Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-06-18


to ascend to the top and wave BLACK
flag of woe and distress over the hith-
erto prosperous mining region. This
miners from the left drill escaped,
blackened and bruised, but safe. and
they tell fearful story Of the sight.
Just beyond the blazing coal on the
right, where half imagination and half
fact showed them score of terrible
faces walled in by fame, no man
could pass and live.
Willing hands and hearts were not
wanting on the outside, and Clerk Cook,
of the mines, with the mine inspector
himself, Keaghley, headed party Of
100, who entered the main shaft, and,
after cropping on for quarter of mile,
at last were driven back again and
again by the deadly gas, only to recover
breath for moment, and again plunge
in to find. at last, that the right drift
was impenetrable, and no man living
could pass in the hope of even seeing a
score of men dead beyond. They
finally came upon two bodies, and
they were brought to the opening
of the mine. When the two black
ened corpses, those of Shearn and
Hayes, the elder, were drawn into day
light, moan went up from a few Of the
hundreds about the pit, but their
anguish was nothing to the silent watch
kept by the wives, children and sweet
hearts of the thirty more still in the
mine. The volunteer corps worked
steadily from noon till late at night
with no result but the two dead above
named, and each trip but brought a
deeper despair, and showed there was
10 hope, and no one alive below, One
man, Kelly, who had entered several
times, finally from sheer exhaustion fell
into an open pit, and was drawn out
fatally injured
The sullen, lowering night added rain
to waste, and woe to an anguish almost
unbearable to the wives, children, sis
ters and sweethearts of the men whose
doom was all the more awful because
unknown. One could we'll enough stand
the whimpering Of the children who.
missed the fathers friendly pat, or the
desolate wall of the STRIPPING, but the
sullen, stony glare of the darl-browed
men standing about and the drawn,
white face of a wife or sister, or, nearer
still, a mother, were too pitiful to com
fort and too digniied to pity.
Old Miners Views.
AT midnight the smoke and gas from
the right shaft poured up the main exit
in an unbroken volume, and, after
trials almost beyond human endurance,
the rescuing party gave up all hope OF
ever recovering their comrades dead
bodies from that entrance, and turned
their attention to. the Ferguson mine,
one and half mile away. They are
striving to penetrate from that mine
But the flames and smoke balk their
every effort. The universal and unwill.
ing verdict from the old miners about
the shaft is that the entombed men have
either been killed outright by the explo-
sion, or later by suffocation.
The latter seems to be the more prob
able, at least in part, as sounds were
heard from the entt ,mbed men as late as
| o'clock Iii the afternoon. These grew
weaker and weaker, however, and half
an hour later even the most hopeful of
the willing rescuers could hear nothing
but his own heart throb. The men say
had they known the shaft was to be
broken into they would never have enter
ed the mine, as either water or gas would
surely have followed, since in these re-
gions gas always comes from the upper
shale. The owners however, and in
fact some of the men themselves, say it
was an accident pure and simple, that
could neither have been avoided or
atoned for,
The mines are owned by the Dunbar
Furnace company, and the owners are
are all eastern men and employ about
$50 men. Charles Parish, of Wilkes
barre, is president, and E. A. Hill of
Dunbar, is superintendent. The latter
has been here four months and seemed
perfectly conversant with the mines,
though the men say fire-damp has been
more than plentiful in this region lately.
Keaghley, the mine inspector, had made
a thorough tour of the mine but two
weeks ago. Some of the men in certain
portions invariably carried safety lamps.
but in other parts, as in the case of
young Hayes, the lamps were worn un-
covered. No definite reason or cause
can be given for the disaster until the
coroner's jury meets here.
The Worst Disaster In That Region.
The disaster is the worst ever known
in the Connellsville region, the nearest
approach being the Leisenring explosion,
seven years ago, when twenty three
We're killed The damage to the mine
cannot now be estimated, but the own
ers fear the slope is lost. The Farm
Hill mine was one Of the most valuable |
in this section of the region. If the
fears of the furnace people are realized,
the loss will reach far into the thou
sands.