National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1884-01-30
THE CoRoNER's INQUEST.
Investigating the Causes OF the Fatal Ac'
CItient on the Water Works.

Cldent ON the water Works.
An inquest was held yesterday by Coroner
Patterson in tn case OF William ?. Brown,
the colored man who was killed by the
caving in of tine water works shaft last Sat-
urday night. The following jury was inn
panoed: Frederick Schneider, William
Calow i red n. Brandenburg, y. A. Benanch-
Ter, Leonard Il. Williams, and George h. Ian
caster.
Tho first witness examined was William
Noe, superintendent of the work. lie testl-
fed that after the blast was fired about 5AO
o'clock the five men went down to clear
away the debris. Ilo did not know whether
the blast displaced the timbers. A while
later he heard the material in the SHAFT fall
ing, and ran to the top. The men at
the bottom of tho shaft were hal
looing. Three of them were saved
by means of q rope and another climbed out.
Brown was left in the corner pinned down
by earth and timbers so that he could not got
out. Tho witness Immediately called for
some one to no down with him in the bucket
to assist this man who was in the shaft.
There was one man of the night shaft, which
was Just coming on, that went down with
him. At the bottom witness saw that they
could not get at the man and their lives were
in danger so he shouted to the engineer to
haul up the bucket The man who went
down with witness wanted to return, but his
wife refused to allow him to do 1t. There
was an excited crowd ct the mouth of the
shaft. Help did not arrive from the Bound
arv SHIFT, about four miles away, until be.
tween and o'clock. The miners who came
hoistcd out three buckets of material from the
locality where Brown was imprisoned. They
could hear him talking. Then the miners
refused to risk their lives further unless the
shaft was braced. At that time there was
about four or five feet of material over the
4. l,A, ~
and o'clock Sunday morning. His last
words we're, Lower the bucket to me-"
During the entire night Brown spoke about
the water rising about him. The body was
reached Sunday afternoon at o'clock. Wit
ness did not think the man was drowned.
Lieut.. r. w. Symons. United States engi-
neor corpse, who has been general superin-
tcndcnt of tho working operations on the
aqueduct extension testified to the nature of
the work and that the shaft was reported to be
70 feet deep After the shaft caved in there
was great danger of an overhanging rock fall
ing, which made it q very dangerous place to
go.
John Parom, colorcd man, who was in the
shaft when the accident occurred, detailed
the horrible occurrence. lie said; pieces of
rock began falling down into the shalt for
fifteen minutes before the men thought there
was danger and stopped work. Alter the
cave witness legs were covered up entirely.
One Of miners legs was across the witness
breast. Witness had to lift it oil. They saw
little hole where the timber and stones did
not como together and witness crawled out
and called for rope. lie wasn't able to help
Miner aud was looking out to save himself
The witness said he was so frightened that
he did not notice how things looked in the
shaft No one, he said, went down after tho
blast to examine the timbers but the gang of
men were sent down right away to clear away
the rubbish"
Deputy Coroner ]. +. Hartigan testified
that the victim died from congestion of the
heart and lungs. There were no evidences
OF drowning.
Thomas Ireton, foreman of the shaft, testi-
fed that there was no rulo for having the
shaft inspected after blast firing.
After the hearing of the other evidence the
inquest was adjourned until 10 o'clock this
morning.