Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-03-05

OclOIC Noutu kCb tue
bodies of the men out of the manway.
Thomas Tomaskusky, when asked
how long he was under ground. re-
piled: "Me down two weeks; too much
long; too cold"
TIE men bad no exact idea of the
time they were entOmbed. but knew il
must have been several weeks from
their condition and exhaustion. There
were no traces of any practices Of can
nibalism, and the men, who were all
of hard constitutions, weakened and
became exhausted gradually. 1t is evil
dent that the idea of subsisting on one
of their number did not come to them
at all.
STORY Of THE DIsAsTER-THE AWFUL
TRAGEDY IN THAT BLACK CHAMBER
OF DEATH.
HAZLEToN, Penn, Feb. 24.-All of
the victims Of the Evansville mine hOr-
ror have now been accounted for. On
the morning of February 4, while
Charles Boyle and Patrick Call were
engaged in drilling a hole in their
breast in the lower lift of No. slope
of j. G. Hayden & Co.'s mine, they
broke into the old No. slope that had
been abandoned for three years and had
been flooded in the mouth with water.
The water rushed in with such rapidity
that no attempt could be made to rescue
the unfortunate men working up
in their breasts 1t rose so radidly that
in five minutes time the slope, which
is 624 feet deep, was filled to the mouth.
Twenty-three men were caught in the
mine, six escaped, leaving II men en-
tombed in the mine. During the past
week a number of the bodies of the VIC
Tins of the flood have been found.
The body of Edward Gallagher was
the first body found. It was remarka-
bly, well preserved. There were no
marks or scratches upon it. He was
certainly drowned.
The body of Patrick Kelly was found
in the face of his breast, and there were
signs to indicate that he had been un-
der water, although his body was in a
good state of preservation, which pOssi-
bly, admits of the theory of being over
come by "black damp"
James Wards body showed evidence
of having been submerged and that
possibly he met death by drowning.
Jake Misto Hungarian laborer and
Samuel Porter were found on Saturday
and the evidence in ther cases does not
argue drowning either. Msto was much
emaciated when found but decompo-
sition had made no sign upon him.
His eyes were sunken back in their
sockets and the skin of his face was
drawn tightly over the facial bones and
presented almost unmistakable evil
dence of having been starved to death.
Samuel Porter was found in Boye's
breast standing on his head in the man
way. He had his coat, shoes and stock
ings off as though he had been
GoADED BY DESPAIR
in his last moments to ma Ike an effort
for life by trying to swim out, bEt was
caught in timbers.
The bodies of Lawrence Reed, Henry
Ball, Mike Smith and James Bullock,
which were found in No. 8 breast of
the east gangway, also bore unmistaka-
BILE evidence of death by some means
other than drowning, possible by suf-
location, for, from the arrangement of
the rudely constructed hut and its sur
roundings and the chalk marks on, it
is certain the unfortunate men lived for
some time in the vain hope of rescue
| from the outside world.
The food in the dinner pals, which,
with spare ratiOns, would have lasted
four or five days, was all eaten, and the
men were living on drops of sulphur
water. The damp, cold air coming
from the water below in the breast
chilled their rapidly weakening bodies,
and not realizing what they did, they
lit fire to keep off what they supposed
was the chill of the water, but what
was in reality the cold hand of death.
The fire in a short time vitiated the
air in their low cell, which was only
feet high and 10 by 80 feet in dimen-
sions' and when all the life giving
principle was consumed by the fire and
the air was Thoroughly laden with its
sulphur, it died out, and with it fled
the spirits of the brave and hopeful
men. 1t is barely possible that they
had not expected death so soon, for the
body of Bullock was found on the path
from the waters edge with his coffee
bottle by his side, making ii last vain
effort to stop the pangs of hunger and
despair of himself and comrades with a
little water.
OF the eight men found yesterday
and hast night four-James Grif1iths,
Barney McCloskev, Jake Masters and
Joe Astro-were dead. The bodies of
the two Hungarians were floating on
| top of the water, and those of Griffiths
and McCloskey were free from water or
debris. The other four-ThOmas
Tomaskusky, Joe Mastuskowitch, John
Berno and Boso Frinko-were alive
when found, hut in precarous con-
dition.