Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-05-06
Awful Accident atthe Original
Mine
FELL INTO THE CAGE SHAFT
A DS.ance of About 1000 Fe.t--
His Body Not Recovered
up TO Noon To-Day.

John Comeback. a miner employed at
the Original mine, met with an awfu
death about $3.50 O'Clock this morning.
Not much is known concerning the UNI
fortunate occurrence save tina Combel-
lack fell from about forty feet below the
mouth OF the shaft. into the stump Of the
mine, a distance Of over 1000 feet. The
shaft is a steep incline and from a few
feet below the place from which he fell,
to the 1,100 level, the awful story of his
death is told by the blood and fragments
Of the victims flesh, on the timber of the
shaft, where he struck repeatedly until
he reached the stump, and his body must
have been battered into a jelly. At II
o'clock this morning the body had not
been recovered although every effort mad
been made to do so.
The water in the mine has been causing
much trouble of late. 1t is so heavily i'm
pregnated with copper that it eats holes
through the piping quickly, and at the
time of COmbellack's fall, the pump pipes
We're disconnected. In the meantime the
water had gained much Roadway on the
pumps nd while the management expect.
ed to make the connection by noon today,
the water cannot be lowered so as to get
NO0Ny 0AoPE4AI6 AlOCAS NSAS
used this morning several hours, but
without success.
About six o'clock this morning Combec-
lack, accompanied by his partner, John
Caddy, ard a pumpman, William Gard
ner, were sent down the shaft to the place
from which he fell, to remove a section Of
the water column and replace it with
new pipe. The old pipe had been removed.
Comeback was standing on the wall
plates, about fifteen feet above the other
men who were on the skip, which was
slowly ascending. The skip stopped be-
low him, from a signal from one Of the
men, and a moment later Caddy and
Gardner heard something strike the tim
bering in the cage shaft with a distinct
thud. They looked up to where Combel-
lack had been standing an instant before
and could not see him and realized that
he had fallen into the cage shaft, and
that his body was crashing along the
+: timbering down the shaft. The men i'm
mediately went to the surface and noti-
: fled the engineer, who sent for the fore
man Frank Fitzgerald. Mr.. Fitzgerald
was at his home and was making pres
parations to leave for the mime. He and
several others went down or the cage and
by the blood n fragments of flesh along
the timbering, traced the descent of Com
bellack's body to the LOO level. He no.
tilted Coroner Julien and Deputy Mining
inspector FRANK Hunter, and men were
put at work in getting the water column
into working order, and after the off
Gals arrived men worked several hours
with graphing hooks, but could not get
the body.
The dead man was about "a years of
age, and had resided in Butte since his
youth. He was married, and besides his
wife leaves a child, and only recently
purchased a home west of Missoula gulch.
Two hrOthprS Of tho 1oppocod "i1Ijouo
and Alfred Comeback, reside in the city.
The two brothers and Edward Bluett, the
dead man's father-in-law, were at the
mine all morning, watching the efforts to
get the body with much anxiety. Mr..
Fitzgerald stated this morning that Com