The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-09-29

the race in the mine had outstripped
his companions, was carried out and
irto the engine house His parents
are dead. and the only other close
friend, Isaac Watkins, the fire boss,
was yet to be taken from the mine.
After another wait Of fifteen minutes
the carriage was again hoisted. This
time the bodies of Smith, Gallagher
and Franklin, laying side by side on
truck, were seen.
AN AFFECTING SCENE.
The truck was run along the track
TO q point thirty feet from the shaft.
Here It was necessary to lift the truck,
the three bodies still upon It. TO an
other track. While the truck was be-
ing lifted a man crying my brudder,
my brudder!" burst from friends who
were holding hir1. and sprang upon
the truck. He tore away the blanket
from the face of Joe Smith and kissed
him again and again, cryiny like
child, and wailing hot words in the
Hungarian language. Smiths little son
was crying pitifully hoar by. The
truck was pushed alody to the road, a
hundred yards away where the am
bulance awaited 1t. Here Mrs. Smith,
wife of the man. struggled to reach
the body. Her cri's were heart reno
ing.
Smith was taken home in the ambu-
lance. The bodies OF Gallagher and
Franklin were removed to the engine
house and finally an hour afterward
to their homes-Gallagher in the am
bulance to Minooka and Franklin to
his home in Rendham. Tompkins was
taken in Undertaken Davis wagon to
the house where Isaac Watkins lived.
At last report Watkins body had not
been found. 1t was thought he ran in
an opposite direction to the four other
men. His wife is now visiting in
Wales.
The closing scenes of the tragedy was
the group of men and women surround
ing the four men who made the dis
covery and listening to their story.
Outside Foreman Merritt stated that
the colliery was shut down indefinitely.
He could not explain the catastrophe F;
the "fan" had been kept in full motion
all the time.
SCENE AT GALLAGHER'S HOME.
When the ambulance brought the
dead body of John j. Gallagher to his
home in Minooka, the scene that oc-
cured was heartrending. His wife and
children and his relatives and his
neighbors knew nothing about the
dread casualty until the ambulance
drew up at the gate In few minuter
nearly everybody in Minool1a flocked to
the house. and the lamentations were
| loud enough to be heard several blocks
away.
The dead mans wife was frantic
with grief, and his little children
cried so loud and piteously that there
was scarcely a dry eye among all as
sembled. Mrs. Gallagher had to be
loft with the body for long time, and
It was only after she was prostrated
that she could be got away. His
| father, too, a gray-haired old man, was
almost as unconsolable. Wife and
| father and the children threw them
selves upon the body, caught up the
dead hands, and begged the lifeless
remains to speak. In all the mine
! fatalities that overlook residents OF
scene than this.
| Mr.. Gallagher was a man whose love
for his family and upright life among
his neighbors had earned for him thu
| goodwill of everybody, and his sac
death is deplored by everybody whC
knew him. He was about 81 years old
He was married fourteen years ago
There are seven children, the Oldest, /;
boy, IL years, the youngest baby.
Mine Inspector Prytherick will toda,
commence an investigation into tn
cause of the accident.