The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-06-30
NOT ONE SURVIVES.
LATEST FROM THE COAL MINE
HORROR AT PITTsToN.
Twenty-Five widows and Ninety Orr
phnns, All of Whom Are in Need of
Aid and VIII Get 1t.

WILKESEARRE, Pa, June 29.-It is
almost a settled fact, tonight, that OF
the small army CT men who entered
the Inflated Twin Shaft, at Pittston,
on Saturday night, not one survives.
Not only is every approach to their
dark tomb barricaded by enormous
masses of rock and debris, but it is
known that in the mine there is
large quantity of water, which is in
creasing in volume every minute. ThuS
the chances of recovering their bodies
ara more remote than ever. prominent
officials say that weeks or
MONTHS MAY BE CONSUMED
in clearing away the fallen coal in or
der to reach the bodies of the victims.
A mine superintendent of thirty-five
years experience thinks the unfor-
tunate men have met the same fate
| that befell the twenty-siX miners who
persisted in No. stope of the Susque-
| hanna Coal company in December, 1883.
| These men were caught in a rush on
| curn and water from the surface.
| Their bodies were buried under
mountain of coal refuse.
Three hundred men labOred for more
| than two weeks to rescue them. but
| the more debris they took out the more
rushed. in from the surface opening.
| AS the task was a hopeless one, it was
| finally abandoned, and the portion CT
| the mime where the men died was
| closed up.
WATER NO DOUBT.
| The supposition that there is water
| in the Twin shaft is well founded. Both
| the Lackawanna and Susquehanna
rivers rum in close proximity to the
shaft. From. the surface of the point
where the rock begins there is ait least
a river wash to, the depth of fourteen
feet. From this point down to the
bottom of the level, where the men are,
there was, previous to the fail, two
hundred and eighty feet of rock So
long as this remained intact there was
perhaps more leakage through the
crevices in the mine than i'm mines
which are not so close to large bodies
oe water.
When the fall occurred the $50 feet
of rock mentioned must have been
shattered, allowing the water to pour
into the mine in large quantities, I'M
til the open space below was filled
The natural consequence of this is that
If the men did not lose their lives under
the mass of rock, they must have
DIED BY DROWNING.
If this be the case it will be i'm
possible to remove the bodies from
the mine. The story will be a repeti-
ton of the Nanticoke disaster Mine
Inspector Mcdonald has issued the
following signed statement:
so far as my knowledge of the work
ing Of the mine goes and the manner
in which the work was conducted, l
do not believe sthe accident was due
/. to any criminal ,carelessness, but l can
~ ca 6Qf11 i1a1Ir hot
til 1 make a, thorough investigation
This cannot be done until we find the
men or abandon the mine.
HUGH MCDONALD,
Mine Inspector. y
There are surface indications tonight
that the Slope and main gangway Oh
the mine are packed tight with fall
ing coal and rock. In other words
late falls have completely wrecked
the inside workings of the colliery.
A QUESTION.
e Some take the view that it would be
: better to let the, bodies remain where
they are and devote the money thai
: would have TO be expended to oper
the passageway of the mine to the
relief of the widows and orphans OF
/ the victims.
Relatives Of the entonbed men op
pose this proposition. They look will
horror upon the idea Of their loved
4 ones sleeping their last sleep in an
2 abandoned mine, apart from the pos
), sibilfty st:n entertained by some tina
. the men may be alive.
Practical mine foremen who are il
TO way interested in the Newton Goa
d company, say that since there is NJ
2 possibility Of recovering the dead, pub
lie opinion favOrs the idea of relieving
= the living rather than digging for th
: dead The company, however, ha
n given no hint of abandoning the worl