The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1888-04-05
Rich Hill, Missouri, the Scene of a
Dire Explosion.
Five Men Taken Out Dead and Fif-
teen Wounded.
As Many More EntOmbed Within the
Grim Ruins.
The Catastrophe Shrouded in Com.
The Catastrophe Shrouded in Com
pIste Mystery.

of men are entombed and thousands OF
dollars worth of property are destroyed.
Just at the dinner hour. when the men
were ascending Ola the cage, terrible
gas explosion occurred, filling every
entry with flame of fire which shot
out of the shaft distance of thou
sand feet, 1t cannot be aseertained
just how many men are yet in the mine,
but at IL o'clock last night one man
had been taken out dead. The work
of removing the debris and cleaning
the shaft had been going on all the
afternoon, but it will be several hours
before much can be done towards en-
tering the mine proper. A Kansas
City Journal reporter called at the resi-
dence of the superintendent at IL
O'Clock and found him propped in
chair with his face and hands band
aged and scarcely able to talk, but he
made the following statement:
AT Just seven minutes after noon l
was telephoned that an explosion had
occurred at No. 6, which is four miles
as possible and found the south cage on
which the men always assembled stuck
in the shaft about half way from the
bottom with eight men in it. I went
down in a tub secured with ropes and
found them all badly burned and in a
frenzy. In fact they were crazy; some
shouting and others singing. l found
it impossible to have this cage hOisted,
as the timbers were all blown out of
position. We finally managed to be
hoisted by means of ropes and
was there ascertained that the north
cage could be worked by clearing
some timbers which had been driven
through from the south shaft. This
was done by saving them short off. l
then called for volunteers to go down
with me to see if any of the poor fell
lows at the bottom could be got out.
Robert Bick, George Henry, Charles
Smallwood and Mat Dulehand respond
ed. When we reached the bottom
looked through into the entry and saw
and a voice responded, Gray"
and 1 told him to put out
his light, then asked him to crawl to
me, but he was so exhausted that he
could not do so, and i reached through
the small aperture and dropped him
on to the cage. Just as this was done
the 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 Seethlng
flame of fire which came with a deaf
for length of time, which seemed like
an age, and shot out the mouth of the
shaft TAO feet above our heads, and we
were all horribly burned and thought
our time had come and we
had to abandon the attempt to
save the others. I yelled to the men
on top to hoist away, but it was some
time before they got the signal or I'M
derstoOd my meaning. The moments
thus spent were a living death. l
l thought they could not hear me and
concluded we would have to crawl
through into the south shaft, and un-
dertake to climb out that way. l was
just in the act of doing so when 1 felt
the cage move and we assembled about
thirty feet when the cage be-
gan descending. 1 thought that
the machinery had broken and
we were falling. The wall that went
up from those men was heartrendinp
and / shall never forget it. All al
den stop and again began responding
to the pressure of rope and pulley, and
we were soon at the top.
1t is probable that all who were in
the mine at the time of the first eXplo
sion are dead.
The bravery of Superintendent
| Sweeney almost cost him his life and il
applauded by everybody. About eighty
i've miners are employed in this mine
and the probabilities are that the ma
| jority of them were out, but this can
not be told as yet. They are mostly
negroes who came from Springfield
| Illinois, when the mine was opened
less than year ago.
Thus far five have been taken on
dead and fifteen alive. Most of tn;
latter have suffered intensely from thu
fire and suffocatiOn and their recover.
is very doubtful.
The dead are, Chas. Smith, Georg
May, 9. Mcpherson, Frank Toller Jor
dan Smith.
The injured are, Joshua Strickle, c
j. Neptune. William Taylor, G. w
Young, r. Mason, Frank Jackson, w
Richards, J. L. Williams, r. Fernando
John Roberts. G. w. Roberts, Archi
Marshall, John Lucas, D. G. Jones
Frank Carr.
The foreman of the mine was in a
the time of the explosion but was no
injured. Fifteen now remain in tn
mine. being in the west end and it
believed that most Of them viii b
taken out dead. The work proceed
very slowly, being attended with grea
~ IL
Keith 81 Perry company, arrived at tn
mine at O'Clock this morning. Tn
state inspector of mines went throug
the mine two weeks ago and made
report, pronouncing it in a splendi
condition. He published card to ths
effect. Apparently there was no gas /
the mines at that tim'
1t may be that the minel
, struck vein of gas, but as to that W
, cannot say until we get into the min
The mine was well ventilated an
nothing was lacking in any particuls
, to make everything safe and perfec
!, David Mackey, general manager fl
Keith s. Perry, said that it was poss
, bic that the explosion had bee
! ! due to an over charge of pow
der. There were $50 pounds
powder in the mine, and this prebab
all became ignited. He said he hs
given the mine thorough inspection
month ago and there was not two p
: cent of gas: Everything that had be-
asked of the management in runnil
the mine and rendering the equipme
perfect had always been granite
> Mine No. =. in which the explosion c
!. Cured, was new mine and had q
: vet been fully developed. The shaft "
sunk last summer and the mining
coal began September 1st. 1t has be
!. a very productive mine, having yield
500 tons of coal per day. The value
the mine is estimated at So, GOO. 1t b
employed an average of about lis N
and is located one quarter of m
from the company's next nearest mil
II For the last two months the mine
le been operated at its full capacity wi
5. the same number of men and with
same ventilation as at the time {
explosion occurred, and there have be
no casualties. Mr.. Mackey says IL
" although he did not find more than t
n per cent of gas in the mine when he
rs spected it and it existed principally
i'd smoke. yet there was sufficient to car
T. an explosion under certain O
ditions. In case of a large amount
powder being charged at the same ii
st the gas might have been ignited, Il
Il causing terrific explosion.
D. LATER.
u KANSAS CITY, March 30.-I
Is Times reporter sent by a special TT
U, Tn Rich Hill returned fn-Diyht 3