St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-12-20
The Philippine Islands Visited by a Terri.
bic Storm, Which Blows Down
Thousands of Houses.
Eighteen Persons Lose Their Lives--0nly .
Portion Of the Districts Report
Their Casualties.
Mine Sends Four Hundred Men
to Eternity.
No New Light on the Nantfcoke, Pa.
Dtsaster--Twenty-F Miners
Still Missing.
A Typhoon,s Dreadful Work.


SAN FRANCISCO. CAL, Dec. 19,-Ad-
vices received by the steamer Oceanic.
which arrived to-day, say: A typhoon in
the Philippine islands Nov, destroyed
over 4.400 houses, including thirteen
churches and ten converts. Eighteen lives
were lost and 500 cattle destroyed. This
report only comprises the destruction in
nineteen of the thirtyfour districts of the
Islands. The remaining fifteen have not
yet been heard from.
All Probably Suffocated.
WnKEsBARRE, Pa, Dec 19.-Supt.
Morgan finds that there are sxty-seven feet
of quicksand culm and earth to be dug away
before the miners entombed in Slope No.
by the water which rushed into it yesterday
can be reached. This is wedged in between
mine timbers, which has sprung inward and
crossed, presenting an almost insurmount-
able barrier. The shifts are now changed
every two hours, but the culm and quick
sand, by their very nature, fill in the place
of that which was taken out before. An
expert says it will require five or six days to
dig through. This ends all hope of the
twenty-nine men imprisoned, who it is be-
lieved, died within the first twelve hours
from suffOcation. Sixteen English, Irish
and Welsh, and thirteen POlanders and
Hungarians are now known to be entOmped
in the chamber of death. A party consist
ing of sixty miners connected with the res
cuing force came out of the slope at 3:15 p.
m. and report that all are hard at work.
They have sent calls in every direction and
in every manner possible, but are unable to
elicit any response from the entombed men
as to their being still alive. 1t rests wholly
upon conjecture. Old and reliable miners,
who understand the situation, are of the
opinion that the men are surely dead.
CAUSED BY THE ROOF GAZING IN.
1t has now been definitely decided that
the disaster at Slope No. of the Susque-
hanna Railway company at Nanticoke was
caused by the caving of the roof and the
rushing in of large body of water, which
accumulated on the surface from natural
drainage. The water brought with it a
vast quantity of coal and dirt, which blocked
the gangways and passages and cut of
the escape of number of men in the upper
lift The caving In was started by blast
| fired by Olive Kivlers, one of the men now
in the mine. The exact number of men
imprisoned in the mine cannot even now be
told. but at p. m. it was believed on what
seemed good grounds that twentY-nine per-
sons were in the mine. Of these eighteen
are Welsh, Irish or American and the rest
Polish or Hungarian laborers. Whether
they are alive or dead cannot be told. If
they have been enabled to obtain fresh air
they are undoubtedly still alive and there is
good hope of rescuing them. Many exper-
| fenced miners believe, however, that in
| their position they cannot get any fresh
supply of air, and that, having exhausted
what little was in the workings, they must
h. Th,
measures for the relief of those still in the
mine were begun as soon as the other men
were brought to the surface. At first little
could be done, for the water was five feet
deep and it was
IMPOSSIBLE TO COMMENCE
digging away the sand and culm which
blocked up the gangways. Last evening.
however, the water subsidized, having all run
off to the lower leves of the mine. and ef-
fective work was commenced in earnest,
with two gangs Of men set to work exca-
waiting from points toward where it is be-
lieved the NEIL are. One party, sixty strong,
commenced work from the front Of the
air shaft. This is the nearest point to the
place where the men are, but great difficult
ties are encountered. There is no hosting
apparatus at the air shaft The men and
tools are sent down by derrick. The
workers are obliged to throw behind them
the material they excavate. and this him
ders them. The gangway being blocked
up at one end they could get no circulation
of air until tubes were brought and ali
forced through them from compressor used
for rock drills to the place where the men
were at work. The rescuers are working
with the greatest possible energy tonight.
The thought that their comrades are perish
ing on the other side of the mass of rock,
sand and dirt, nerves every man with q
grand strength. The gangs are relieved
every few hours, and sixty men have been
CONSTANTLY AT WORK
since last evening. At o'clock this even
ing it was believed that they had penetrated
to within fifty or sixty feet of where the
imprisoned men are. Another party is
working from the direction of the slope
towards the same point. They have fur
ther to 20, but they have better facilities.
The air is pure, and they have powerful
hosting engines to carry out the excavated
| material. Whether the men can be reached
| in time to save any lives cannot be definitely
told There is little ground for hope, but
the efforts will not be abandoned until the
fate of the imprisoned men is determined.
The people of Manticoke are in the great
est excitement, and nothing is thought or
| talked of but the disaster. Business is par
TALLY suspended, and the collery is sur
rounded by hundreds of persons, among
! whom are many relatives of the imprisoned
men, eager to learn how the work goes on
below, and to gain hope that their
| friends may be rescued. The officers of
| the company state this evening that there
are twenty-four men in the fatal slope, not
twenty-nine, as generally understood.
| They state further that the disaster was
precipitated by collapse of the passage
way of the tunnel to the extent of five feet,
causing depression, which brought down
into the tunnel twenty-foot vein of lake
quicksand. The vacuum created by this
break created an arch, and through
heavy fissure in the roof mass of culn,
estimated at 5000 tons, with the contents
of a pond of water overhead, containing
| over 90, 600, 600 gallons, poured in, flooding
both No. 1 and No. 2 slopes and choking
up the tunnel, and carrying with it fifty
two miners who were at work there. OF
these men, twenty-four were in all prob
ability caught before they could gain the
chambers that pitched upwards, and they
are supposed to be in this quicksand and
culm.
A siberian Mine Horror.
ST. PETERSBURG, Dec. 19.-Dispatches
Just received here state that terrible dyn-