The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-12-05
NO INQUEST NEEDED.
Coroner Horizons Report on the
Canton Landslide.
WoRKMEN PROBABLY DROWNED.
Collision ut Snohomish Injuries Three
Trainmen-yictims of Narrow
Gauge wreck-Notes.

Coroner Horton and Assistant Prosecuting
Attorney Mcbride held prolonged conference
yesterday afternoon with Prosecuting Attorney
Miller and reported the result OF their investi-
CATION of the Canton landslide. As a result il
was decided that there was no necessity 10 hold
an inquest into the death OF the men who were
killed by the accident. Coroner Horton said 10
PosT-IyTELLIGESCER reporter regarding his
investigation:
After looking over the groun nd and thoroughly
fnquiring into the matter Mr. Mcbride and
both came to the conclusion that inquest
was unnecessary. There is no question TO
the cause of death and no charge OF criminal
carelessness could be sustained.
Most of the accounts of the affair have been
incorrect and exaggerated. The men were not
digging under bluff as was stated. The hill
of, with loose earth on the sur
face and hardpan underneath Ths rain
saturated this surface earth right down to the
hardpan and then the water formed a slide on
which the earth slid OFF into the river. At the
time not only the worknen, but the bosses and
timekeeper were on the track In front OF TINS
slope, and the charge that the men were ex-
posed 20 risk which the bosses would not take
themselves is untrue. When the slide came the
men all ran along the track towards the east and
west sides of 1t. The majority OF them seem to
have run towards the east side, for that was
where the bodies were found, and il Is tar
presumption that the men were crowded to-
gether in their flight on the narrow space occu-
pied by the track that they could not run as las.
as If they had been more equally divided into
this slope ana across the track into the river,
showing before IL the men who were in front OF
ii and apparently finging them right into the
river. This seems most probable, because no
tools have been found under the slide; they
must have been thrown INTO the rlYer IN front
OF It
/ believe that there are 40 more bodies under
the slide. Nine or ten men are stu missing,
and believe that they have either escaped and
net returned, or been carried down the river;
some OF them are probably in White river By
this time.
As to the bosses not beginning soon enough TO
dig for :hc bodies, the nen-who were all
swedes and irish, not ltglians-were super
stitious and panic-stricken that they would not
return TO WORK. Why, when / was bringing
those bodies down last night could not get any
man TO help me 20 TX them up and put them in
the car, because they were ali afraid to touch
dead bodies. / had 70 do il all without help, ex-
cept from the doctor from Buckley. The slide
was cleared away az far possible, consider
ing the high stage OF water in the river,
which was eight feet above the usual level at
the time. IL was impossible for diver TO go
down after the bodies, for Green river is rag
ing mountain torrent aud at that place it is
always white with foam. They are now digging
back TO the riprap throwing the dirt far out into
tho river as fast as they move it The water has
gone down four feet and they have dug down
that distance and will have another four feet to
go down in order to thoroughly remove the
slide The statement that Stout said the bodies
would make good riprapping is false; he never
said any such thing
A dispatch from Tacoma late last night said:
The water in Green river continues to recede
allowing the men in search of bodies at the
scene OF the Canton landslide TO dig under the
bottom of the slide No more bodies have been
found.
Henry O'Seil, the trackwalker who was in
!ured by the dynamite cartridge explosion at
Canton on Thursday, which killed Charles
Rogers, died yesterday morning at the Fannie
Paddock hospital, in Tacoma 1t is believed
neither Rogers nor ONeil had relatives in this
vicinity