The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-12-24
THIRTY MINERS KILLED


fan is running, but part of the mines
remain unventilated. If the men have
not been able to contrive to save them
selves from the after-damp, 1 fear they
are dead.
One of the mine officials who spent
the entire day working in the pit said:
There is Little Hope.
1.-The havoc wrought is almost COM
plete and I have little hope that the
men are alive. The mine cars are
wrecked beyond recognition and piled
on each other. Stone and wooden brat
tees, as the doors controlling air cur
rents are called, We're blown down like
SO much paper. We have the passages
from the main shaft to the air shaft
cleared, but beyond that we cannot
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 be-
You'd this point, l see practically no
hope for the entombed men,"
AS the night grew blacker, the scene
at the shaft became more sorrowful
The rain came down in pitiless torrents
and each moment the air was more
chill. Back of the fateful pit rose a.
solid mass of mountainous darkness.
In front, but far across the railroad
tracks, were the pickering lights of the
homes of the miners. At one side of
the mouth of the shaft some huge
Jumps of coal made a blazing camp
fire and around it were seated a score
of workers Many We're speeches. over
the calamity, while others talked in
whispers and seemed to accept the
doom melted to their comrades with all
the stoicism of men engaged in dan
gerous employment. On the board
platform that covered the shaft grimy
miners knelt with ears bent to hear the
Cot, ,Nne{ Gov V$0t q
depths. BY an upper, window in
house beyond the tracks could be seen
mourning woman, her bowed head
visible in a light from rude lamp.
1t was Mrs. Meese, whose little son was
lying at the morgue, and whose hus-
| band. 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.
There was no hope and yet each nur-
tured that hope that lasts until the dead
lies before the mourner. Each had hus-
| band, 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 have the pay roll, but it has
| been impossible for them to discover
| all the survivors. But there is a gen
| eral agreement lndl from 5u TO % llleu
| are entombed. About one-half are
| Americans and the balance are Hun
garians or Slavs. The list as OBJ
| tanned is:
JOSEPH WAGRYOR, single, has
mother and sister.
JOSEPH BUTsCHsME, 40, wife and
| three children.
ALBERT MEEsE, IS, died after res
cue, was Taper boy.
| SAMUEL MEESE, his father, pit
| boss.
PETER oRIs, SO, married, has five
children.
HENRY HAGER, so, wife and chill
| dren.
JAMES THOMAS, married.
Carl Hobidski was hauled up from
the bottom, the rope being tied about
| his wrists. In 20 minutes after the res
cue he appeared on the scene calm as
ever.
Soon after the extent of the accident
became known undertakers were sum-
| moned from Brownsville. A new build
ing just back from the main shaft in
tended for a blacksmith shop, was con-
verified into morgue. Here pine board
on trestles were shaped into receptacles