Omaha daily bee., 1899-12-10
ICHTY MEN SUPPOSED TO BE WORKING
Many Heartrending Scenes Around Mouth
of the Shaft,
RESCUE PARTY BEGINS WORK AT ONCE
when victims Are Brought ont of the
Mines Friends and Relatives Are
Unable to Recognize Them
Until Washed.

CARBoNADO Wash, Dec. 9.-shortly be-
fore LAO o'clock this afternoon people in
this extraordinary coal mining village were
stunned with the first report OF n terrific
subtorranean explosion in the mine of the
Carbon Hill Coal company, the tunnels OF
which run for miles under the town. There
was an enormous rumbling, smothered sound
for n few minutes and then it ceased alb
ruptly. The people who had been accus-
toned to a livelihood by mining knew
at once what this meant and stood arounl
with blanched faces. Apprehensions OF
some fearful disaster were confirmed in a
little while with information that the morn
fng shift in tunnel No. had been caught
in an explosion of fredamp. Between
seventy and eighty men were at work in the
mine at the time and the meager report
conveyed the information that all must have
been killed, as there was no chance of
escape. Those who were not killed out
right would be hemmed in by the falling
walls and tmbers and suffocated by the
relief could come.
Stricken Women md Children.
A rush of inhabitants was made in the
direction of the mouth of the tunnel
Women, the wives of the men supposed to
be in the shift, ran to and fro screaming
and ringing their hands with anguish, cry
ing children, clinging to their skirts. II
was all that d. T. Davies, the superintendent
of the mine, could do to keep the friends
of the doomed miners and their wives from
punging madly into the tunnels mouth.
The coal mines here are those of the
Carbon Hill Coal company, but they really
belong to the Southern Pacific Railway COM
pany.
The coal Is ota@ SOFT hltuninous variety
productive OF large proportion of gas
and has been much used in gas manufacture.
The foreman in charge of the shift was
j. II. Davis. 1t is said that seventy eight
men were working under him. Sixteen
bodies all mangled out OF recognition, have
so far been taken out by the relief corps.
So far details of the disaster are meager,
Superintendent Davies and Foreman
Jonah Davis of the day shift are now down
in the mine, engaged in the rescue. The
number of men employed in the first day
shift was seventy-two. Their hours are
from a. m. to p. m.
The explosion occurred between 10 and
IL a. M, as near as can be ascertained.
Jonah Davis, the foreman, escaped unhurt
and besides him about twenty of the Firms.
Most of the men are Welsh and several of
the Welsh miners also escaped, but they
Immediately turned to and went back into
the mine in the hope of being able to rescue
these still supposed to be alive.
List of the Killed.
So far as known, the following were
killed, either by the explosion of the fire.
damp or suffocated by black damp, which
usually follows it:
REES JONES, fire boss, aged 80. unmar-
ried
DAN DAVIS, 1S.
EVAN LEWIS, 90.
RICHARD DURR, a young man, leaves a
widow and one child
JOHN JONES. Ga. leaves a widow and
married daughter
THOMAS EDWARDS, 40, leaves widow
EVAN RICHARDS, 80, leaves widow and
six children.
HOWELL MEREDITH, 80, leaves widow
and nine children. of whom two are mar
red sons and two are daughters.
JOE THOMAS, 27, single.
EVAN LEWIS, single.
WATT JONES 80 leaves a mother.
WILLIAM RICHARDS, As, leaves family,
- MULLEN, go leaves a mother.
GUSTAVE KNUTT
II. KNUTT
- JOHNSON, 40. leaves family.
BEN ZEDDLER and
Is. ZEDDER, father and son.
d. s. THOMAS, so, leaves family.
WILLIAM M. DAVIS, 35, leaves family
HOWELL MEREDITH, leaces family.
The first Ave bodies to be brought up the
long incline were those OF Watt Jones' Joe
Thomas, Evan Lewis, Richard Dare and
Daniel Davis.
Watt Jones was the chief starter. Daniel
Davis was a son of the foreman Of the shift.
None of the bodies were at first recogniz-
able because the faces of the dead men were
charred and black beyond recognition. It
WAS pnly dlltI luey we're COuhtyel 10 lne
morgue and the coapses were washed that
1t could be told who they were.
The work of rescuing the living was COM
pleted at o'clock. BY that time the mine
had been purified by the fans to such an
extent as to permit free ingress and egress
Down in the canyon mile from the town,
is the tunnelmouth leading TO No T. Nearly
two miles up the hillside is the shaft to the
mine and It was here that the work was
pushed vigorously,
Men went down in little parties OF two
or more and searched for the living as fast
as the deadly damp would allow progress.
Those who we're brought to the surface were
mufied in sackng to protect their burns
until they could be hoisted to the top OF the