Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1888-04-13
A MINE HORROR.
An Explosion Causes a Fright
full Disaster I'm Missouri.
A Large Number of Miners En-
tombed Alive.

ever occurred in the West happened at noon
Thursday in Keith & Perry's No. 6mine, near
Rich Hill, Mo-, and as a result large num-
Der OF men were entombed and thousands of
dollars worth of property has been destroyed.
A dispatch says:
Just at dinner hour, when the men were
ascending eight at a time in the cage,
a rumbling noise was heard, and a
moment later there was a fearful
explosion that entirely wrecked the
mine and bur ed in the debris over one hun
dred miners, who were cut off from all means
OF escape. Forty dead bodies have already
b EN- removed from the shaft, while fifteen
others remain unaccOunted for. 1t was i'm
possible IN the midst of the terrible excite
ment, to obtain complete list of names of
the unfOrtunateS. The little village was
completely paralyzed by the horror, and men
ana women were wandering about the streets
crying for the return of those known to be
IN the bottom of the pit
The Superintendent of the mine was badly
injured, but alive when taken from the shaft
HIS face was horribly disfgured by the expIo-
sion, ana the flesh of his arms was torn in
shreds. The explosion occurred when the
tuli force OF one hundred men were at work
IN the mine
Not one of the survivors has been able to
give any coherent story bout the shock. The
earth seemed to snap, AMI the next instant all
was darkness
Although the mine is six miles from town
every one seemed to divine its cause for
the next moment saw the muddy streets
leading to the shaft filled with bare
s 9aaaea Women tbe and nd children who
as were witnessed at the mouth of the shaft
have no parallel in the Missouri coal fields A
thousand people, for the most part women
and children in tattered clothes were at the
PIT hlllng the night air with their lamenta-
tions.
The work of recovering the bodies was
prosecuted with frantic haste but the task
was so great as to be almost agonizinp The
bodies already removed from the pit show
Ghe terrific force of the explosion. Coal
dusG mas been blown into the flesh of the
dead until their bodies were abso-
tuCeIy black Some of the bodies are
frightfullY mutilated. Arms, legs and eyes
have, IN some instances been blown out of
their sockets, while others of the unfortunates
nave been SO cruelty disfgured to be UNI
recognizable.
The dead were strewn through the cor
rldOrS or the mine, and it is feared that all of
them Will never be recovered, as gas was
filling the pit and choking the survivors
There was series of explosions. The
first, which shook the country for miles
around, was followed few minutes later by
another shock of even greater violence than
the mouth of the shaft, and in a few
moments sheet of fire nearly 100
teeG IN height was streaming SkYward.
AT . o'clock at night there was another
the mouth of the shaft, illuminating the
country Tor miles around, and burning
within 200 feet of the powder magazine
where nearly ton of explosives are stored
Over eighty lives have been lost. and the bodies
recovered from the seething furnace do not
exceed fifteen. When It was seen that
IhQ Q imprisoned in the pit could
was flooded, but the water did not extinguish
the fire, which continued to burn fiercey.
The grlef-stricken people at the mine we're
helpless to render aid but they refused TO re-
turn TO their homes.
A reporter called at the residence of Super
intendent Sweeney, who headed the rescuing
party, and found him propped up in chair,
with his face and hand banGaged and scarcely
able to talk, but he made the following state
ment: Il was telephoned that an explosion
hau occurred at No. ., and l went
soon as possible and found the south
cage, on which the men always ascend,
stuck In the shaft about halfway from the
bottom with eight men on it. | went down
IN tub lowered with ropes and found them
all badly burned and in a frenzy-in fact,
they were crazy, some shouting and others
singing. | found it impossible to have this
cage hOisted as the timbers were all blown out
of position. We finally managed to be
hOSted by means of ropes and pulleys, in a
talntlng condition. l then called for vOlun-
teers 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 Small
wood and Mat Dulehand responded.
when we reached the bottom 1 looked
through into the entry and saw a light, and
L asked who was there and a voice re
SpOnded Gray" and | told him to put out
his light. l 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 the cage. Just
as this was done a 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 rush of flame, which came
with a deafening roar completely envelOping
us for a length of time which seemed
like an age, and shot out the mouth of
the shaft 2I0 feet above Onr heads. We
were all horribly burned and thought our
time had come. The flames receded as sud-
denly as they had come. and we had to aban-
don the attempt to save the others. yelled
to the men the top to hoist away,
but it some time before they got
the signal or understood my meaning. The
moments thus spent were a living death.
thought they could not hear me and con-
cluded we would have to crawl through into
the south shaft and undertake to climb
out that way. | was just in the act of do
ing so when l felt the cage move and we
assembled about thirty feet, when the cage be-
gan descending l thought the machinery
broken and that were falling to awful
and certain death.
The wall that went up from those men was
hearth ending, and | shall never forget it, The
knowledge that at the top were their wives
extending their arms ready to clasp and
shield them from further danger was mad
dening enough to destroy reason. All at
once, however, the cage came to a sudden
stop and again began responding to the pres