St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-03-09
An Awful Explosion in q Pennsylvania
Mine Attended With the Usual
Results.
Two Men Killed, -Four Fatally Injured ard
Eight Seriously Hurt, Down in
the Depths.
a Failing Tree Causes the Death Of
Two Men and the Serious
Injury of a Third.
overcome by the Cold, Man Freezes
TO Death in the Open street
In Chicago.
Death i'm n Mine.

CoNNELLsVILLE, Pa, March s.-ShorfJ7 s.
after noon to-day a series of exnIosiorrs
took place in the UniondaIe mine or nm
& oal, !our miles from here, by which two
men were killed and twelve others racei,'.I
injuries which will prove fatal in AT IeaSt
1our cases. The cause of the eynIosions
was .hre-damp. There were tWentv-thraa
men III the pit. The first explosion oc-
CURED ABOUT 1880 this afternoon. 1t was
terrlhc shock and was followed nv two
UtheIs ln quick succession a few minutes
later. The first explosion caused the deatb
Oh the TWO men and injured three The
rest ran towards the mouth of the nit bnt
OeIOre they reached it the other evnioSionS
occurred. Ihe lights We're blown ont and
Tue uuSt blinded the men. The passage
ways were blocked up and cut off all es-
cape. Ihe Dit was on fire.
A HORRIBLE DEATH
awalled the imprisoned miners. Nine of
@ eleln VINO had been working in another
ey endy managed TO make their way out be-
fore the mouth of the Dit was cbnI,ed M
The force OF the shock can he imaginod -. -
IL caused the men In Merrell. Calvin and
Wneelers, the adjoining mines. to dron
ther Tools and rush panic stricken TN the
Top. Inc ground rolled and ouaked so
tndI ulahy Tell down and three or four in
tne MorTeH mine were violently thrown
AGAINST the walls and serlousIv inirrad
Everybody rushed toward the TTniondaIa
mlne' Columbus Shay of the MahoninS
WorKs ana James Henderson of tine Calvin
mint @ neaaed a reScuing party and went to
worK with picks and shovels to force AN
euIahcS' IN a few moments an opening
"as Lndue ana several rushed forward to
i' onteI tne mines but were repelled by
1ama II
Tor the smoke and fire to clear awav Tbe
The cries of pain and the means of the in
Jured Were pitiable. They were living in
sVery direction buried under masses of
@SeOris; @ Several of them were horribly
2urhed. Their sutferings were terrible.
i,v. WE'VE OF them were found in a diving con-
uitlon. Two others were dead. manpled
ailnoSt INTO an unrecogniZable mass.
LIST OF THE VICTIMS.
Inc Killed are: John Williams. track
Ilal, aged 40 years, wife and four children.
Iosspn cope, miner, aged so wears. wife
anu nine chlldred. Injured: Jacob Cone
aged 10 years, burned internally and exter.
nally, cannot live; Cal Morton. 10 wears
ourneo ABOUT the bead and internally, can
noI Hvei William Sterling, colored. burned
Snu internally injured, will probably die:
onlaAey Morton, leg broken; William Shaw.
a 9Sou ~ years, dangerously burned: Isaac
p pley' Teter Blunt, Hiram Higbie, William
r,oss' honas Bowen, pitt boss. Mall Han
nan. Peter Kearns, all these were nnoro or
less injured and several of them viii ha
manned for life. 1t was the first dav Cone
anu anu ms son had worked in the mine.
Mihe " inspector J. j. Davis and Charles
OOilner' member of the board of mine ex-
amlners, left for the mine this evapino, 70
inquire into the 'oiii"S "
CAUSE OF THE EXPLOSION.
NOtnlng Will be disturbed inside the mine
untlI tne coroner lmpanels a jury in the
nioi lllng' henee 1t is impossible TO estimate
the extent OF the damage to the mine Mr.
James NJ. Reed. one of the owners of ths
mine, attributes the explosion to fire damn
Wh!ch came from the Morrell mine belong
ing 10 10 the Cambria Iron company.
49, "e ~ ~ ~Lesson why we never employed fire
ooss, SAID he, was because his services
would nave been unnecessary. as o,1r r1ina
never genetated gas, although it has been
WORKED Tor several years Our men were
MorAIng to-day in the lower portion of the
thni5 near the Morrell. suppose that one of
i .ueul STUCK MS pick through a wall of one of
the abandoned chambers in the Morreu ,,ina
which was - -N-A0'
FILLED WITH GAS
II found an outlet into our pit and ignited
from miners lamp. The second exnIoSion
a,,S aS caused oy young Cope who, in his agony
auu suHerlng, did not forget his father He
II match to look for him and the gas again
gnlted aud exploded. 1 cannot account for
ne shocks which followed
1t Is the opinion here that if a fire boss
mad been employed the explosion might not
nave occurred. Experts say that gas will
generate in mines just when it is Ieast ex-
pected. The last disaster of this kind in
thls region occurred at the Youngstown
mine III october, 1854, when fourteen peo-
PIE were Killed In February of the same
year nineteen men were killed bv a fire
damp explosion in the Lesininge mine near
here.