The Iola register., 1891-02-06
over a Hundred Killed.

Youngwood. Pa, January 2S.-A few
minutes after 8 o'clock yesterday morn
ing a faint puff of dust rolled from
shaft No. of the Mammoth mine
owned by the Frick Coke company.
There was no shock nor sound. but the
cause of that puff of dust sent more than
100 men into eternity. The men below
had struck an unexpected flow ot gas.
Men went to the rescue Immediately
The first object they found was hu-
man head. but the trunk to which II be-
longed was nowhere To be seen. one
man was found dead in the attitude oi
prayer.
One hundred and ten men were en-
ployed in that part of the mine and not
one was left TO tell the story OF the ac-
cident. Not more than fifty were killed
| by the explosion, the others being sui
| fOcated by the fire damp. Some OF the
bodies were horribly torn. burned ana
mutilated. Others were found with
| their teeth cleuched on the iron rail ol
| the pit road.
One hundred and seven bodies had
been taken from the ill-fated mine up to
| 10 o'clock this morning. tits estimated
that the remains of at least seventeen
more victims of yesterdays explosion
are still in the pit, but it is Thought
| that all will be out in few hours.
This catastrophe, while involving
more than five times the loss of life oc-
casioned by the Dunbar disaster, dif-
fers in many respects from the latter.
At Dunbar the explosion set fire to the
mine The shaft for days and weeks
was a roaring furnace, adding horrors tC
| Al, fntn In,
curence this was not the csse, and 10y
the perfect working of the fan pure all
was forced into the mine and the work
of rescuing was begun at once. Flity
coffins arrived from Pittsburg this
morning and fifty more will reach here
tonight. An additional order fol
twenty-five more was sent this morning
The cause of the explosion has not YET
been determined The victims will bt
buried by the company. Many OF the
unfortunates are Hungarians and viii
be sent to Scottdale for interment.
An official of the Frick company said
this morning: 1T may never be knowr
how or why the explosion occurred
The accumulation of fire damp wa:
probably the cause, but it was never
known to exist in any quantity before
in fact. it may be said that the Nam
moth mine has been free from damp
There is theory that a pocket of nat
ural gas was reached and that the Oper
alton of the ventilating fans now pre-
vents any accumulation of it,"
The disaster has some remarkable
features. 1t was as deadly, as sweeping
and as complete as the sinking OF shiI
in mid-ocean. Its history is to be told
by those who do not know it, for ther'
is no tongue of all those that wagged IL
the openings of that part of the mine
where the disaster occurred to describ'
its details.
1T comes to you like some whirlwind
with blue tints of rainbow, and whel
it bursts into flame it passes over you
body like a great log. God does no
lOften let a man live to tell what haC
happened to him. If it catches you up
right. YOU are like leaf in tornado
and it rends the ribs of slate in tht
Openings like the ribs of a straw rick.
That is what miner who has been il
the coal mines thirty-fve years says o
the ''after damp" the "black death" o
the darkness and the silent echOins
passageways where men delve.
Never before i'm the history of Amer
lean coal mining has there been such al
unexpected accident, with such ;
complete annihilation of all within 1T
reach.
The Mammoth mine has been notable
always as being particularly free from
gas. Fire Boss Smith. man who hat
worked in mines in Great Britain ant
this country for thirty years, made hi
usual careful inspection of all the room
and headings at the customary time
about o'clock this morning. His dut.
was to enter every place where mel
worked and to mark upon the walls o
the room or heading the sign of his ap
proval-the figures of the day OF tn
month.
Youngwood, Pa, January 2S.-At
o'clock to-day 110 bodies had been re
covered from the coke pit, where dis
astrous explosion occurred yesterday
OF this number fifty-three have bee
Unidentified.