The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1888-11-15
A MINE DISASTER.
The Town of Pittsbusg ThrOwa IatO
Excitement by an Explosion.
One Hundred Miners Imprisoned IL q
Coal SHAFT.
Rochester. New York. the Scene Of q
Disastrous ConH4gratlOn.
Arsenic in Whisky Bottle the Cause
OF Three Deaths.

KANSAS CITY, NOV. "a special to
the Journal from Pittsburgh, Kansas,
says: 1.-THE most dreadful disaster in
the history of Kansas occurred at 5
O'Clock this evening; when the men
were preparing to leave of their work
at shaft No. 2 at Frontenac, 3 suburb
OF Plttsburg, terrible explosion was
heard that shook the earth for great
distance and completely shattered the
shaft. Upon investigation it was
found that 16G men were within
explosion being liz feet below the sur
face. 1t is almost certain that all are
dead at this writing, the only excep-
tiOns are two men who were in car
coming up and being near the top of
the shaft managed to escape.
Pittsburg is in the centre Of the coal
mines of southeastern Kansas and
about 100 miles south of Kansas City
on the Ft. Scott and Gulf railroad.
FURTHER PARTICULARS.
ST. LOUIS, Missouri, November g.
the Republic gives the following ac-
count Of the coal mine explosion there
this evening:
"A terrific explosion that broke win.
dows in this little village and spread
CONSERVATION among its inhabitants
occurred tonight. The violence OF the
shock was so great as to hurl dishes
from shelves and demolished chin
neyS. Half an hour after the explo
sion the villagers who were preparing
| to go to the mines were startled by 6
ragged, bleeding man who almost stag
| gered into the arms of the SearcherS
| He said that no shaft, at FroDtenac
a mining suburb of this village who
destroyed by an explosion, and that al
| the men in the mine at the time, ex
cept himself and Dane whom he LEFT
bleeding at the mouth of the pit, wer'
undoubtedly dead. Horses were
| quickly harnessed and hitched Il
| wagons and in a few minutes the vii
snow and sleet storm which was rag
ing.
At the mouth of the mine the ire
mendous force of the explosion wa
apparent. There were huge seams il
the earth and the timbers of the hoist
ing apparatus were shivered and burn
ed. Foul gases were escaping. Tb
Dane who had escaped witt
the men who alarmed the villagers la
in the mud with his face covered wit
blood. For long time it was though
ness in few hours and is now at hi
home. He cannot speak and does no
know what caused the explosion. Hi
clothes were in ribbons. Tn
man who reached this virag
with the first tidings of tn
disaster and who accompanie
the reScurers back to the mine sal
the men were about to quit the worl
for the day when the explosion occur
red. Together with the Dane, he ha
ridden in the car to the top of tn
ch ruhoTH fhn nn1fh aonn00d m a
beneath him and the mex
he realized was the splash
ing of the snow an,
water upon his face as he lay wit
his comrade in the wreckage about tn
mige. There were 160 men in tn
mine at the time of the explosion, ant
as they were at work 112 feet below tn
surface, it is believed that not on
surN ived the shock, as the explosion
must have destroyed everything in tn
pit.
Big fires were built near the mout
of the pit and beside these blazin
piles the women of the entombe
miners placed their children while the
themselves tried by ali kinds of eL
treaties to induce the miners from tn
other shafts to enter the pit and res
cue their relatives. One reScuin
party started down the shaft at
O'Clock but was forced t
turn back owing to the foT
air. Another attempt was made at
O'Clock, but the plucky rescuers agai
: were forced to a andon their worh
They could hear no sound from tn
, chambers below and this leads oil
miners to believe that all the men
the shaft have persisted. Other al
tempts will be made to reach the 81
tombed men before morning. Thos
: who started down the shat
early in the evening say that the shoe
has destroyed whole drifts, and that
is possible that the men in the lowe
levels are buried beneath tons {
slate. Black damp is supposed to hav
caused the explosion. Most of tn
miners at these shafts came original
from Illinois and Pennsylvania.