Evening journal., 1890-05-16
ENTOMBED In THE MINE.
Twenty-eight Men Buried Alive
at Ashley.
A BIG CAyEIN BARS, THEIR EXIT.

WnKEsBARRE, Pa, May 16.-Twenty-
eight miners are entombed in Baltimore
shaft, No. 4, at Ashley, and there is little
hope Of their rescue The mine Is an old
one, and the workings are In more or less
dilapdated condition. This fact makes the
work Of rescue very difficult The imprison-
ment of the unfortunate men il due 70
big caye-in Of the surface over the mine
which occurred yesterday The cave-in
covers an area OF one square mile, and Is
one Of the most disastrous that ever oc-
Cured in the coal regions
II Came without warning.
The crash came without any warming
whatever This is something unusual, too,
as generally there is a quaking and quiyer-
ing of the earth before II settles. The first
intimation of danger was when two houses
were seen to sink out Of sight They went
down about ten feet and were totally
wrecked, The dwellings were occupied by
Polanders. Two women and little girl
were quite seriously injured The noise
made by the house toppling over attracted
large crowd
Thirty Not Fight In the Mine.
number of men ran 10 the slope and
attempted to enter the mine, but they
could not The main passage was blocked
and these was no way q reaching the men.
The mine foreman said only eight men
were working IN that portion which had
caved in, and that they had IN all probable
ity made their escape by way Of the gang
way. The fire boss reported that there were
thirty men in the mine, and not eight, az
reported by the foreman. The superin
tendent Of the Lehigh and Wilkesbarre
Coal company was telegraphed for and he
arrived promptly A conference Of expert
miners was then held and Il was first de.
termined 20 make an attempt TO enter the
slope Twelve men were secured for the
hazardous task, but they We're unable "a
proceed amy distance through the mine.
The caye-in had wrecked an the inside
workings and in some places the roof was
/ down for hundreds Of feet To clear this
/ debris away would take weeks. which
would preclude I'll hope Of getting the men
| out alive
Three Men Rescued.
| II was then resolved to sink or bore holes
In the surface directly over some abandoned
| workings, entor these workings and then
trace to the place where the men were al
work. This whole distance Is about 8Ol
yards Ats o'clock last evening the rescu
ers broke their way through the surface an,
reached the abandoned workings Five mei
entered and travelled along some distance
They heard groans. STOPPING down thel
found three men lying PROSTATE on thl
ground They picked them up and carried
them TO the surface. When the resouinl
party with the three men came in sight Z
mighty cheer went up. The men rescued
were John Allen, Robert Roberts and An
thony Frail. They were badly burned Rob
erts is the least injured.
He says when the cave-in came the mer
all threw down their tools and made for tn,
main gangways. They found that it was
blocked with debris. Some Of the men ther
tainted and sunk TO the ground Others goi
down on their knees and prayed for de
liverance. Roberts, Frail and Allen clune
together, They rummaged around th,
abandoned workings all the afternoon
When the cave-in occurred there was
slight explosion in one Of the breasts which
burned the three men, Roberts says thert
are at least nineteen other men in the mine
and that they are scattered everywher,
The air is bad, and unless the other mer
are reached within the next ten hours they
must perish. The rescuers are now scour
ing the workings.
The Names of the Imprisoned Men.
The names Of the men imprisoned are:
John Hanson, Michael Scally, Johr
Scally, Michael Henry, Charles James
Frank Gallagher, Harry Jones, Ellis viii
Jams, Owen Williams, Daniel Sullivan
Thomas Williams, John Penning, Anthony
Il Lfratl H.
Clauss, John James, Michael Linski, John
Hall, Luke Gilgallon, James Davis and
four Hungarians, the name of two OF whom
is GNiss
Scenes Of Horrible Interest.
The scenes about the mine had peculiar
ly horrible interest. Round the gang OF
toiling men who were sinking the shafi
from the surface there soon gathered q
crowd of many hundred men, women and
children. In their eagerness they would
have passed right on among the workers
and TO keep them back rope was stretched
around the spot and corps Of men placed
to hold back the crowd
Among that gathering were women
whose husbands and sons were entomhec
in the dark mine, children whose parents
had prObobly met their deaths and younl
women whose sweethearts were entombed
Hope was strong in the hearts of all fol
the men who had come out of the min,
said that there was little chance of tn,
men IN the upper split having been caught
under the fall. They were there alive anC
well behind those heaps of rock and debris
if they could only be reached in time
One great danger threatened them-bad
air-but the mine was not gassy one
and in the Baltimore vein especially there
was little gas
Survivors, Story.
Standing round the place where the men
were at work digging in the hillside were
dozens of men ready to respond to any call
for volunteers to relieve the men at work.
Among them was Frank Henry, young
man Of about 10 years, son Of Michael
Henry, who is among the entombed. From
several scratches and cuts on his face and
head blood had trickled, and some had
fallen on his clothes. He was in the mine
when the cave-in occurred, and he tells a
thrilling story of his escape.
II knew nothing about any trouble" he
said, It'll all of a sudden there was great
rush Of air and my light was blown out,
Right after that heard some one calling
out further on the gangway that the lower
split was caving. then hitched the mules
and tried TO get them along, but they would
not move in the dark. Then started of
myself up the gangway. Pretty soon there
was another crash somewhere back in the
working and another big rush Of air came
along. In a minute or two / reached the
main gangway. Then / heard the roof
chipping and cracking. There were some
other men running along the gangway, but