Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-01-09
Believed that Over 100 Per-
 ished in the Mine.
FIFTY BODIES ALREADY FOUND.
Of These Only One-Half Have Been
 Identified.
CAUSE OF THE ACCIDENT UNKNOWN
It is Supposed that Some Miner Fired g
 Blast Without Warning.

Many of Those Rescued Horribly
 Burned that They Cannot RecOver---
 There were Four Hundred Men in the
 Mine when the Explosion Occurred---A
 Week Must Elapse Before All the
 Entombed Can be ReachNd--Identifica-
 tion of Many of the Victims Impossible.
 SOUTH McALIsTER, I. T., Jan. 0.-The entrance to the Osage coal mine at Krebs, five miles from here, is surrounded by a mass of humanity, many of them women and children who have been at the scene almost every minute since the terrible explosion of Thursday night, hoping against hope for tidings of a lost one.
 It is impossible yet to give even an estimate of the number of lives lost, but It is believed that the list will reach 100 and even more. Many of the miners who have been taken out are so badly burned that they will die
 A hastily constructed but strong cage has been placed in operation and the work of rescuing the entombed miners iS being expedited as rapidly as circumstances will permit. The crowd about the mouth of the pit hasincreased to over a thoAoand people. As most of the miners are Swedes, Norwegiaps and Italians, the mine officials have great difficulty in pre- serving order and keeping them ;;t such a distance as will allow the men to run the cage without interruption.
 Physicians from the neighboring towns and cities have rendered their services and are working to their utmost caring for the injured, Miners from neighbor- ing coal fields have flocked in by every train during the night and day, tender ing their assistance and heroically volun- teering to enter the gloomy shaft in which so many of their comrades have perished, and in which perhaps death even awaited them on account of the iGosened bouldcrs which the shock of the explosion left upon a tlimsy balance and which a breath of air might precipitate upon them.
 The McAlster mines dot the prairie at intervals from quarter to half a mile, and each is surrounded by the usual novels which serve the purpose of homes to the miners These homes pre- sent q pathetic picture. There is not one in which the sound of mourning is not heard.
 Thus far about fifty bodies have been recovered, and of these twenty-four have been identified. New ones are constantly hrin% brought up. The injured are so nilurrous and scattered so widely among bi!' Village HOuSeS IudU Uuelr nuInDef can hardly be estimated. There were about four hundred men at work, as nearly as can be aScertained, about 150 of whom escaped injury, while the others are either imprisoned or have been brought up injured. Each trip of the cage brings to light new victim, whom the volunteers carefully carry to the mine blacksmith shop. which has been utilized as tenn porary morSue, and through which the
 
 dren surge in search of the absent mem brls of their families.
 Many of the men, some say nearly half, employed in the mine succeeded in effect ing their escape by climbed up through the airshaft One of the men who es- capped in this way climbing 450 feet With Il broken leg. Many of those who climhrtl to the top were badly burned, in sunr cHsrs the flesh stripping from their hun,i- a~ they -rrasped the ladder.
 II will be fully week before all the bodies of the entombed can be reached and brought to the surface. Work will be pushcd as fast as possible, however, and every cndcavor will be made to get at tEem.
 What caused the explosion cannot be stated, but it is supposed that some miner fired a blast without warning, a proceed ing in direct violation of the rules of the mine
 Many of the bodies recovered are so charred and blackcncd that Identification is Impossible