Birmingham state herald., 1896-06-30
THEIR TOMB FOR ALL TIME. Bodies of the Victims Will Never
 Be Reach ed.
CONCLUSION OF EXPERTS
If the Men Were Not Crushed They We're Drowned-The Rescue Party in
 Constant Danger.

Wilkesbarre, Pa, June 29.-The situa- tion at the scene of the Pittston disaster remains practically unchanged tonight. The company is making every possible effort to reach the victims, but there is absolutely no hope that any of them will be recovered alive. The friends and relatives of the eYentombed men haunt day and night the head of the shaft. hoping against hope that some of the rescuing party may bring up word of cheer
 But as one gang after another reaches
 the surface and answers the eager ques- tions with only Q sad shake of the head.
 then hope dies out again and despair sets upon the countenances of the un- happy ones.
 The rescuing party that went into the shaft this morning returned at 6 o'clock this evening. and as they jumped from the carriage the foreman was heard to say: Nc hope of rescue as yet" Later on it was learned that the situation in side is changing almost hourly, owing to
 the continuous caying or squeezing" and on this account nothing can be told as to when the men can be reached. The rescuing party tonight are working their way to the point where they propose to start digging tomorrow morning. They
 still continue to timber as they go, and
 the work of the rescuers is a most dan gerous one.
 Henry McMillan, inside foreman of the Barnum mine, who went into the pit this
 afternoon to make @ careful survey
 says that in his belief the caving will
 continue more or less for week. The fall is immense and the progress of the
 diggers when they do commence to dig
 will depend entirely upon the solidity of
 the fall.
 Prominent mine officials from all parts
 of the country were on the scene today
 discussing the sad disaster from every
 standpoint. A conference was held dur ing the day.
 Among the officials who were present were Mine Inspector Blewett of Scran- ton, Anthony Horn, superintendent of
 the Pennsylvania Coal company. Pitt ston; Superintendent Davis of the Dod- son Coal company, Plymouth; H. H. Ash ley, general manager of the Parrish Coal
 company, Wilkesbarre; J. l.. Cake, man.
 ager of the Clear Spring Coal company,
 West Pittston, and J.. Bennett Smith,
 practical engineer of the Hazard works,
 Wilkesbarre. The most of them have
 come to the conclusion that the bodies
 will never be reached. Water has been
 running into the shaft since yesterday and today 1t has increased in volume. Both the Lackawanna and Susquehanna rivers run in close proximity to the Twin shaft. From the surface to the point where the rock begins there is at least 146 feet of what is known as river wash. From this point down to the bottom, or the level where the men are, there was previous to the fall 280 feet of rock. AS long as this remained intact there was perhaps no more leakage through the crevices than in mines which are not in such close proximity to large bodies of lswater,
 When the fall occurred the 2S0 feet of rock referred to must have been shatter- l<.l he Tar fn n mine in large quantities until the open space below was all filled. The very natural consequence of this Is that if the victims did not lose their lives under the fall they came to their death by drown ing. If this be true, and there is no req sen to doubt that 1t is, it win be impossi- ble to remove the bodies of the victims from the mine.
 One of the chief officials of a neighbor- ing mine stated today that the heavy rains of the last few days had caused water to go into the Twin shaft and down into the fifth vein, which caused the roof of the red ash vein to become weakened and give symptoms of cave, and th1s necessitated the timbering that was go- ing on when the fall occurred.
 Criticisms are already numerous re- garding the awful calamity, though it is too soon to express opinions as to the pos- sibility of having averted this almost un- precedented accident or to pass criticism upon those who authorized so large a body of men to enter mine in so danger ous a condition. An official investigation will follow, and 1t is thought 1t will in every respect be thorough and impartial. The several acts of assembly for the safety of the men employed in the mines of this state provide ample machinery for such an investigation, and the proper au- thorities will doubtless see to 1t that the provisions of the law are put into full operation in this most distressing case.