Adams County news. [volume] (Ritzville, Wash.) 1898-1906, 1899-12-13
TH|R1Y-F|VE men killed.
IN A COAL MINE EXPLOSION.
At the Town of Carbonate, Forty
Miles From Taooina-Same Mine
Exploded in 1S8O-Tunnels Large

Tacoma, Dec. ia mine explosion at
Carbonate, 40 miles from Tacoma Satur-
day killed 80 men. Identity Of the dead
is almost impossible. The scraps OF cloth
ing that still cling to the bodies Of the
men are carefully preserved, laid aside
and labelled to aid in identification.
Frenzied relatives of the missing men
gathered at the mouth of the mine, watch
ed eagerly to catch glimpse of the forms
as they are hurried by to the coroners
office. The work of rescue is being rush
ed forward, but it may be days before the
last blackened form is taken from the
mine, for many are believed to lie buried
under mass of earth and rock.
To extricate them will take time, and
thus far the work Of rescue has been
pushed forward at the extreme peril of
The workers, for the black damp and nox-
ious gases have driven the rescuers back.
List of Missing Company Men.
Mike Knish, Leonard johnson, j. II.
Jones, Henry Soini, Mike Kichinko, Will
liam Wilson, John Mellon, David X.
Thomas, Matt Ryhala, Ben Zedler, Jr.,
John Hill, Howell Meredith, ST., Watkin
Jones, Andrew Gecey, Evan NJ. Lewis,
Joe Lee, Richard Dare, Daniel Davis,
Rees Jones, Peter Merpax.
Missing Contract Men.
August Hainaut, Matt Nuland, Paul
Curtiss, Adam Pavon, John Sofia, John
p. Dekonink, Ben Zedler, ST., Emil Hahn
aut, T. j. Edwards, Avans Richards,
Joseph Thomas, Steve Kromoga, William
NJ. Davis, Jacob Lande.
Cause May Never BE KNOWN.
The cause Of the explosion is mys-
terry. Not even the miners rescued can
give the slightest possible explanation.
Only safety lamps, the English Clancy
and the Davie patterns, are worn when at
work. Should, however, one of the men
haplessly have opened his lamp in an ac-
emulation Of gas, the gas would sud
denly ignite and explode. The only open
light known was that from the small loco
motive used to haul cars in and out from
the canyon to the main level. 1t is the
orizing to say that this was the cause, al
way, now lying wrapped in oil silk and
fairly covered with a mixture of boiled
linseed oil and lime juice, says he was
caught in the shock OH the main gang
way. Conway was the first man to come
out of the mine.
Incidents at the MOrsue.
Among the incidents at the morgue an
old man, father OF Richard Dare, totter-
ed in anxiously inquiring for his son. A
rough but kindly disposed young miner
busy with the care of the corpses being
eager to save the old man sight before
which any strong man might quail, told
him that he did not think that his son was
there. The aged father left the cheap
looking one-story building sobbing, but
still hoping.
He was spared a vision OF shapeless
mass of charred flesh and rags.
"a black cloud hangs over Carbondale,"
was the sombre observation of one SCOT
covered miner, and it is true one, for
overhead is gloomy, cloud-obscured sky.
All day the rain had been drizzling down
and the town was in mass of mud. In
this rain and through this mud the silent
professions bearing upon stretchers the
corpses and the injured have been tread
ing their way to the morgue and the hos
pital, handling with tender solicitude their
gruesome burdens.
The last estimate Superintendent Davies
made of the number of dead is between
30 and 35. This is thought to be conser-
vative. Superintendent Davies is cool
and collected, but Foreman Davis has to
60 about his painful duties with the
knowledge that his promising young son
has gone to the speeches. bourne.
James Conway, who lies in the hospi-
tai, has a wife and two small children
Richard Dare, dead, was married only a
few months ago. His father is here visit
ing from Pennsylvania.
Four of the mules in the mine were
knocked down and killed, says one Of the
Finns through an interpreter.
In 1890 an explosion at this same mine