Omaha daily bee., 1899-12-10

above the water level when the explosion
came and he lowered himself down tim
Der chute to rescue one of his sons, Daniel
Meredith, working below. The son came
out unharmed but his father is still down
in the mine and one of the rescue force
says he saw his dead body. The tunnel in
which the explosion took place is about one
and quarter miles in length on water
level under the southwest part of the town.
There arc several air chutes running up
to the surface of Wingate HILL west of here.
Force of the Explosion.
The force of the explosion was such that
it knocked down John Ryan, so-called. a
Finn, who was working at the eighth cross
cut, 800 feet above the water level.
The other Finn escaped up through an
old timber chute running up to the slope
of the hill. These were all uninjured, hut
most Of them left the mine at once without
helping the rescue party.
Dave Lewis was working with Howell
Meredith at the time, but he managed to
escape. Ryan, the Finn, had all he could
do to crawl through the fallen timbers which
blocked all egress Immediately after the
explosion the foreman, Jonah Davis, gave
the alarm to the men working on the ,dif-
ferent levels, shouting as loud as he could:
Look out for the black damp and get cut for
your lives!"
The Firms were quick to take advantage
of the timber chute Altogether some
thirty men escaped by this means, many of
them being hoisted UP by ropes Rees Mer.
edith, a son OF Howell Meredith, descended
the incline from near the company's store
and office about two hours after the explo-
sion with several other men. They could
npIN 1;eton of bolF
passage was checked with black damp, whi
is air from which all oxygen has been
burned, strongly charged with carbonic acid
gas.
Ever since the catastrophe Superintendent
Davies and Foreman Jonah Davis have been
fighting against the great odds of this deadly
gas, aided by the brave Welshmen.
Just at this moment, AS p. m. number
of men have been pulled up through the tim
Der chute near the summit of Wingate hill
from depth of several hundred feet. They
were picked up from six of the levels near
the water level Three more have been res
cued up through the inclined tramway.
All of them are badly blackened and burned
and they are Immediately taken to the
hospital and are wrapped in
cloths soaked in linseed oil by DR.. Justwart
of Carbonate, Dr. Johnson OF Fairfax, DR..
Charles Taylor Of Wilkeson and DR.. Lough-
len and DR.. Rummell of Tacoma.
PitifuI Scenes mt Hospital.
The scenes at the hospital are pitful.
Men whose clothing is almost burned from
their bodies are laid out as fast as they
arrive, their eyebrows and hair singed and
their faces black and bleeding. Women and
children surround the building weeping,
A crowd Of voiceless men stand in front
OF the mouth OF the incline, waiting to see
who OF their friends will be next brought
out alive. Occasionally a shapeless body
comes up on the car. Rescue parties are
working both on the incline and at the old
timber shute on the hill
Sadness fills the Meredith home. Mrs.
with flowing tears, fears that not
only has she lost her husband, but her son,
Daniel Meredith, who. although said to be
saved, has not yet appeared across the ac-
,ustomed threshold. crowd of sympathiz-
ers are grouped around her offering their
1t was customary to work 1l5
men, divided into three shifts, but the first,
The morning shift. was the largest.
Several years ago an explosion of fire.
lamp occurred in this same mine and two
men lost their lives. Nobody so far, blames
he company, as the explosion Is regard. as
IN accident common to coal mining Tim
Der gangs are now at work replacing the
ieranged timbers and incidentally rescuing
he imprisoned miners or taking out an oc-
'asiona body. The fans are working well |
md most of the black damp is being rapidly |
sucked out of the mine. They we're not |
stopped at all by the explosion
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