Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1892-01-14
OVER 200 WERE KILLED.
Awful Result of an Explosion In an In
dian Territory Mine.

palling calamity occurred near here
last night. There was an explosion in
mine, and as result over 200 men
now lie dead, and about forty are fatal
ly nurt, and as many more badly
burned. At $40 P. NJ. mine No. Ii,
owned by the Usage Coal & Mining
Company at KreDs, four and one-half
miles east of here, exploded. At the
time $50 men were in the shaft, most of
whom were waiting for the cage to take
them out, and the foot of the shaft is
one mass of dead bodies.
The explosion occurred just before
the day shift changed off and came out
of the mine for supper. A puff of
smoke was seen to escape rom the
mouth of the single shaft to the
this there was heard a terriblee
report, followed by rumbling as if of
rolling thunder. The men at the top of
the shaft at once sounded the alarm,
and made preparations to send down q
rescuing party, but found that the
mouth Of the shaft had been completely
closed by the debris.
Eighty-fve men came out bv an old
entry, and forty-two were saved by the
shaft, most of whom are more or less
burned and bruised, and half will
probably die. This leaves about 223
men yet in the mine, and in all proba-
bility 200 are dead.
AZ 7:10 ten dead men were brought
out and only one could be recognized,
the remains were so mutilated. One
man escaped from the shaft 500 feet
deep, by working from bracket to
bracket, and was saved.
Thousands of anxious wives and
anxious mothers are eagerly watching
each cage as it comes to the surface,
turn away disappointed. The explos-
ion was caused by firing q shot when
gas was in the mine.
ST. LOUIS, Mo-, Jan. 8.-The officials of
the Usage Mining Company, in this city,
the owners of mine No. II, at Krebs,
I. r., where the terrible disaster
occurred last night. have re-
ceived a dispatch from McAllister
stating that 143 miners have been taken
out of the shaft alive, but many of
them are badly injured. AS the press
dispatches from McAllister state that
$50 men were in the shaft, this report
leaves 2O4 men unaccounted for, all
white men.
McALL1sTER, I. T., Jan. 9.--Excite-
ment, intensified almost to insanity be-
cause of the mine explosion, shows no
abatement. All yesterday ana to-day
5000 people were around the
shaft of the mine, crowding,
gesticulating, shreking, some attract
ed there from an idle curiosity
born of phase of morbidness, but the
majority driven to the spot half crazed
through the fear Of what they might
have to realize. Others were standing
| about. and their blanched faces and
eyes from which the light had depart
ed, and pathetic postures, told the
same story, but told it in different
way. Wives, sisters, sweethearts,
mothers, fathers, sill in their own way
painted such picture of despair upon
the minds Of beholders that the i'm
| preston will never be defaced.
Up to 2 o'clock this morning 4S dead
| bodies had been taken out OF the mine
and 100 injured, 10 of whom died before
morning. The remaining 50 miners are
| lying at their homes Swathed IN cotton and
| VaSellne up to their eyes, with their eye
broWs, hair and finger nails burned off and
the cooked flesh dropping from their bones.
This morning tie company ordered TO, and
| local nndertakerS q carload OF collins.
| All the mines in the vicinity have shut
! down, asd the miners and women are at
, Krebes, the miners to aid in the work Of
rescue, their wives, sisters and mothers
dead and to relieve the suffering
of the wounded. Men OF all
nationalities are aiding in the work of res
cue. Americans, IrShmen, Scotchmen,
Polanders, Welshmen, Italians, SWedes--
all but negroes-are at the work. Some
ciyan nn IUh To mil, 1lfnG tn
work with the negroes. This morning a
, number of the negroes went to
Krebs and assisted in the work in
only a half-hearted way, and one
of their number was heard to say that it
served the miners right to have been
killed. The word was passed from mouth
to mouth, and the indignation and fury of
the miners knew no bounds. 1t seemed as
though another horror would be added
! to the scene, but the United States deputy
marshal. anticipating some such trouble,
was on hand with a posse, and they drove
the colOred men from the place at the point
of Winchesters.
All day and allnightscenes intensely sad
and heart-rending, scenes which maze
women shrek in horror and strong men
weep; which made some pray to God tor
relief from the, burden Of sor-
to earth, and which impelled others
to curse Him for the same cause
were being enacted at the mouth OF the
shaft. Such panorama was never before
unrolled TO the gaze OF the thousands as
sembled there AS body after body was
removed from the ground, women crazcd
with grief would throw themselves III
despair before the shaft IN their efforts to
determine at once whether the all that was
human OF some poor fellow was not a
father. brother. OF husband. Time and
time again were the women pressed ana
carried back from the mouth of the shaft
but as The work OF rescue proceeded tie
same scene was enacted and re-cn acted
1t was almost impossible to recognize
any resemblance to tic human form in the
bodies OF many of those rescued Heads
arms, legs, hands and feet were in many
instances torn from the Trunks. The pit
clothes were either partially OF entirely
burned away. and In several cases
the flames had literally roasted almost all
the flesh on the body. The dead
were taken to a blacksmith shop
near the main shaft, where a
morgue had been improyised, and
the living taken to their homes The
I.Ee not In