Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1890-06-24
STILL SEARCHING.
ARE THE ENTOMBED DUNBAR MINERS DEAD
OR ALIVE?
The Latest Situation in Regard to the Vietms-Ths
Rssclers Expect to Reach the Subtsranean
Prison in a Short Tims-What
the Foreman Says.

DUNBAR, PA, June 23.-The special cor
respondent of the ChIOnicio-Tcle0rdph, of
Pittsburg, writes concerning the entomb-
ed miners as follows:
1t has been one week since that flash OF
gas shut up thirty-two men IN the Hill
Farm mine.
To-day the rescuing gang are at work
through the MahOning mine, and are from
30 to 60 feet from the heading which they
hoped to reach.
This would be a small distance on top of
the ground, but when two men only can
work in space four feet high and two or
three feet wide; when they have to stop
every half hour 10 permit heavy timber TO
be erected. the work is necessarily slow.
None of the rescuing party know what is
ahead of them, and so they cannot tell
what time the line of coal dividing the two
mines is reached or how long it will take
them to get through it when reached. III
the men can reach the clear placef they
hope TO find they will get to the coal to-
night II they reach the coal 1t
Is BARELY POSSIBLE
that they can get through by morning.
They still hope TO find some Of the i'm
prisoned men alive, but that nope is grow
ing fainter.
Beth Warman and others still hold that
there is no reason to fear that the men are
dead. They hold that they can stand it for
nine or ten days, and that gives two or
three days yet.
When visited the mine at 30 o'clock
this morning there were not half Il dozen
people on the outside of the police line. The
evening shift had just come out and re
ported that they had advanced six or seven
feet since o'clock. Under the glare OF the
torches, Squire Duncan, OF the police
force, was calling the roll of the morning
shift She miners with clean faces were
standing on the outside of the pits mouth,
and as their names were called they step
ped up and received
THEIR SAFETY LAMPS
from the mine boss. Then they marched
down into the darkness of the pit mouth,
and there their lamps were tested before
they went further.
"Ne want four more men," sang out
SQUIRE Duncan, and four men were forth
coming in twinkling When ! paid my
first visit TO the mine after daylight this
morning, these same men were coming out.
They had pushed forward six or eight feet
in their work since , o'clock The Shift
which went on then is the largest since
the beginning of the work, there being ~
of them.
The big fan was started at noon yester-
dav and has been going ever since. II was
found best TO start it, so that the atmos-
phere where the men are working could be
cooled little The starting gave rise TO
numberless rumOrs, and the outside peo-
pie thought at once that the Hlll farm
mine had been reached.
| saw Inspector Evans this morning. He
said: I'VE are getting to those men as fast
as human efforts directed by science can
take us, and everything is being done that
can be. If we could show people with
what we have to contend everyone would
understand why the progress seems so
slow IL is not slow. Under the circum-
stances we are pushing ahead wonderfully
fast. | have hopes of reaching the coal by
night
MIR Hazard said to me this morning that
he had found that
TIE SIGNALS HEARD
Thursday were not from the miners. III
il had been through solid coal, he said, II
might believe it, but those signals would
have to come through COB piles, and !
can't believe that they were from the min
ers.r
Since Saturday an exploring party has
gone down the Hill Farm manway l,2O6
feet. At that point they were driven back
by smoke. Iuc lilll arm lhlAc - az
ually filling up with water, but no serious
danger is anticipated from this for days
vet. There is nothing to do but wait for
the end
Yesterday thousands of people visited
the mine. They came from all the sur
rounding towns and country. They camp
ed around the mouth of the mine and had
their lunches with them. There was only
one accident in the big crowd when, by a
runaway. an engineer from Connellsville
had his arm broken, while his companion
was seriously Jared. \ heavy rain in the
evening drove them away from the mine.
At u o'clock to-day Mr.. Beth Warman
came out of the mine He said that only
few feet of "gob" was to be passed through,
and that the rcscuers might reach the coal
soon.
LATER.
The end is drawing near. AT midnight
a newspaper man returned from the face OF
the heading where the rescuers are work
inc. They are in coal at last.
Inspector Keightley explained that they
had at last reached the coal in the line. He
thought it would take but few hours to
run through the coal, but it would take
some time to test the air in the Hill Farm
mine. He expects TO be through the coal
by daylight. 1t will be known by noon to-
dav whether the men are dead or alive.