St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-30
DEATH IN AC0AL Mine
A Missouri Mining Town the
Scene Of a Terrible Dis
aSter.
An Explosion Of Gas Places
the Lives Of Several Men
in Danger.
One Man Taken Out Dead and
Several Unaccounted
For.
Thrilling Adventures of the
Rescuing Party--Othep
Casualties.

RICH HILL, Mo-, March 29.-The most
horrible mine disaster that has ever Oc-
| CURED in the West happened at noon
to-day in Keith e Perry's No. mine,
and, as result, large number of men
are entombed and thousands of dollars
worth of property destroyed. Just at
the dinner hour, when the men were
ascending, eight at time, on the cage,
a terrible gas explosion occurred, filling
every entry with flame of fire,
which shot out of the shaft
distance of ten hundred and
forty feet. 1t cannot be ascertained to-
night just how many men are yet in the
mine, but at II o'clock one man had
been taken out dead. The work of re-
moving the debris and cleaning the
shaft has been going on all the after
noon, but it will be several hours before
much can be done toward entering the
mine proper. A reporter called at the
residence of the superintendent at IL
O'Clock and found him propped up in a
chair with his feet and hands bandaged
and scarcely able to talk, but lie made
the
FOLLOWING STATEMENT:
Sat just seven minutes after noon I
telephoned that an explosion had oc-
CURED at No. 6, which is four miles
northwest of town. | went out as soon
as possible and found the south cage, on
which the men always ascend, stuck in
the shaft about half way to the bottom,
with eight men on it. | went down on
tub lowered with ropes and found
them all badly burned and in frenzy,
in fact they were crazy, some
shouting and others singing. / found
1t impossible to have this cage hoisted,
as the timberS were all blown out of pO-
sitiOn. We finally managed to be-
hoisted by means OF ropes and pullies,
in faintlng condition, and it was then
ascertained that the north cage could DO
worked by clearing some timbers which
had been driven through from the south
shaft. This was done by saving them
short off. | then
CALLED FOR VOLUNTEERS
to go down with me to see if any of the
poor fellows at the bottom could be got
out. Robert Brick, George Henry,
Charles SmallwOod and Mat Dulehand
responded. When we reached the bot
tom looked through into the entry and
saw light, and | asked who was there
and voice responded Gray" and I
told him to put out his light. 1
then asked him to crawl TO me.
but he was so exhausted that
he could not do so, and | reached
through the small aperture and dragged
him on to the cage. just as this was
done wind rushed with the velocity OF
a cyclone up the entry, putting out all
our lights but one. This was followed
by two loud reports and a seething flame
fNf fira oh
roar, completely envelOping us for
length of time, which seemed like an
age, and shot out of the mouth of the
snaft 24O feet above our heads, and we
were all horribly burned, and thought
OUR TINE HAD COME.
The flames receded as suddenly as they
had come, and we had to abandon the
attempt to save the others. | yelled to
the men on the top to hoist away, but il
was some time before they got the sig
nal or understood my meaning. The
moments thus spent were a living
death. | thought they could not hear
me, and concluded we would have to
crawl through the south shaft and un-
dertake to climb out that way. was
just in the act of doing so when felt the
cage move, and we assembled about thirty
feet when the cage began descending.
/ thought the machinery broken and
that we were falling to an awful and
certain death. The wall that went up
from those men was heartrending and
shall never forgetit. The knowledge that
at the top were their wives extending
their arms ready to clasp and
shield them from further danger
was maddening enough to destroy
reason. All at once, however,
the cage came to sudden stop, and
again began responding 20 the pressure
of the ropes and pulleys, and we were
soon at the top"
About eighty-fve miners were en-
plOyed in the mine, and the probabilities
are that the majority of them were out,
but this cannot be told tonight. They
are mostly negroes who came from
Springfield, ILL.,, when the mine was
opened less than year ago.
Among those believed to be still in
the mine are a son of William
Kay, sixteen years old; l.. K.
Dixon, Gibson McFerran, Job Neptune,
Cal Neptune, John Henry and others
whose names cannot at present be as
certained.