The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1886-01-30

ally dtttpttu t1tpff. Which AZ tHdt
of the company's representatives, is
that McWilliams. who was cutting
ditch at the extreme end of the
/ working to let the water off. knocked
down door to give him better
chance at the work. The door play
ed an important part in the system
of ventilation which was thus de-
ranged The foul gas-collccted in
! great volume and was fired BY a
miners lamp.
One of the last men to come cut
OF the mine before the explosion says
he heard McWilliams say he was
going to knock the door down, and
as he game out he heard heavy
pounding as though the door was
being battered down. The State
Inspector of Mines in his recent
visit here recommended the company
to put in an air shaft, but this had
not been done yet. There is much
talk of an indefinite kind about foul
air in the mine, but have not found
a miner who does not say the air
was good, though / have not been
able to talk with all Mackall d
Co.'S manager, who came out from
Baltimore to day, SAYS they have
never had trouble with the air, and
have always kept ahead of water
One fear has been that the entombed
men would be drowned, but fortu-
nately the pumps have not been
stopped since the explosion.
LATEsT-EIGHrEEN BODIES RECOVERED
NEwBURG, w. Va. January %
Funeral services were held to-day at
the NJ. f. church by the pastor, Rev.
b. b. Evans, over the remains of
Adolph Vein, John Lambert and
John Edwards and at the NJ. 2.
church by the pastor, Rev. J. p. Var
ner, over the remains of Charles
TURNKEY. Both churches were filled,
but the crowd in town was so large
that one could not miss the people
off the street. The remains of John
Conway was sent to Fairmont at
1910 A. NJ, and the Birtley family,
consisting of Richard Birtley Nicho-
las Birtley, Harry Guy, Joseph Guy
and Thomas Guy and f. John Byers
were taken there at 5 O'Clock this
evening. They will be inferred to-
morrow
Early this morning the remains of
four more men, John Hernly, Joseph
johnson, Harry Gray and John BY
ers were taken from the shaft and
viewed by the jury. Two other men
were found, but they are both at the
foot of the shaft, and the men who
came up say they are so disfigured
as to be unacceptable. In the To-
cality where they were found the
timbers supporting the roof were
charred to the depth of an inch.
The State Mine Inspector says the
explosion was the result of negli-
gence of the superintendent in refus-
ing to put in ventilating fans when
ordered to do so. Eighteen bodies
in all have been found up to this
evening.
DANGER IN THE PIT
There is still enough gas in the
pit to play havoc. The men must keep
pushing back the gas so that the
pure air may go ahead of them and
gradually force out the foul. AS
they go along they clear away the
wreck and put in new brattises, fill
ing up the interstices with mortar
of wet clay and straw so that the
deadly fluid may not make its way
through. Friends of the dead think
the work slow, but without great
care there would be another death
roll to call
SHIPPING CLERKS STORY.
Mr.. James Wilson, shipping clerk,
was standing fifty feet east of the
shaft when the explosion came. He
says: Il heard thud which as
accompanied with a dense mass of
fog and mud. Before / had time to
realize the situation, in half min
ute the second shock came, a terrific
burst of gas ripping off weather
boarding and demolishing the upper
pau U vi ouc Sudit, JuuS covering much
of it, but it had caught thirty nine
poor fellows down there. and |
think their doom is sealed. The engin-
eer blew his whistle. The shock fol
lowing the first noise was all the no
tice the town needed. The people
knew there was something wrong at
the mines, and those whose husbands,
fathers and brothers were down there
knew that, too. There was rush |
to the works. The women came
flocking and then began the pitiful
scenes which you have seen here. 1t
was a terrible sight. There was
hope, then, and we at once began
putting water down the shaft to
scatter the after damp and create "a
draught. Men tried their best to
get down in the bucket, but they on
ly got part of the way, for their
lamps went out"
Omen hands aS wall a G oman haarfc