Morning journal and courier., 1891-02-25
FEARFUL surFEnrres.

The Terrible Story of Rescued
Miner-He and His Companions Inn
L prfsoned Nineteen Days-The1r Only
Food That of Rats, Legs-They
Barely Avoided CannibaIism.
WMKEsBARRE, Pa, Feb. M.-Five of
the miners who have been entombed nine
teen days in slope No. at GAINESVILLE, Pa,
were found alive late last night. Their
names are John Tomaskusky, Joe Mastus-
kowich, John Berno, Bosco Frinko and an
unknown Hungarian who was visiting John
Berno. The men were brought to the sur
face this morning.
All were unconscious with the exception
Of Berno, who by the aid of an interpre-
ter, was interviewed by a reporter this
morning. He said: ''Our sufferings were
horrible, but we never gave up hope.
When we were in the mine two days my
companions began to despair. They said
now we must surely die. Our food is all
gone and we cannot drink the sulphur
water. I said: I'VE are not ready to die
yet On the 10th day we had no food. l
was the strongest of the party. One of
them said: You are not going to kill any
of us for food are youn
ri said: No, will starve first. There
will be no cannibalism, but if one of rs
should die, why, of course, the rest of us
would have to eat the dead body On
the tenth day we had nothing left in our
dinner pals. The last ounce of food was
gone. I started out in the darkness, to
see if could find any thing. I CROPPED
around for hours but was not successful;
the rats were at my feet all the time. I
had to arm myself with clubs to drive
them off. I had concluded that if could
find no further food I would kill the rats
on my return trip to the breast where the
men were.
81 stumbled over a dinner can 1t was
evidently dropped by one of the other men
who was running to escape from the flood
when it came on us three weeks ago. There
was little fitch and bread and molasses
in the kettle. / was so hungry that l
could not wait till I got to my compan-
ions. I ate the fitch, but when came up
to my friends I gave them bread. They
relished it. The question now was, where
were we to get more fooda 1 was growing
weaker all the time. 1 resolved to slaugh-
ter the rats. This I did with club, and
we ate the legs of the rodents. For seven
days our only food was rats legs The
rats were very bold. I had to watch over
my companions in their weakness or the
rats would have eaten their eyes out.
"On Sunday night, when we were about
on the eve of despair, heard noise
through the debris. I could see faint
light. I knew the rescuers were near at
hand. If could only attract their atten-
ton they could have reached us by
roundabout way, but I was too weak. I
could not make any noise. All we had to
do was to take our chances of them seeing
Or hearing us When they did come up
and I saw that we were discovered, I
closed my eyes and said: God, at last!'
I tainted then and do not remember any
thing more until woke this morning."
The man only got out his story in bits
on account of his great weakness. DR..
Doolittle gave him big doses of brandy at
intervals. At last accounts the rescued
men were still alive and though physicians
were in constant attendance on them all
night, grave fears are entertained for their
ultimate recovery.
The rescued men are resting quietly this
evening. The pulse of all but Jse Mas
tuskowitch has improved in the past few
hours. He appears to be growing weaker.
Two professional nurses have arrived and
will look after the men,