Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-01-25
EIGHTY MINERS KILLED
The Accident in the Fortschritt
 Mine at Dux.
SCORES CRUSHED AND MANNED

The Explosion Occurred While tn.
 shifts Were Changing - Heartrendins
 Scenes at the Mouth ofths Shaft-womer
 Attempt to Mob the Mine Officials.
 VIENNA, Jan. 25-The accident in the Fortschritt mine was far more serious than reports last night indicated. De spatches from Dux now say that 8C miners were killed and scores were in jured.
 The explosion occurred yesterday noon when the shifts were changing. A cage full of miners had been lowered half way down the shaft when the ground trem- bled and a rumbling report was heard and the cable attached to the cage gave such a lurch that the lower machinery broke
 A rush of air and dust from the pits mouth, the sounds of crashing timbers and the cries of the men in the cage gay @ warning to the men above of the exten t of the disaster.
 Help was summoned, the machinery was repaired after delay of half an hour and the cage was raised. Ten of the oc- cupants had been killed instantly by the shock, ten had suffered fractures from which they cannot recover; five, who had broken limbs and internal injuries, will live
 They had been half suffocated by the gas rising in the shaft and said that no man could live below.
 An hour later the superintendent of the mine and five miners from the night shift went down in the cage. They were unable to go more than a hundred yards from the shaft into the gallery, but there they found 14 dead bodies.
 Of the 50 men who were waiting for the cage, 10 had been killed, and 40 had been partially crushed by falling timbers, or half sutfocated by the foul air. A short distance from the shaft the superintend- ent found four bodies which had been crushed beyond recognition by falling beam.
 The bodies and the injured were taken to the top, where the whole mining set clement had gathered to watch the work of rescue.
 The men who had been brought up from the bottom said that Q few minutes after the explosions they heard cries and groans from the mouth of the gallery, about 300 yards from the shaft.
 There was heavy timber work at this place, and they believed that the men in this gallery had been imprisoned by the falling beams. They believed that some 40 men had been at work there.
 Shortly before the cage came down they said the cries ceased. Another rescue party went down at once and after three of them had been carried back to the shaft unconscious, penetrated to the en- trance of the gallery.
 The entrance was completely blocked by the wrecked woodwork. The rescue party could see several dead bodies on the other side of the timbers, but was unable to get at them and returned to the top empty handed.
 It is believed that all the men in the gallery were suffocated or killed by tho shock of the explosion.
 When the extent Of the disaster began to become evident, the women of the dead mems families attempted to mob the mine officials, accusing them of care lessness in the management of the mine and of indifference as to the fate of the husbands and brothers below.
 The mine officials sent to Dux for police and three companies of soldiers are camped ill the fields around the pits mouth.
 The miners families watched all night despite the inclemency of the weather.