The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1884-03-20
The P0cah0ntas Mine.
SEALED UP OVER $50 BODIES
OF DEAD MINERS.
NCT THE SLIGHTEST HOPE THAT
ANY WILL ESCAPE.

Central, Va. March l4.-Ihe
news of the frightful explosion at
Pocahontas coal mines spread rap
throug hout the surrounding section,
and to day crowds have been flood
ing the scene of tho disaster. The
arrival ofevery train increased the
number, and = constant stream Of
humanity indicates the direction of
tho mine from the village. The
special train which left Central at
8 O'Clock last night, with the Mid
lothian eliefparty and newspaper
correspondents. ran into a slide
twenty-three miles east of Pocah-
ontas, and tho party were belated
five hours. Tho track is still block
AIDED, making a transfer around the
wreck necessary.
A visit to the mines this morning
presents to the gaze g spectacle
that battles all attempts at descrip-
ton. From the mountain peaks to
the mountain base were evidences
of the frightful havoc wrought by
tho explosion. The hillsides in
every direction were strewn with
debris and blaekened with coal dust
blown with terrific force from the
entrance of the mines. Tho scene
of destruction, annihilation, and
desolatlon is appalling TO the last
degree, and when attention is attract
to the black and smoking entrances
to the mines, and one reflects upon
the horrible fate of the 154 human
beings whose charred and mangled
remains are bur led md smouldering
in the charnel house, one need not
be astonished if the stoutest hearts
quail, and people shrink from near.
er approach from the awful scene.
The very, trees on the mountain
sides, that have wlthstood the storms
of ages were shriven, to n, and bias
ted, and their branches scattered in
every conceivable direction. Por-
tions of the wreck were blown clear
over the moun1aia ridge, fronting
the approaches to the ruins, and
were picked up more than a half
mile distant. Even the coal dust |
was blown over the mountain, and |
covers the earth on the Opposite
side to a depth of half an inch, and
a blackened and rent overcoat ola
dead miner was picked up in a gulch
nearly half mile away. All the
laborers shansies in the vicinity
were more or less wrecked. and those
in line of the mine approaches were
completely demolished. So terrific
was the force of the explosion that
windows in the house of a f,rmer
TWO miles off we're shivered. A few
minutes before the explosion train
IF cars had been backed into one of
The entrances to the mine. and the
locomotive had moved some distance
lown the track. MANY of the cars
we're hurled down the track. and
,thers were wrecked and the debris
brown a great distance up on the
sides The heavy axles
we're wrung and twisted into all
orts of shapes and the wheels wero
tracked and broken. The gulches
n front of the mines were filled
With the wreckage.
The Pochahontas minee embraced an
Irea OF twenty-five miles-that is to say, a
person traversing all of the hambers and
yallaries of the mines would have covered
hat distance. There are five entrances,
very one Of which seemed as though a
,ent fury was within. The entrances are
Illed with foul air, which renders recovery
# the dead bodies impossible. Every at
empt which has been made to enter the
mines has been attended with q bad re-
ult, and in several instances the men
arely escaped dying from the overpower-
ng gas. Tho physicians were kept busy 1
minestering to such cases.
The farthest entry effected was by Hum
arian whose son was buried in the mines.
'early crazed by grief he could not be re-
and pen etrated to a considerable
istance, but eventually was forced to re-
ire. He reported seeing number of bod !
IS in one chamber; torn and mangled be-
ond any semblance of recognition. Ono II.
7as that of a youth Of the age of thirteen.
rho was employed rs door boy, and who
,as the pet Of the mining camp. This lit I
10 fellow had just entered tho mine when
re explosion occurred. r
Colonel Geo. Dodds, of the Midlothian I
lines, and other experienced mining en- ,
ineeis visited the mines this morning,
nd M de an examination. Itwas decided
nsafe to attempt to use fan, and orders q
ere Immediately issued 10 havethe mines E
osed and sealed, as the only means of ,
the fires, which are burning; !;
is the fine coal ut the bottom of the
iii os which is on fire. The entrances will /
Q tightly sealed 30 as to smother the fire. 2
q one of the entrances tube will be In r
.rted to permit the escape fgas. e
1t is impossib leto get from the officials
the mining company the amount ofthe
amage, but it must be enormous. The
lines will remain sealed for at least two
eeks, and perhaps longer, and when
pened there must be extensive repairs I
. -o.,,v, t;op ate1v