Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1890-06-27
INCH BY INCH.
W0RKMRN GRADUALLY GETTING NEARER THE
ENTOMBED MINERS
Within But Few Feet Of the Mine-Flnding the
Bodies Thought 10 be Only Question Of
Few Hours-Large Crowds
Gather About the Scene.

DUNBAR, PA, June 26.-A cores
pohndent of the Pittsburg Chronicle
Dispatch writes as follows concerning
the Dunbar miners
The miners are driving nearer the
imprisoned men in the Hill Farm mine,
but they are yet a days journey from
them.
There is absolutely no telling what
the shifts are going TO strike.
Last night Secretary Watchord was
sure that the entry for which the men
are driving would be reached by to-
night. This morning when he went to
the mine and found that the miners
were still in the "gob," he changed his
mind, and thinks 1t will be night before
a drill hole is forced through into the
entry.
Yesterday coal was struck, and the
men dug away with vigor and will.
About fifteen feet put them through 1t,
and then they ran into the "gob" again.
1t was "gob," too, of the stickiest kind.
1t was jammed together in an almost
solid mass. Only seven feet was gone
through by the shift which went in at
two o'clock this morning and remained
till eight, just little over. foot an
hour. Three different sets OF timber
were
PLACED IN POSITION,
and this also took time.
Mr.. Wise said TO me: 1--WE are still
in COB 1t was mighty tough work
during the night. Now it is loose and
Il. Ia l., cfo hat ~
nearing something. 1t is the first time
that this has happened TO us, and we
feel encouraged by It. think we may
find the entries on both sides worked
up further than the maps show. II
this is the case than Wa will make more
time than we anticipate when we strike
the coal"
Mr.. Hazard was on the ground early
this morning. my adyices," he said,
''are that the men are pushing right
along. They went through coal yes
terday 1t was a pillar of some kind,
and think when they
STRIKE THE COAL LINE
they will have so much the less TO 60
through. The maps show that there
should be about go feet OF coal"
''Do you think there is.a possibility
of the miners finding the coal on the
line all cut away, Mr.. Hazzard?"
Il do not. There is no opening
through from our mine TO the Mahonine
mine. The line may have been cut into
on each side, but not to any large ex
tent. OF course, IL this has been done
it means that the men will have thai
much less distance to go when the Goa
is reached. don't see, though, how
they can have less than 35 or 40 feet Il
60 when they reach ii. That means
to 10 hours work.
The crowds which used TO gathe
around the mine every day have all dis
appeared. The police have but LITTLE
work to do, and the few who do CONF
are friends and relatives of the men in
side. The tent is the place where mos
of the men now sleep, and it and th'
commissary department are the bnsies
places in the place.
Hope that the men may be alive j
steadily decreasing. OF course, this i
all conjecture. but the bravest men o
all now think that every chance is near
ly gone.
At noon to-day the miners were en-
couraged to do hard work. The gol
pile is nearly through with and al
opening is expected by night. Ther'
will be no let up on the work until th'
Hill mine is entered.
LATER.-For two5 days twenty-five
men have been cutting a tunnel from
the Ferguson mine to the Hill Farm
mine from another direction than thos'
at work in the Mahoning mine
Their intentions have been kept
very quiet, as their plan wa
very dangerous. AT 10 o'clocl
tonight they reached within two fee
of the Hill Farm mine, and were stopped
by the authorities. Testing machine!
were taken into the tunnel, drill wa
forced through into the mine, a bag o
air from the Hill Farm mine was takcI
out for testing. The hole was thel
plugged.