The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-09-23
NET A TERRIBLE DEATH
Thrown From the Gage While
Ascending the Shaft.
LITERALLY CUT IN TWO
Careless Handling of the Drills Supposed
to Have Been the Cause of the
Accident-He Was Sta
ton Tender.

Joseph X. Richards, a well known
miner, met terrible death in the shaft
of the Rarus mine yesterday morning.
The accident was apparently due to the
careless handling of drills which, by
some means, caused the unfortunate
miner to be thrown from the cage
while ascending the shaft. He was lit
orally cut in two between the cage and
a wall plate.
Richards was employed as station
tender and in that capacity had occas-
ion to go to the 1000 level. Some drills
laid on the station which had been
placed there to be taken on top to be
sharpened. Richards laid the drills on
the floor of the cage without taking the
precaution of fastening them together.
circumstance which has repeatedly
been the cause of fatal accidents, not
withstanding that a rule is in vogue in
all the mines that drills or long tools
of any kind must be securely tied when
being carried on the cage.
Thomas Greenslade, another employe
of the mine, was at the station of the
1000 waiting to go on top after some
rope. He stepped on the cage and
Richards rung for the surface. The
cage assembled rapidly. At the 450 sta
tion Greenslade heard the drills rat
Ting and felt something strike his
legs. He had hold of the safety bar
one of them strike his leg instinctively
he drew himself up and hung by his
hands. curling his legs up under him
till the surface was reached. When the
cage stopped at the collar, Greenslade
was appalled, at seeing Richards was
missing.
The alarm was at once given and a
party went down in the cage in the adj
joining compartment. They found the
dead body of Richards suspended in the
shaft about % feet below the 500. From
the examina ton made it appears that
the drills lying on the floor of the cage
must have Jared till one or more of
them protruded over the edge of the
cage far enough to come in contact
with the wall plates. 1t is supposed
Richards did not have hold of the
safety bar and that the drills, being
thrown about as would be the Gaze in
the event described, he was knocked off
and was crushed to death between the
cage and a wall plate. Several of the
drills, which were the long Burleigh
drills, fell down the shaft ahead of the
body Two of them, singularly enough,
landed cornerwise across the shaft on
| two wall plates horizontally opposite,
| and the body in coming down after
them. lodged on the drills. The body
was severed at the hips and lay across
| the two drills when the rescuing party
| joining compartment. The body was re-
| moved from its position and placed on
| the cage and taken to the surface,
| where it awaited the arrival of Coroner
| Julien. who was at once notified III
| was then removed to Richards under
! taking rooms. Aside from being cut
| in two and the left ear being cut off,
| the body was not badly mutilated,
| Greenslade, who accompanied Rich
| ards on his fatal ride. could tell very
| little as to how the accident happened.
| All he knew was that he heard the
! drills rafting and felt one of them. as
| he supposed strike his legs. from which
he concluded the accident occurred as
described, and it was the impression
that the drills were flying about that
| caused him to draw himself up for
safety He did not, however, feel the jar
enough to impress him with the idea
that his companion had fallen away
and he had no thought of 1t till he
! reached the surface.
! Richards had been employed as sta
ton tender at the mine for long time;
| had previously worked in the same
| capacity at the Silver Bow and wac
/ one of the most experienced men in the
/ camp at that work. No one knew bet
ter than he the dangers of riding on a
! cage with loose tools or that there was
| a rule against it, but men, from being
long accustomed to riding in shaft
grow careless and 1t was doubtless this
which led him to fail to observe proper
| precaution. 'h
The deceased was about 80 years OF
age and single He had worked in the
| different mines for several years and
was highly esteemed by all who knew
him as a faithful, industrious and cap
able workman and a good citizen. His
only relative here is a brother, who is
| also employed at the Rarus.
1t was only a few days ago that four
men were injured in the shaft of one OF
the mines from the same cause.