The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-07-07
INQUEST IS BEGUN.
concluded from Page IL

talking with the officials and rescuers
concerning the conditions below but
withal he failed to conceive anything
like the real state of affairs that exist
The danger of death to the men work
ing in the face of the fall is momentary
and those who are farther removed
from the active district are taking al
most equal grim and desperate chances.
A short distance from the foot of the
shaft Foreman Evans pointed out a
pillar which had been crushed only the
night before by squeeze. 1t was so
thoroughly shattered that 1t could be
torn away by the hand If one dared
to disturb it. All along the 500 feet
Of the gangway to the head of the slope
this same condition exists. The roof is
cracked and studded with hanging,
jagged rocks, and the sides are nothing
more or less than shattered bulging
walls of coal.
Passage through this gangway they
say is comparatively safe. The timb-
cred tunnel they claim will resist any
squeeze or settings that are likely to
occur. and while an occasional pillar
or section of roof with its propping
may give way to the terrific stress upon
them there is no great fear of the re-
treat being wholly blocked, and the
miners in the face of the fall being
made to share the fate of those they
are risking their lives for. In the slope
these conditions are intensified and the
men who have to work in the face of
the fall without the protection of the
\, ,ny,it, N1yr ftAi n
their hands.
They are tunneling through solidly
wedged mass of various sized broken
rock, which does not contain a crevice
anywhere large enough to admit good
sized cat. 1t is almost as compact as
solid wall. AS the reporter had all
along supposed, the men do not merely
have to clear out a rock-choked gang
way. They have to burrow through
this debris by dislodging enough of the
rocks to give them a passage way and
then use the props to hold the remain
ing rocks of the roof and sides in place.
That they made only six or eight feet
a shift was a cause of much surprise to
the reporter before he saw what they
have to contend against. That they
succeed in making any headway at all
is now a greater cause of surprise.
The only way that the rescuers are
enabled to follow the route of the slope
through the fall is by the ear tracks.
Manways and headings that extended
on one side or the other from the slope
are totally obiterated. There is no
way of finding them as there are no
rails running through them. From the
point where the men are now working
ii would seem that the whole Of the fifth
and sixth veins, gangways. chambers.
pillars, and everything else had been
removed by some mystic power and the
void filed in with a broken mass of in
discriminatory mixed rock and coal
packed as tightly as is possible.
Through this the rescuers are burrow-
ing at the rate of ~ to l3 inches an hour.
which is as fast as 1t is possible for
human agency to push the wT'k. Sew
en- hundred feet beyond Is The point
where :hey must branch out in differ
ent directions to look for the bodies.
Some of the bodies may be at this point
others may be thousand feet away.
The amount of timbering that has
gone into the mine since the tunneling
began can not be told as no tab was
kept on it when it was being lowered.
1t is also hard to give any adequate
idea of its vastness Every pillar along
the gangway is surrounded by close
" planted row of props Cog pillars"
made by piling props crosswise and
making a solid square, say l2xl2, reach
ing from the floor to the roof, are found
in every opening off the main gangway,
and at almost every other point where
the width of the gangway will permit
it, The roof over the passageway is
braced with collars and lighter timber
and along the sides wherever there is
room for a pillar to stand there one is
found
a TUNNEL OF WOOD.
The gangway is almost. hidden from
view by the timber, so much so in fact
that one would imagine himself pass
ing through wooden tunnel instead of
the gangway in a mine.
AS long as these timbers can resist
the pressure of the 500 foot thickness
of earth above them, the rescuers have
nothing to fear but the gas. The ques-
ton is will they hold out? A negative
answer will mean more mourning in
bereaved Pittston.
S464S SO FOR pITTSTON