The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-02-04

| purchased from J. w. Moore by the
Prick interest and has since been operat-
ed by that concern. 1t is ten miles from
a telegraph Office and correspondents were
forced to secure special engine from
Mammoth to YoungwoOd, where two
| special telegraph operators were awaiting
the orders. The story is easily told.
The darkest page in the history OF
the coke regions was turned today and
since its opening there are one hun
| dred and ten less readers to Deruse
| the ugly page. Early this morning
a merry shift of miners at the Mammoth
mine No. l of the Frick Coke Co. went
down into the darkness, glad to be
on the roll of another days wages. as they
were becoming far too few during the late
| depression in the coke trade.
A few minutes after o'clock a faint
puff of dust rolled from the mine, dissolv-
ing into thin air, while the puzzled work.
ers about the mouth never dreamed the
unusual blast of dust and smoke carried
with it over 100 souls into eternity. There
| was no sound. no shock and moth
| ing to show that anything was wrong
| but the faint cloud of dust that first warned
| the experienced workers at the mouth of
| the shaft that somewhere something
was wrong.
An unexpected flow of gas was struck
and the miners working in the headings
connected with flats Nos. ., and
were all killed. They went to work
as usual. The fire boss, as is his
duty, had been in the mine and
examined the working places. He is sup
posed to 90 to the face of each working
| place and by chalk mark indicate that
he has been there. Whether this was
| done or not is not known, as the fire
| L.. al h.
tale. His mangled body lies at the
| improvised morgue. The only evide nee
that he attended to his duties are the reg
ular certificates of inspection which
| General Superintendent Lynch re-
ceived from Sheath and others
this morning, which guaranteed
the mines as safe. The miners knew these
| certificates had been filled out and went
to work. They never returned. Super
| intendent Keightv, who was mine in
spector in the Dunbar district when that
horror occurred was at the mine when the
| explosion took place. He Immediately
called for volunteers, and gathering few
| about him descended the shaft. Before
| doing so he notified General Superintend-
| ent Lynch, and that gentleman ordered all
| mine superintendent in the region to the
| scene.
When the volunteers entered the mine,
| a sight impossible to picture met them.
Bank cars, mules and more terrible than
all, men, were piled in a compact mass
| against the ribs, or walls OF coal, and not
a living thing was in the wreckage.
| 1t was almost as solid as the coal itself, so
terrific was the force of the explosion.
/ This obstruction was removed with diff
ficuky, and they entered a chamber of
horrors. The first object they discovered
| after leaving the main entry was a gum
boot. In it was the leg of a man. Far
Their on they found human head, but no
where in sight was the trunk which had
borne it. After walk of a distance, sur
rounded by dangers unseen, but more
they found the trunk, the ragged
neck with the blood oozing from it told
the story of the appalling disaster.
Working thnir way in. the band
found the bodies strewn along the
gang way. One OF the unfor-
Inmates met death while on his
knees in prayer, with his hands clasped
and eyes uplifted. His body
was found in this position. The headless
trunk did not move the rescuers, nor was
their emotions betrayed by the shapeless
head itself, but the sight of the corpse in
the attitude OF prayer brought tears TO
every eye. 1t was a pathetic picture.
While all this was occurring the peo-
pie of the region were concentrating at
the scene OF the great disaster. On every
lip was the question: Can we
save any?" Among the first
to arrive from a distance were
General Superintendent Linch, Chief
Engineer Paddock, Robert and Morris
Ramsey, Superintendent Laird and Capt.
Schoomaker. Following them came phys
icians and undertakes from Scott
dale, Mt. Pleasant and Greensburg.
After them the dignified torn of Father
Landing of Scottdale came in sight, and
soon he was circling among the bereaved
with words of sympathy and coincidence,
besides urging the men assembled to
greater work to rescue any who might
be alive and imprisoned. Among the ply
sicians who came were: Doctors Wilson,
Mccormick, Painter, Never, Clark and
others from the surrounding towns. Their
services were not needed, for every man in
the headings where the explosion oc-
CURED was killed. None were injured and
lived. Dead bodies were brought up
every few minutes, and the crowd at the
shaft mouth simply fell back to allow
the men carrying the stretchers room
to pass. Every corpse was covered
and no one even ventured to inquire which
body it was for they knew every one in
that part of the mine at the time of the
explosion was dead. Superintendent
Keighley was a sorely distressed man.
He has been in three big fatalities
in this region, but this is larger than
any. The Dunbar disaster, and Mr..
Keighley's connection with it every one
knows; then he was superintendent at
youngstown when an explosion occurred
in which many were killed and injured.
He said: mo man living knows the cause
of the accident, and it will never be known
for certainty. About 800 feet from the
bottom of the shaft we encountered
a fall of rock in the gangway
which was caused by the explosion.
Empty cars completely wrecked we're
! piled up against it. We cut our way
through and fell down into the dip where
the men were working, and then we were
constantly falling over dead bodies. Not
SO many were killed by the explosion, but
the dreaded after-damp came on the poor
fellows and they succumbed to IT. This
is evident from the fact that only small
proportion of the dead taken out were
bruised in any way. L never knew be-
fore that there was gas in that. This
makes the explosion all the more terri
ble."
John w. Bell, fire boss at Hecla, No. ]
said: "About two years ago there was an