Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1888-11-14
Explosion in q Coal Mine in
Which 100 Men Were
at Work.
PROBABLY ALL PERISH.
A Shock That Was Like an
Earthquake in Its Effects
Generally.
CAUSED BY FIRE DAMP.

Two of the Miners Who Happened to be
Near the Top Blown Out TO the Sur
face-Badly Injured, but Alive-Scene
at the Mouth of the shaft-vain At
tempts to Rescue the Imprisoned
Miners.
KANSAS CRY, November 9.-The Jour
nails specialfrom Pittsburg, Kansas. says:
The most dreadful disaster in the history
OF Kansas occurred at 5 o'clock this even
ing. When the men were preparing to leave
OF their work at b No.. q at Frontenac,
a suburb Of Pittsburg, a terrible explosion
| was heard that shook the earth for a great
distance and completely shattered the
shaft.
On investigation it was found that 100
men were in the mine at the time OF the
explosion, being liz feet below the surface.
It is almost certain that all are dead. At
this writing the only two exceptions were
two men who were in a car coming up and
being near the top OF the shaft managed to
escape.
Z lUUpOuIk 10 III OuO CCnOLO Vi OhO NouA
| mines of Southeastern Kansas, and is
| about 100 miles south OF Kansas City. on
the Fort Scott and Gulf railroad.
PARTICULARS OF THE HORROR.
ST. LOUIS, November "a special from
Pittsburg, Kas., to the Republic" gives
| the f. Glowing account of the coal mine TX
plosion there this evening: A terrific explo-
sion that broke windows in this little viii
lage and spread CONSERVATION among the
inhabitants, occurred at about dusk to-
| night. The violence of the shock was SO
| great as to hurl dishes from shelves and
| demolish chimneys.
Half an hour after the-explosion villag-
ers who were preparing to go to the mines
were startled by a ragged, bleeding man
who almos4sstag3c red into the arms of the
searchers. He said shaft No. 3 at From
tenac, a mining suburb OF the village, had
been destroyed by an explosion and that
all OF the men were in the mine at the
time except himself and a dane whom be
left bleeding at the mouth Of the pit where
he was undoubtedly dead.
Horses were quickly harnessed to wag-
ons, and in a few minutes the villagers
were hurrying through the fierce SNOW
and sleet storm, which was raging. At the
L HooVh Va nAAA OhO =
OF the explosion was apparent. There
were
HUGE SEAMS IN THE EARTH
and timbers of the hosting apparatus
were shivered and burned. Foul gases were
escaping. The Dane who had escaped with
the man who had alarmed the villagers,
lay in the road with his face covered with
| blood. For a long time it was thought he
was dead, but he r~egained consciousness in
a few hours and is now at his home. He
cannot speak and does not know what
caused the explosion.
The man who reached the village said the
men were about to quit work for the day
when the explosion occurred. Together
| wife the Dane he had ridden in the car to
| the top of the shaft when earth seemed to
realized a the splashing of the snow and
water Upon his face as he lay with his
comrade in the wreckage above the mine.
There were
100 MEN In THE NINE
at the time of the explosion, and as they
were at work 112 feet below the surface, it
is believed that not one survived the shock,
everything in the pit.
One r~escuing party started down the
shaft at z o'clock, but were forced to turn
back, owing to the foul air. Another at
tempt was made at 9 o'clock, but the men
were again forced to abandon their
work. They could heal no sound from
the chambers below, and this leads
old miners to believe that all the men in
the shaft have persisted.
The shock has destroyed the whole drift,
and it is probable the mon in the lower
levels are buried beneath the ions of slate
Black damp is supposed to nave caused
the explosion. Most OF the miners at these
shafts came originally from the mines of