The Port Gibson reveille. [volume] (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1890-current, 1895-09-05
FOURTEEN LIVES,
lS The RESULT OF THE GREED OF
MINING COMPANIES.
TOO SrINGY TO MAKE NEEDED
REPAIRS.
The CupIdity OF the Owners Responsls
BILE for the Disaster.
They Refused TO Bear Their Propor-
tion Of Drainage Expenses--water
Flows In on the Doomed workmen.

CENTRAL CRY, CoL.-The accidental
flooding Of the Americus and Sleepy
Hollow mines Thursday afternoon
caused the death of fourteen miners.
A little after o'clock the water in the
lower workings of Fisk mine, east ol
the main shaft, broke through the
old works of the vein, which has not
been worked for years. Coursing west
ward it struck the Americus. where
two Italian workers, whose names have
not been learned, were at work in the
top part of the shaft. They were both
drowned. In its course the water d.
verted to the Sleepy Hollow mine.
Twenty-nlne men were working in the
Sleepy Hollow and Americus mines
when the disaster occurred. All who
escaped were engaged at the points
above the line of the break. All be-
low we're almost instantly submerged,
and their bodies must lie there for
weeks The names of the dead are:
In the Americus-O Ofivia Patnoster,
aged 80, married, wife and two child
rem; Achill Apalcini, aged AZ, married,
wife and five children. In the Sleepy
Hollow-N. Vegas, single;C Crosken-
back, single; NaZzarino Maraota, mar
ried, wife and child; Will Prisk, sin
gle, aged II; William Thomas, mar
ried, wife and child; o. Brouse, mar
ried, wife and child; Thomas Williams,
married, wife and child; Thomas Car
bliss, married, wife and three children;
J. Harris. single; Steve Yallero, sin
gle, aged %. j. Perko, single; Martin
Bacona, married, wife and two children.
The calamity is one which has not been
unexpected For three years past a
dispute between the owners of the sew
eral mines in the group has been on,
over the question Of drainage. The
Gregory, Bob Tall, Fiske, Americus
and Sleepy Hollow have been parties
to the dispute, and thirty-six proper
ties have been closed IN the lower
levels and allowed to stand partially
fillel with water, because of this mis-
understanding over prorating the ex-
pense of draining between the several
owners. The workings Of the mines
afe so sitnated that the Gregory, Bob
Tail and the Fiske have been forced to
combat a strong flow of water, the
pumping of which by them left the
Sleepy Hollow and Americus practi-
cally dry.
When the Fiske owners failed to ar
range satisfactory terms with their
neighbors to meet share of the pump
ing expense they allowed the water to
raise in the lower workings and this
large reservoir stood above the work
ings of the adjoining mines, constant
menace to those working beneath.
The Sleepy Hollow, Americas and
Fiske are on the same vein of ore. The
first two are connected by drifts at the
400 foot level; the Americus and Fiske
are separated by a wall of ore standing
IN the vein at the joint end lines. So
much greater arethe system of under
ground workings in the Fiske than
those of its end line neighbors that the
rush of water frOm the three levels
above the point of the break was quite
sufficient to fill the entire workings of
the two. The Americus filled first be-
low the seventy-foot level, and it was
no appreciable time before water was
pouring from it into the Sleepy Hol-
low through the air tunnel connection
an the level where the break occurred.