Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1892-03-13
THE VERY SAD SCENES
Enacted About the Mouth of the Fatal
Pit in CharlerOi.
THE FLAMES ARE STILL BURNING
In the Lower Levels Of the Nine Making he
Work Of the Ssarehers Both Dangerous ard
Diiicalt-No Definite Estimate Of hs
Killed, Though Il VIII Be LargA

BRUSSELS, March la.-There has
been little II any abatement in tho
excitement in and about Charleroi,
near which place the appalling ex-
ploson occurred yesterday morn
ing in the Anderluis colliery. All night
long hundreds Of men, women and chill
dren have kept their dreary watch ~
the pit-mouth hoping for the best. yet
almost knowing their hope was without
reason.
Many pitiable scenes have been wit
messed as wives and children have rec
ognized among the bodies recovered the
features OF some dear one, distorted
aud blackened by the sheet OF Scorch-
ing flame that had enveloped them.
The fire caused by the explosion Is
still burning on the lower gallery where
the accident occurred. The shock OF
the explosion detached huge masses OF
rock and earth and the galleries are so
blocked with the debris that IL Is i'm
possible to approach nearer than 100
yards 10 the place where the great body
OF the miners were working. Besides
the dirt and rock, the carcases OF forty
horses block the opproach TO the lower
galleries, and these will have 20 be cut
up and removed before the rcscners can
proceed any further In the direction
where the bodies are known To be.
The Gen d armes have great difficult
~ in preserving even the semblance OF
order in the vicinity OF the pit mouth,
and in several instances have had 10 use
force.
haf
are covered with thick black dust,
which in some instances had been blown
deep into the skin. As they were taken
into the Office they were placed on straw
that had been spread on the floor, and
the faces were then cleaned as far as
possible to allow Of Identification. Many
OF the faces, however, were entirely un-
recognizable.
IL has been ascertained that $40 per-
sons were working IN the mine at the
time OF the explosion. Most OF them
were at work In the two galleries where
the greatest damage was done. One OF
these galleries is $50 and the other $50
feet below the surface. Mining experts
acquainted with the Anderluls workings
say that every person who was working
in the lower gallery must be dead, and
few are expected TO be rescued alive
from the upper gallery, which is hlIed
with deadly gases. Altogether thirty
three dead bodies have been recovered.
The fire In the mine grows fercer
and iercer, and since two o'clock this
morning the heat has been so Intense
that IL has been impossible for the res
cuing parties TO remain In the pit. They
have been compelled for the present to
abandon all their efforts 10 reach the
galleries.
The total OF the death roll IS 2l5. OF
this number IL is estimated that 10
were burned alive. The calamity
crushed the entire Chaleroi district
Nothing Is heard save laments.
Many OF the women. who have lost
their only support, have become hyster'
ical through grief, and tho doctors are
busy attending TO them. In some cases
all the surviving members OF families
still surround the blackened plymouth.
attracted by the very horror that has
rendered them widows and orphans.
Suffering Is bound to follow the dis
aster, for many OF the miners have lost
their only means Of support. The Gov
ernment has taken prompt actio1 10 re-
lIeve so far as possible the suffering at
tained by the sudden and awful eatss-
trophe. The Minister OF Public Works
has ordered the distribution OF relief,
and the work IS now being carried on.