The Hot Springs star. (Hot Spings [Hot Springs], Dakota [Dakota Territory, i.e. S.D.]) 1886-189?, 1890-06-27

PETER McGOUGH.
OF these t%wenty-one were married and
have families. The mine, il seems, has
been somewhat troubled with water, aud
air shafts had been %drilledfrom the surface
to the juncture of the right and left shafts,
where the water seemed most abundant.
As the mines branched off from this point
they knew that an air hole had been drilled
there that had not yet been broken into.
But they did not know it was to be
broker. into to-day. This shaft, by the
way, was a six-incn hole. A miner named
kirwin had been left in the right drift near
that branch adjoining the mines >eyIit, and
in the course of his labors broke into ttsae
perpendicular shaft. The moment this
was broken into, a flood Of water gushed
ont and Kirwin and q man named Sandy,
standing by. yelled out for some one to
save the men in the right shaft, az the
water poured down the hill in q stream
and he feared they would drown.
A young man named Hayes, who had
seen the affair, leaped forward at the call
and turned down the left drift toward his
endangered comrades below. just as he
passed the air shaft that had been broken
into the rush of water changedto an ugly
roar, which blanched the cheeks Of the
men. The aow of water had changed to q
deadly volume of re-damp, and as young
Hayes swung by the shaft . blazing light
slid through the shaft from end to end it
seemed. The daring young man carried
an open burning miners lamp in his hat,
and he had hardly taken o step beyond the
roaring shaft when q spark ignited the
reservoir of deadly fre-damp and he sank
a corpse ten feet from those whom he had
hoped to save and the men whom he had
certainly doomed.
In IN instant an u%nquenchable fire
sprang up in a nine foot vein, just between
the main entrance and the right drift, for
ever shutting off the thirtv-t two men i'm
prisoned there. Poor old David Hayes,
father Of the mistaken hero, driven mad BY
the fate of his son, dashed into the sui
phurous smoke and s%traugling fre.damp
only to fall by the side of his son and to
be drawn ont an hour later with James
Shearn, both recognized only BY their
wives.
The fire, famed by air from the main
drift, and from the fatal shaft itself, soon
sprung into an awful confiagration.
The miners from the left drift escaped,
blackened and bruised. but safe, and they
tell a fearful story of the sight beyond the
blazing coal on the right. Willing hands
and hearts we're not wanting on the out
side, and Clerk Cook, with Mine Inspector
keoghy, headed a party OF 100 who en-
tered the main shaft and, after cropping for
a quarter of q mile at least, we're driven
back again by the deadly gas, only to re.
cover breath for q moment and plunge in
to find that the right drift was impenetrable
and that no man living could pass.
They finally came upon two bodies and
they were brought to the opening of the
mine. When the two blackened
corpses, those Of shearn and Hayes, the
elders. were drawn into the daylight Q
went up from the few hundred about
the pit, but the anguish was o. nothing
to the silent watch kept by wives, children
and sweethearts Of the men whose doom
was all the more awful because unknown.
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 rescuinp
party gave up all hopes Of even recovering
their comrades dead bodies from that
entrance, aud turned their attention to the
Ferguson mine, a mile and . half away.
At this hour q q. mr. they are striving
to penetrate from that mine, but the
flames and smoke balk their every effort.
The universal verdict from the old miners
about the shaft is that the entombed men
either have been killed outright BY the ex.
plosion or later by suffocation. The lat.
ter seems moro probable, at least in part,
~ soundings were heard from the en-.
tombed men az late 90 ! O'Clock in the aft.
ernoon. These grew weaker, however,
and half an hour later ever the most hope.
full Of the willing rescuers could hear moth.
ing.
The men say had they known the shaft
vas to be broken into they would never
have entered the mine, - either water or
gas would surely follow an opening. In
this region gas always comes from the
upper scale. The owners, however, and in
fact someo Of the msn themselves, ssy that
It was On accident pure and simple that
could not have been avoided.
The disaster was the worst ever known
In the Connellsvills region. The damage
to the mine cannot now 10 estimsted, but
the owners fear the slope 10 lost.
Irish Lssders COMM.
John Dillon, William O'Brisn and John
Redmond have ben appointed dslseatss 70
make ti.e tour Of America In the autumn
Ia u: istsfssss u th>tfish sasisAAp ~