Birmingham state herald., 1895-12-21
TWENTY-N|NE MINERS LOST Caused by an Explosion of Fire
 Damp. RESCUING PARTIES AT WORK The BIackened COrpses of the Miners Were Carried Out for Identification. FOUL AIR EXHAUSTED THE W0RKMEN The Grief of the Women and Children Is Heartrending It Is aSpeotacle From
 Which One Turns Sick at
 Heart.
FOUL AIR EXHAUSTED THE WoRKMEt
Heart.

Chattanooga, Tenn, Dec. 20.-Twenty- four miners lost their lives today in the Nelson mine, entry No. 10 near Dayton, Tenn, by an explosion of fire damp. The explosion was succeeded by a terrific crash, which indicated that the roof of the passage through which the men had entered had fallen in. No avenue of es- cape was left, and there is no possibility that any of them will be found alive. The mine is the property of the Dayton Coal and Iron company, three miles from the town of Dayton, and is reached by spur track. The men, both white and Aeolored, including several boys, en- tered the mine to go to work at o'clock this morning, but there was no news of the awful catastrophe until Il o'clock, when the drivers in entry No. 10 found their way blockaded by a solid wall of coal and slate. The Nelson mine has been worked for twelve years or more, and the entry where the unfortunate miners are entombed ran back more than two miles from the mouth of the mine. The mine is of the kind common in south ern coal fields, known as drift or level veined mine, and worked in the direction of the vein straight into the face of the mountain, but before entry is reached long slope extends to level Of several hundred yards below at an angle of about 20 degrees. The cars are pulled up from the foot of the slope where tram cars drawn by mules connect with it to the outside by cable, which hauls the coal up with remarkable rapidty.
 Rescuing parties have been working all day trying to reach the miners, but it is probable that they will be several days forcing an opening through the wall Of the fallen roofing. which must be made safe as they proceed. The foul air quick ly exhausts the workmen, who are re- lieved by fresh hands. The work will continue day and night until the bod ies are recovered. At the drift mouth hundreds of women and children soon gathered and the picture of grief and despair is heartrending. Mothers wiring ing their hands, weeping daughters and Ettle children, sweethearts and gray headed grandparents, are all in the greatest distress, for they have been told that there is no hope. It is. spectacle from which one turns sick at heart. The mine is ventilated by air shafts or pas sages, so the caving of the wall in the entry cut off the draft and death was certain to those who breathed the pois- oned air.
 The latest details and a corrected ac- count at o'clock this afternoon say that a way had been broken through the debris in the passage of entry 10 and the biackened corpses of the dead miners were carried out one by one to the. out side, where the work of Identification be- gan. The number of victims, first re- ported at twenty-five, has reached twen- ty-nine The bodies recovered are those of negroes, which have not been recog- nized. William Raddy, colored lad,, was one of the last to be brought out. Life had long been extinct in all the poor remnant of humanity stretched at the mouth of the tunnel Latest records records say that the gas was first igniteP in No. by Tom Hawkins, gas inspector, on his usual morning rounds of the mines. The flames were rapidly com municated to entry 10 by means of side passages All the men at work in en- try escaped except Hawkins. In No. 10. which forms an angle in the banks and connects the outside world at the foot of the lower slope. the deadly gas drifted and congested. doing its work so well that not one of the men at work in the rooms of this cross passage is alive to tell the story. Oscar Hawkins, one Of the first men to get out of No. 9. will also die. making the twenty-ninth life sacrificed Leech and Westfield are ne- groes and were found outside the entry having fallen dead just as they passed 1t.
 The explosion occurred in entry No. 10. the men in entries No. l. 2, and escaping, with the execution of Tom Hawkins, who breathed the fatal air be- e. 1,n