Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1884-01-31
A COAL NINE HORROR.
Terrible Explosion Of Fire Damp
in a Colorado Mine.
fHfy-sevea Miners Entombed AGye--
Scenes of Agony.

The explosion Of fre-damp In coal mine
at Crested Butte, Col, was one of the most
terrible disasters of that character that ever
took place in this country. At the time OF
the explosion sixty one men were in the mine,
and only four of them succeeded in making
their escape, one of these four with serious
injuries. The other fifty unfortunate
miners, who were nearly all Of foreign birth,
were literally buried alive. the mouth of the
mine having caved in, and being covered
with debris. The shock was 50 great to the
people Of the village that it was fully half an
hour before they awoke to the realization
thar something must be done, and at once.
Word was telegraphed to Gunnison City for
aid, and two special trains bearing physi-
clans and hundred or more men were at
once dispatched to the scene Of the disaster.
In the meantime hundred miners who are
employed in the anthracite mine left their
WORK and began making efforts to uncover
the opening Of the mine in which the miners
were enuombed, but after they had dug their
way into the chamber they found it unsafe
to enter. A rush of horrid gas and noisome
air overcame them, and a number Of them
had to be removed and to be given stimulA1ts
to revive them. The scene beggars descrip-
ton. Wives, mothers and sisters wept and
prayed while the strong men were endeavor-
ing to reopen the grave which contained their
loved ones. Little children clung to their
mothers skirts ahd cried from terror Men
tainted from the shock Of the horror
When the wives Of the buried miners began
to gather around the opening of the drift
there was babel Of polyglotlc misery. There
were but few Americans employed by the COM
pany. The miners were mostly Germans
Swedes, Danes, Cornishmen and Eishmen
Ihe wives of these men moaned and prayed
IN as many tongues. One woman rushed
trantically at the barrier which held her hus-
bands body from her and began to tear at
the earth and rocks with her hands Another
became hysterical and laughed and cried by
turns Brave men turned away their heads
to hide their emotion, curses mingled
with the prayers, and the scene was as wild
a one of human misery as could be conceived.
When the special train arrived from GuI1ni-
son the crowd rushed to The little station to
meet it as if deliverance was at hand
Women threw their arms about the necks Of
the men and begged them to save their hus-
bunds The poor creatures were mad with
grief and fright. The relief party consoled
them as best it could and promised to do all
that mortal could do to save the buried
miners but they did not delude themselves
men who were in the mine when the explo-
sio occurred would never be taken out alive
Seventeen hours after the accident occurred
the first body was recovered Soon after the
miners at work came across a mass of burned
mules and dead miners lving in a horrible
heap. A little further on the bodies Of if
teen more men were found They had e7i-
IDENTIFY tried to escape to the furnace room,
thirty or forty feet distant Some Of
the men hal their handkerchiefs tied over
their mouths and others had wrapped up
their heads in their clothes The bodies Of
little Tommy Lynch, Morgan and William
Meth, drivers and gang boys, were found
further in. They were not much disfgured
All the men who were found in that part Of
the mine evidently died of suffocation- Alto
gether forty-two bodies were recovered in
that section of the mine, and the rest were
found in other places