The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-06-17

OF these twenty one were married and
have families.
The mine. il seeds. has been somewhat
troubled with wstel. and an air shaft had
been drilled from t1e surface to the juno
ton Of the right an left shafts where the
water seemed 70 most Abundant As
the miners branchH of from this point
they knew m iysh0le had been drilled
there that was n1 yyt broken into The
mine, hut they di6s Sios know that the
shaft was to be broken in today, this shaft,
by the way. being six-inch hole.
A miner named Kerwin had been left at
the right of the DRIFT. near where that
branch joined the miners exit and in the
course Of his iabors broke into the pcrpen-
dicular shalt. The moment this was
broken into food of water gushed out
and Kerwin and man named Landy.
standing by. yelled out for some one to
save the men in the right shaft. ~ the
water poured down hill in stream and he
feared they would drown.
Young David Hayes. who had seen the
affair. leAped forward. and at the call
turned down the left drift to warn his en-
dangered comrades below. Just as he
passed the air shaft that had been broken
into, the rush Of water changed to an ugly
roar, which, ,bianched the cheeks of the men.
The flow OF water hsd changed TO dead
ly volume OF fire-damp. and rs young
Hayes swung by the shaft, a fash of biax-
ing light slid through the shaft from end
10 end. Ii seemed that the daring young
man carried an open burning miners lamp
In his hand, and he had hardly taken q
step beyond the roaring snaft, when
spark ignited reservoir of deadly fire.
damp, and he sank corpse. ten feet to
ward the men whom he had hoped to save,
and the men whom he had certainly
doomed.
In an instant an unquenchable ere sprang
up in the nine-foot vein just between the
main entrance and on the eighth drift.
shutting off the thirty-two men imprisoned
there.
Poor old David Hayes. the father of the
mistaken hero. driven mad by the fate OF
his son. dashed into the sulphurous smoke
and straneling fire-damp, only to fall
blindly by the side of his son and to be
drawn out an hour later with James Shern.
both recognized only by their wives.
The FIRE. famed by the air from the main
drit and from the fatal shaft itself, soon
sprang into an awful confiagration.
The miners from the left drift escaped
hlackened and bruised. but safe. and they
tell fearful tale Of the sight beyond the
blazing coal on the right Willing hands
and hearts were not wanting on the out
side. A party who en- tered the main shaft,
after cropping on for quarter of q mile at
least, was driven back again by the deadly
gas. only 10 recover breath for q moment
and again plunge in. to find that the right
drift was impenesrable and no man living
could pass
They finally came upoa two bodies and
they were brought 10 the opening of the
mine. When the two blackened corpses.
those OF shern and Hayes the elder,
were drawn into the daylight,
moan went up from few OF
the hundreds about the pit, but
the anguish was as nothing 10 the silent
watch kept by the wives and children and
sweethearts of the men whose doom was
all the more awfai, because unknown. At
midnight smoke and gas from the right
shat poured up the main exit in an IN
broken volume.
After trials almost beyond human en-
Snrance the rescuiug party gave up all
hope OF ever recovering their comrades
dead bodies from that entrance. and turned
thess attention to the Ferguson nine. .
mile and . half away. At this hour C a
N. they are striving 10 penetrate from
ihst mine. but the flames and smoke ba fise
every effort
The universal verdict from all the miners
ahons the shaft tonight is that the en-
sombea men were either ksslei outright hy
the explosion ar later by sassccation. The
latter seems to be more probable. at least
ia part. as sound we're heard from the
snsosabed men as late as ! O'Clock this
afternoon These grew weaker and xeake7.
howevcy, and hall an hour later even the