The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-12-11
Carbonate Coal Mine Horror Yet a
Mystery.
THIRTY Two ARE DEAD
GOVERNOR ROGERS WILL MAKE
A RIGID INVESTIGATION.
Coroner Will Impanel His Jury In
Tacoma, 1t Being Impossible to
Get Impartial Jurors in Carbonate
-Superintendent Davis Presents
Theory of the Explosion.

Carbonate, Wash. Dec. 10.-Stunned
the people here seem too dazed for any
expression of grief of a demonstrative
nature.
Thirty-two is the number of dead AS
by a miracle two men were rescued at
) o'clock this morning. after suffering
an awful night entombed in the dark
cavernous chambers of horrors.
Almost hooking the doleful situation
one of the men. Peter Merpx. proudly
slapped himself on the breast as he
was emerging from the mouth of the
main tunnel, calculating, Peters all
right; how's my dogs?"
In painful contrast to him was the
other fortunate, named Michael Knish,
a Pole. So sickened had he been with
the bad air, laden with it's black damp.
that he could hardly find his voice,
and what utterances he did give vent
to were born of delirium.
Later in the day Knish said:
Il was working on the fourth cross
cut when it came. After that went
to. sleep and somebody came and woke
me up and took me out ofsthere."
That was the telI-tale measure of
his period of consciousness. All he
knew was that an explosion had hap
pened and then he fell asleep until res
cued. He had lain in the cool depths
over eighteen hours and had not the
least conception of this length of time.
On the other hand, Peter. the French
man, had been blindly cropping around
in the darkness for the most of the
night on his hands and knees, seeking
for some avenue of escape.
Save these two men, the death is as
follows:
To
Henry Soini, Matt Rehlea and Victor
Ruhinaki formerly given as X. John
HID, all Firms; Michael Kichinko,
John Mellon and Andrew Gecey Poles;
John H. Jones, David x. Thomas, How
ell Meredith, ST.. Watkin Jones, Evan
NJ. Lewis, Daniel Davis and Lees Jones,
all Welsh: William Wilson. Joseph Lee
and Richard Dare. Americans, and Ben
Zeinler, ir., German.
Contract Miners.-August Hainayt
and Emil Hainaut. Belgians; Paul Cur
tiss, Adam Pavoh. John Folta and
Steven Kraunoga. Poles; Ben Zeidler,
ST., German; Matt Nuland and Jacob
I-anGe, Firms. s
The injured, in addition to knish.
number five. They are Andrew Kich-
inko, Michael J. Kichinko Hungarans;
Abraham Kalunki. a Finn. and James
Conway. the first man to leave the
mine of Foreman Davis shift, all of
whom are severely burned, and Candi-
do Parolin, an Italian, who has several
ribs fractured by falling timbers.
Governor Rogers will conduct a
searching examination as to the cause
of the explosion. He has teiegraphed
State Mine Inspector Owens, now at
Spokane. to attend the inquest tomor-
row and examine witnesses himself.
The question of efficient ventilation of
the mine, in accordance with the state
law, will be thoroughly gone into.
It has been found impossible to Sc
cure an impartial coroner's jury in the
mining district, and Coroner Hoska
has gone to Tacoma and will select his
jurors there. e
The theory of Superintendent Davies
is that a small pocket OF gas was
opened and became ignited. The con-
cussion of gas explosion caused the
terrific explosion of dust which caused
all of the damage and less of life
The total number of men in the I'M
fortunate shift was seventy-siX, of
whom forty-four are alive, all OF them
having escaped or been rescued.