Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-01-13
GOING OUT O. SIGHT
Hazleton, Pa, Slowly Sinking
Into the Earth.
PEOPLE IN IMMINENT PERIL
Five Hundred Houses Threatened With
Many Families Nov
ing out-Gaping Cracks.

"s6 eP's6 S
HAzELros, Pa. Jan. l2.-Just a.
darkness was closing down upon the
city last evening miner. weuding his
way from the Laurel hill shaft TO his
home on South Pine street. noticed q
ragged, black line clearly defined in
the snow near the pavement. He wore
on the peak of his cap his miners lamp.
which was still lighted, and with 1t he
stopped to investigate. To his surprise
he found the crack extended along
Pine street for distance of thirty feet.
Quickly he went along the street and
soon encountered another crack
through which one could drop q
lead pencil. The miner knew what
that meant and he knew that
700 feet below that part of
the city. men were at work taking out
coal, that trains of loaded cars drawn
by locomotives were hummlng along
gangways down there. So he rang the
door bell of the nearest house and told
the man who lived there OF his discoy-
cry. That was at $50. An hour later
1000 men and women were patrolling
Pine and Chapel, Walnut, Chestnut and
Cedar streets with lanterns. They
found fully fifty cracks ranging from
half an inch to i've inches IN width. In
the walls OF houses long, ragged lines
ran. Foundations had fallen away
from the frame structures in soma
cases five inches. The yards and alley
ways were scanned and every once in .
while could be heard cracking noise,
showing that the buildings were settling
further.
.Famiiies HurryinE to Safety.
BY 7:3O twenty antilles were moving
out of their homes. Women hurried
along the streets to q safe neighbor-
hood, their arms filled with bundles Of
clothing, clocks, bric-a-brscs and other
small articles. Sleighs and wagons
were backed up to the doorsteps and
heavy furniture was carried out.
Where horses could not be procured
men and boys drew the slcighs them
selves. Every once in a while it was
noticed that the cracks in the street
gaped further, and suddenly it was
found that for distance of thirty feet
on the north side of Chapel street, east
Of Pine, the ground had fallen fully
yard. Long. undulating hollows
here and there proclaimed the fact that
the street was caving in elsewhere, and
the excitement grew minute by minute.
Of those who moved away abouta score
took with them part or all OF their
household belongings, while the rest
put out the fires in furnaces and stoves
and departed without trying TO rescue
any furniture.
| saThe cavc-iu commenced on Christmas
day. and the first houses 20 suffer wsr0
those in the nighborhood of Broad and
Pine streets. 1t extends southwark five
blocks and a half, ending one hundred
feet beyond Chapel street and east and
west aboet one block between Wyoming
and Cedar streets. A. Pardee & Co. are
the people operating beneath that dis
trict, and they protest publicly that
there is no real danger, as the ground
can not sink into the mines. Alto
| gether five hundred houses are af-
fected, $500 people having resided III
them.
| Plastering Crumblin from Walls.
1t is not to be supposed that all of
these dwellings are IN immediate dan
| ger. but they arc within the territory
| in which the cave-ln has caused foun-
dations to sink, cracks to open in the
| ground and plaster to burst from the
walls. Amons the many to move out
| of their homes arc Henry Schaffcr,
| James Hood, Otto Detmar. John Wei
senbum. Richard Walk, Mrs. Scheffly.
John Schwartz. Mr.. Siegfeld, John Du-
gan, j. B. Ferry, Edward Gallagher.
John Nusbaum. John Schugert. Mrs.
Wenner. Mrs. J. q. Howe. J. Meyer
of No. l29 East Chestnut street, noticed
the roaring of the mines last week.
He had not moved out of his house up
to midnight.
81 heard the walls cracking last
week." he said, "and on Friday night
first noticed the roaring down in the
mines. It continued, with decreasing
| intervals between the roaring. until
about o'clock. From until we
could hear coal humping and thump-
| ing down, sometimes thrice within fif-
teen minutes. Cracks show in the
| plastering in the third story and in the
| cellar. Since Z o'clock we have not
heard the sounds so often. think We
are pretty safe here. Ny idea OF the
trouble is this: The cavern above us on
the hill and the coal tumbllng down
| toward this street filed in the hollow
beneath our house ami the others along
here. IF the cave.ln had started here
at the foot of the hill. why, then, when
that above us went we'd lie swampcd.
But as it is think we're are all rign.
| now"
| Mr.. Meyers feeling was shared by
Chief Polgren. who WAS around with
| Frank Pardec. The former told the
people there was no danger and not 10
move out. At 1880 p. IN. Mr.. Pardee
saids
"rhe squeeze ls over now. I have
| just had word 10 that effect from inside
| of the miues."