Omaha daily bee., 1889-09-07

against the company carrying on calcine
works in connection with the production Of
the raw material. Since that time no iron
stone has been conveyed to the shoots and
rather more attention has been directed to-
ward the production Of coal, though the iron
stone was still worked. The coal is Of good
quality.
The mouth OF the pit is situat ed on top OF
hill n short distance from the turnpike
road. The shaft descends a distance OF
eighty fathoms. Running in southerly
direction from the bottom of the shaft is
level mine extending fifty fathoms, at
the extreme eud of which the
shaft OF the Greenaw pit communicates.
Branching of near the junction Of the Green
law pit is an incline, which descends on a
scale of about so IN 100 feet for a distance of
16O fathoms. From the bottom of this in
cline the workings run in opposite directions
right and left. The mine has thus no second
shaft leading to the utmost depth, as the
Greenlaw connection only extends down to
tue eight fathoms level The coal aud iron
was conveyed up the incline by matches run
ming on rails, and thence up the shaft in the
usual cages. The coal sides Of the incline
were lined with wood, but the roof, which
was OF iron stone, was bare 1t Is this wood
lining which appears to have taken fire, and
that, too, point lower than the connection
with the Greenlaw pit, the consequence
being that the miners who were engaged At
the lower level were literally hemmed in and
could find no way of escape.
" Then ensued scene which, happily, Is not
often Witnessed, and which is perhaps best
described in the words of one of the sur
vivors David Robb. who was at the deepest
part of the workings. He says:
"Ilmmediately shouted to the boys that
the pit was on fire. Mitchell and boy
named Willie Urqubardt volunteered to go
into the workings to warn the men not far
from the bottom of the incline. Two men,
Hunter and Wright, were driving new
road, and boy named Tolmie went to warn
them. Just at that time got the bell signal
from the top to send up the mems carriage.
AS 1T was leaving empty, l went with it. l
had no idea of the serious nature of the fire
and / thought If Tcould get to the eighty
fathom engine house / might be able to turn
the water on and put out the flames but be-
fore got to eighty fathoms the smoke be-
came so dense that l almost sutIocated.
could see nothing. 1 thought should never
| come through it, and at the eighty-fathom
station, where the carriage halted as usual,
all l could do was to yell, For Gods sake,
bell away That meant to go on. Fortu
nately they heard me at the bank or | should
not have been able to tell the story
From the time of the alarm till now relays
of men have worked at the task of rescue,
bu without any result, although last night
there was kept up u struggle with overmas-
teriug fumes in putting brattice work to OBJ
tain ventilation. Two men were let down
the incline In truck and besides having to
battle with a current of smoke so thick as to
obscure all vision, their efforts amounted to
but little. After few minutes the m sn
would come to the surface with with stream
ing eyes and perspiring face. Their object
was to reach the eighty-fathom level, from
which it was hoped it might be possible to
turn the current to clear the incline
AT midnight there were still some four or
five fathoms to be bratticed before the eighty
fathom level could be reached. From that
time work proceeded at a rate of moi more
than u fathom per hour. Shift after shift
went down, and the men came to the sur
face in despair at the slow progress they
were making.
While working on the incline the men,
about o'clock this morning, came on the
bodies of John Walker and Hugh McPher-
son. Both bodies were found in the vicinity
of the eighty fathom engine. 1t was part of
the duties of these men to attend to it, and
they seem to have died at their post. DR..
Bangor, who examined bodies on their ar
rival at the surface, states that the corpses
were frghtfully scorched, not with fire, but
the hot air in the pit, the temperature of
which is stated to have been high enough to
| melt lead. The flesh adhered to their
| clothes, and the ghastly spectacle was rem
| dered the more hldeous by the fact that on
| endeavorlng to remove their boots the feet
nearly parted from the legs.
Shortly after o'clock it was found that
| the east side of the pit had began to fall, and
| in order to retain the sides and ropf large
| number of props were utilized. A quantity
| of the stuff, however, fell, considerably him
| dering the operations of the rescuers. About
| O'Clock Information reached the pit head
| that although six bodies were visible on the
west side they could not be approached on
| the east side, and there was not a man alive.
| The rescuers made gallant efforts TO get at
| the bodies, but were repulsed by the fire and
| foul air. BY O'Clock it was seen that moth
| ing further could be done in the way of re-
| covering the dead.
Meantime. in consequence of the fire on
! the east side Of the workings, the explorers
| can not reach the bodies, although they can
| see number, and from their position II
would appear that they had made a rush
almost in a body TO get out, but had been
| overwhelmed.
| One of the rescuers, named Anderson,
ventured too far and had to be carried TO the
| surface in q helpless condition.
| ----->D---
! EXTENDING HER SWAY.