Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-03-15
WINDY SHOT AGAIN
1t Hurries Nine Coal Miners
Into Eternity.
EIGHT OTHERS TERRIBLY WOUNDED

1lly One Unhurt of Eighteen Men in the
Mine at the Time-Bodies of the Dead
Terribly Nangled and Almost Unrecog-
nizable-Auderson, I. T., the Scene of
the Disaster-Seven Men Perish in the
Prairie Fires in kansas--Two Cavalry
Soldiers Drowned.
MCALESTER, /. T., March Is There
was an explosion in mine No. l at Ander-
son Monday night caused by a windy shot
fired by some person unknown. There
were only eighteen men in the mine at
the time, all OF whom were firing shots at
the time. OF these, nine were killed out
right and eight so badly burned that they
will probably die. The excitement Is so iu-
tense that is almost impossible to ascertain
the names of the dead and injured.
First Six Bodies Recovered.
The dead who have already been taken
from the mine are: John McFadden.
John +. Scanlan. w. f. Warren, Ernst
Matthews, Warren Love and Jules Trio
cori. The mine is owned and operated by
the Choctaw Coal company and is consi6-
cred one of the best in their posse ssion a
windy shot, which caused the explosion, Is
the blast which is set by the miners during
the day and shot by men whose duty it is
when all the day men are out of the mine.
Only One of Eighteen Unhurr-
A dull muffied, rumbling and trembling
like an earthquake gave warning to the
engineer at the mouth of shaft that the
deadly fire damp had caused an explosion
in the mine. He sounded the alarm and
as soon as possible a rescuing party was
lowered in the cage. A pitiable sight met
their eyes when they re ached the bottom.
In the main level lay the bodies of eight
miners mangied and torn and in one side
To- mi, bn had
stantly killed by the explosion. OF the
eighteen miners who We're working on the
shift but one was left unhurt and he
told the story of the explosion.
The Bodies Terribly Mancled.
The injured men were taken to the top
and cared for well as possible and the
work of recovering the dead bodies was be-
gun. Some of them were so terribly man.
gled that recognition was almost impossi-
BILE The injured We're: John Baltigh, w.
Z. Rice, Herman Rhody. Nathan Covalla,
Jasper Patten, Andrew Coleman and Peter
Cody.
The mine is owned and operated by the
Choctaw Coal company on the line of the
Choctaw Coal and Railroad company and
was located by Edwin ID. Chad wick in 1885
and opened in May, 1882 and has been in
operation since. Iu is considered the best
of the lot of shafts run by the company.
No More Deaths Anticipated.
The companys surgeons, who were
kept busy ali day caring for wounded state
that they do not anticipate any more
deaths, though the condition of several OF
the victims who have come here within
the past year from, Indiana and Pennsyl-
vania is very critical. Burns. one of the
victims, entered the mine for the first time
Monday night. Seaman and Love had evi-
IDENTIFY made every effort to escape, having
crawled some distance, the former having
buried his face in a pool of water. Had
| the accident occurred at any other hour OF
| the twenty-four the loss of lif would have
been terrible. as 400 men are employed
there during the day. The damage to the
mining property was very slight.