superintendent and others went to
the mines at once. The scene presented
was indescribable. Words could not con-
vey the faintest idea of the destruction
wrought in a few short seconds. Signs of
it were plainly visible on every hand. The
entrance into the main shaft was entire
tirely torn out and scattered in every
direction for hundreds of feet. The little
froir froaE or6 fxtriCfaI
shapeless, and the timber and ties mixed
in confusion all around. The cars were
taken up bodily, torn in twain and their
iron whee.s broken and shattered. They
were thrown 800 and 400 feet away upon
the ridge, and the timbers on the ridge
opposite this driftwere a blackened picture
On summit 600 feet away the searching
party found pair OF shoes that had been
blown to the summit of the ridge, and a
mule was found at the same place twisted
into an indescribable shape. The second
entrance to the nine presented similar
appearance to the first. At this point
lived Hungarian family named Glossee,
whose house was shivered almost
to atoms, but wonderful to re-
late, the inmates escaped without
serious injury. At the entrance of the
fan tunnel stood the company's large ven-
tilator. which, with the house around it,
was swept entirely away, leaving the
engine standing ON the foundation, and
all shattered and broken, with the pipes
twisted. The force of the explosion must
have been terrific. Rocks were thrown
through the workshops, and every object
that stood in the direct course of the
forced air was demolished. Several work
men in the shops were seriously injured,
and the shops themselves, as well as the
locomotivehouse, were leveled with
the ground. OF some $50 men in the mine
at the time of the explosion, not one
has returned to the surface up to this
hour (midnight) to tell the story OF the
calamity. There is no probability that
single soul survives. Parties who yen-
tured into the mines this morning discov-
cred several rnangled bodies, one Of which
was identified as that of NJ. L. Hamilton,
the night foreman, who leaves wife and
large family. Carpenters and workmen,
after much suffering and sickness, sue
ceeded in erecting fan, and it is hoped
the removal of the dead can begin some
time to night.
The smell from the mine is sickening
and suffocating. About thirty-five Hun
garians were among the victims; the
others are colored men and white miners
from this State and Pennsylvania. 1t is
pretty we'll concluded that the explosion
was caused by fire-damp, though it is in
explicable how the horizontal cool vein
above the water level could contain so
much explosive gas. The churches and
houses at Pocahontas are draped in mourn
ing and business is entirely suspended.