The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1892-01-13
AWFUL MINE DISASTER.
Trightful Calamity in Goal Mine
Near McAllister, !. T.
Nearly Four Hundred Miners Entombed'
Only Half the Number Escaping with
out Injury--At Least n Hundred
Were Killed and Many
Others VIII Die.

sourH McALIsrER, !, T., Jan. 81
News OF the mine disaster in the Usage
mine at Krebs, FIVE miles east of here,
is coming in very slow. 1t is learned
that at the time Of the explosion nearly
$50 men were in the shaft Most OF
them had stopped work for the day and
were waiting their turn to ride out In
the cage. They had congregated near
the bottom of the shaft and the locality
is completely jammed with dead bodies.
It is stated that eight-fve men sue
ceeded in reaching the open air by
means of an abandoned tunnel. About
forty miners were rescued by lowering
of buckets at the hands of the rescuing
party outside the shaft. At daylight
Friday morning ten dead bodies were
carried to the surface. They were so
badly bruised and blacllened as to be
scarcely recognizable.
The mouth of the pit is surrounded
by q crowd of men, women and chill
dren, nearly all OF whom have relatives
in the mine. Their grief is pitiable and
their prayers and cries are agonizing as
they beseech the rescuing party to in
crease their efforts to save their loved
ones. OF the eight-fve men who reached
safety by means of the old tunnel, over
half Of them received injuries more or
less severe and many of them are so
badly injured by shock and bruises that
Il is feared they will not recover. 1t is
believed the explosion was caused by
firing shot when the mine was parti-
ally filed with gas.
Physicians from the neighboring
towns and cities have rendered their
services and are worked to their utmost
in caring for the injured. Miners from
neighboring coal fields have focked in
by every train during the night and day,
rendering their assistance and heroical-
ly volunteering to enter the gloomy
shaft in which so many of their com
rades have perished and in which per-
haps death even awaited them on ac-
count of the loosened boulders which
the shock of the explosion left upon
flimsy balance, and which breath OF
air might precipitate upon them.
Very little has been accomplished in
the way Of relieving those who may
still be alive and hemmed in by falling
walls. 1t is probable that week will
elapse before all the men can be
reached. Many of them no doubt are
still alive, but they are shut OF from
egress and must remain so until they
can be reached by outside help
The exact cause Of the catastrophe is
unknown. but it is supposed that con-
trary TO the custom and rules OF the
mines some miner fred blast without
authority, blast igniting the gas or coal
dust and causing the explosion, which
was terrific Il
There were about 400 men at work,
and as near as can be ascertained about
$50 of them escaped injury, while the
others are either imprisoned or have
been brought up injured, Each trip
of the cage brings TO light a new VIC
tim, which the volunteers carefully
carry TO the mine blacksmith shop,
which has been utilized as a temporary
morgue and through which the anxious
crowds Of miners wives and children
surge in search Of the absent members
Of their families
ST. LOUIS, Jan. 9-The officials OF
the Usage Mining company in this city,
the owners OF mine No. II at Krebs, !.
T., where the terrible disaster occurred
Thursday night have received dis
patch from McAllister stating that las
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 9OS men
unaccounted for The miners were al
white men.