The bee., 1884-02-02
A COAL Mine HORROR.
Terrible Explosion of Fire Damp
In a Col3rA9o Mine.
Fnty-Seyen Miners Eatombei Alive--.
Scenes Of Agony.

The explosion o. flre-damD in coal mine
at Crested Butte, Col, wa olo of the most
terrible dj teT5 Of thai cha Ter that ever
took pace in this country. At th9 time of
thcP explosion sixty uno men were in the mine,
and only four OF them succ edei in making
their escape, one Of these four with serious
in. .uries. The other fifty-sovcl unfortunate
miners, who were nearly ali of foreign birth,
were literally buried alive. the mouth of the
m le having caved in, an9 Icing covered
with debris. The shock was so great to the
people of the village that it was fully half al
hour before they awohe tD the realization
that something must be done, and at once.
Word was telegraI I,hcd TO GunDison City for
ad, and two special trains bearing physi-
cans and hundIel or mere mau were at
once dispatched to the sce1e Of the disaster.
In the meantime a h'Indrel lminers 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 enuonbed. but alter they had dug their
way into the chamber they found it unsafe
to enter. A rush of ho,rid cas and noisome
ar overcame them, and 4 number of them
had to be removed ID t. beg.ven stimulants
to revive them. The scene bergarS deScrip-
tion. Wives, mothers AMI sisters wapt and
prayed while the strong men were~endeavor-
ing to REQ en- the grave which contained their
loved ones. Little children c,ung to their
mothers skirts aud cried from terror. Men
tainted from the shock Of the horror.
When the wives of the buried miners be- gan
TO gather around tic opening of the drift
there was babel OF roiyglotlc misery. There
were but few Americans cnp!oJ ed by the conf
rany. Ihe miners were mos ly Germans,
5wedes, EaIes Co!nshnlea an Irishmel.
1he wives of these men mGa lCd a.d prayed
n l,p w
frantically at tht barrier which held her huS-
bands body from her and begal to tear at
the earth and rocks with her hands. another
became hyster.cll and laughed ami cried by
turns Brave men turned away their heads
to hide their emotion, curses mingled
with the prayers, AMI tGo scene was Is wild
one Of human misery a could be conc eived.
When tie special tain arrived from Gunni-
son the crowd rushed to the It'll station to
meet it as if deliverauCe was at hand.
Women threw their arms about the neckS of
the men and begged them t. save their Eus-
bGndS. The pogr creatures were mad with
lrief and fright. The relief party corSoied
them as best il coull and promis d to DO all
that mortal could do to save the buried
miners, but they did not deiuda Themselves
with any such hope, They knew that the
men who were in the mi when the eXplC-
sio occurred would never lie ta%en out alive.
Seventeen hours after the accident occurred
the first body was recovered. Soon after the
miners at work came across ma IS of burned
mules and dead miners lying in q horrible
leap A little further on the bodies of fif-
teen more men were found They had evil
dent'y triel to escape to tie furnace room,
Thirty or forty feet distant. Some of
The men ha their handkech tied over
their mouths and others had wrapped UP
their heads in their clothes. The bodies OF
little TummY 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 del OF suffocation Alto
geiher fortytwo bodies were recovered in
that section OF the mine, and the rest were
found in other places