Morning journal and courier., 1890-06-17
FROK ALL QUARTERS. EXPLOSION IN A MINE. Thiry-Two Men Imprisoned
 In a ColIiery. SENATOR ALLISON ON SILVER. MT. BIaine's Position on the
 Sugar Question. A ACHINAMAN'S MYSTERIOUS DEATH Features of MT. Lodges National
 Election Bill.
\ CHINAMAN'S MYSTERIOUS DEATH
ENToMRED IN A MINE.

Thirty-Tw0 Men Imprisoned by an
 Explosion In . Celliery - Eighteen
 Escape - An Awful Con f1agration
 Springs Up-Fire Damp and a Flood
 of Water Add to the Horror.
 P1TTsBuRa, Pa., June 18.-A terrible ex- plosion occurred as the Hill Farm mines near Dunbar at 10 o'clock this morning. Out of fifty miners in the pit but twelve have thus far escaped. It is feared that all of the forty men still in the mine were either killed outright by the explosion or have been suf- located.
 Another despatch for Connsllsville says: An explosion of damp gas occurred to-day in Hill Farm mine at Dunbar, all the men being in the pit. Fifteen have been taken out badly injured. The others are thought to be dead. Nothing more definite can be learned.
 A private dispatch to H. 0. Prick of this city says sixty-five men were in the mine and fifteen were rescued. It is believed that the others are dead. The Hill Farm mine is situated about two miles from Dunbar and is owned by the Dubar Furnace company.
 DUNBAR, Pa., June 16.-A sullen, shiver- ing roar shook the lowly miners dwellings on Hill Farm in Fayetts county, near this place, at 11:10 this morning, telling of another mine disaster. Fifty-two miners went to work this morning in the Hill Farm mines and were in the slope whom the explosion occurred. Of these eighteen who were in the left heading escaped, while of thirty-four in the right heading all were lost. The mine, it seems, had been some- vu6 at frouhIo6 yuikh vuof nd air ohofk Q six-inoh hole, had been drilled from the sur- face to the junction of the right and left shafts, where the water seemed to be most abundant. A miner named Kerwin at work near this shaft broke into it, and . flood of water gushed out. Kerwin and man named Landy standing by yelled for some one to save the men in the right drift, as the water feared they would drown. Young David Hays, who had seen the affair, leaped for- ward at the call and turned down the left draft in deluge of water toward his endan- gsred comrades below. Just az he passed the air shaft the flow of water changed to 8 deadly volume of fire damp. The daring youth carried an open burning miners lamp in his hat and he had hardly taken e step beyond the roaring shaft when the spark ! ignited the fire damp and he sank corpse ten feet toward the men whom he had es. sayed to save and whom he had certainly l doomed.
 In an instant an unquenohable fire sprsng l up in the nine foot vein, just between the main entrance and on the right drift, forever shutting off the men imprisoned there. Poor old David Hays, the father of the mistaken hero, driven mad by the fate of his son, dashed into the sulphurous smoke and strug. ling fire damp, only to fall blindly by the side of his son.
 l The fire famed by air from the main drift and from the fatal shaft itself, soon sprung into an awful conhagration.
 The miners from the left drift escaped
 blaekened and burned, but safe. They tell
 fearful story of the scene. Clerk Cook oi
 the mine and Mine Inspector Keaghley
 headed rescuing party of one hundred, who
 entered the main shaft and after groping or
 for quarter of mile were driven bael
 again and again by the deadly gas. only ts
 recover breath for moment and plunge il
 again to find at last that the right drift wal
 impenetrable and no living man could pas
 in. They finally came upon two bodies, thos
 of Daniel Shearn and the elder Hays, ant
 they were brought to the opening of th
 mine The volunteer corps worked steadil,
 from noon until late tonight with no othe
 result. The disaster Is tho worst ever knowl
 in the Connellsville region, the nearest ap
 proach being the Lsisenring explosion ssve years ago, when twenty-three were killed.