The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-12-24


above ground, where they were given
| dead and tonight is, indeed. suffering Sc
| verely. When the first party was worn
| out and nearly poisoned another took it's
place and the work was kept up without a
moments cessation.
AT 10 o'clock tonight the work of rescue
| had progressed so far that Superintendent
Blower expected to have some bodies out
| by midnight. Mine Inspector Henry Lout-
tit is working away in the wrecked mine
at the head of gangs of picked men. who
are straining every nerve to save the sur
vivors, If there are any.
GAS IGNITED BY A LAMP
Mine Inspector James Blick. who reached
the scene tonight, said: 'I would not like
| to say there is no hope for the men in the
pit, but I doubt whether a single one re-
mains alive. The force Of the explosion
was something terrific and IT seems likely
great distance from the main shaft. The
men in the mine, If alive, can live for two
or three days without food in addition to
what they may have taken in dinner buck
cts, but the main point is IL they have air.
The fan is running but the big part of the
mine remains unventilated and probably
still is choked with deadly after-damp in
which no human being can live. II the
men have not been able to contrive to save
themselves from the after-damp fear that
they are dead. Just how the explosion oc-
CURED cannot be determined at present,
but the gas must have been ignited by
naked light
One of the mine officials, who spent al
most the whole day working in the pit.
said: 1.-THE havoc wrought is almost COM
plete and have little hope that the men
are alive. The mine cars are wrecked be-
yond recognition and piled on each other.
Stone and wooden brattices. as the doors
controlling air currents are called, were
blown down like so much paper, leav-
ing the passage from the main shaft to the
air shaft cleared, but beyond that We can
not go, and we cannot get the air into
the mine any further at present, although
working hard and making slow prog
ress. AS the air is not In the
mine beyond this I see practically no
hope for the entombed men. Heavy stone
clippings, a foot in thickness, were demol-
ished and five mules killed outright"
AS the night grew blacker, the scene at
the shaft became more sorrowful. The
rain came down in torrents and each mo-
ment the air was more chill. Back or the
fateful pit rose a solid mass Of mountain
Gus darkness. In front, far across the rail-
road tracks, were the f1ickering lights Of
the homes of the miners. AT one side OF
the mouth Of the shaft some huge Jumps
of coal made a blazing campfire and around
were seated score of workers. Many
were speechless over the calamity. while
others talked in whispers and seemed to
accept the doom meted out to their COM
panions with all the stoicism Of men en-
gagged in dangerous employment. On the
board platform that covered the shaft,
grimy miners knelt. with ears bent TO
hear the faintest call for succor from the
depths. N 4
By an upper window in a house beyond
the tracks could be seen a mourning
woman her bowed head visible in the light
from a rude lamp. 1t was Mrs. Meese'
whose little son was lying in deaths en-
brace in the quickly provided morgue. and
whose husband, Samuel Meese, was one
of the seven bodies waiting transfer to the
surface She was watching for the men TO
bring UP her husbands body. Beneath the
tramway of the tipple. weeping women
found shelter from the merciless rain;
shawls about their heads gave them scant
protection from the cold, but their blanched
faces showed the intense heart pain they
endured. There was no hope, and yet each
nurtured that hope that lasts until the
dead lies before the mourner. Each had
husband, father or brother cold in death
far down In the mine. and yet each tried TO
cling to some impossible remnant Of hope.
No complete list of the dead can be
compiled tonight. The managers OF the
mine hare the pay rolls, but it has been
impossible for them to discover all the
survivors. About one-haf are Americans
and the rest are Hungarians or Slavs. The
list as obtained is: Joseph Wagriar, single.
has mother and sister; Joseph Butsihme,
aged forty, wife and three children; Peter
Oris, aged thirty-six, married, has five
children; Albert Meese. aged fourteen,
died after rescued, q trapper; Samuel
Meese, his father, pit boss; Henry Hager,
aged fifty, wife and children; James
Thomas, married.
Among the fourteen brought out by the
rescuers on their first trip were Joe Meese,
driver, badly burned on face and body;
Harry Atwood, badly Surned. Thomas
Ratcliffe. a trapper boy. was at the shaft.
He started to go down the mine with the
rest at the morning descent, but his father
said there were no cars. He went home.
His father is amcng the lost.
Mrs. G.. l.. Harrington, wife OF the check |
did heroic service In furnishing |
the little band with coffee.
Carl Hobidsh was hauled up from the |
bottom, the rope being tied about his |
wrists. In twenty minutes after rescue he |
on the scene calm as ever.
Soon after the extent Of the accident be- |
came known undertakers were summoned |
from Brownsville. A new building. Just |
back Of the main shaft, intended for a |
blacksmith shop. was converted into a |
morgue. Here pine boards on trestles were |
shaped into receptacles for the dead. All |
is in readiness for the victims OF the mines |
when brought to the surface.
There was an explosion in the Braznell |
mine last July. 1t adjoins the Umpire !
mine. in which eight men were killed last
year the day before Christmas by a |
similar explosion. Henry Hagar, one of
the men entombed in the Braznell pit /.
the uncle of Harry Hagar. who was killed