The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-12-24

had drawn the few prizes in the lottery of
life and death?
1t was discovered that the explosion had
torn away the brick lining of the shaft
taking with it about twenty feet of the
iron steps. The men below were in
trap.
promptly bucket was lowered by
rope and the men hauled up. The first
man was Albert Meese, IS years old, a
trapper He was unconscious and was tied
IN the bucket. He gasped once or twice
and was dead
fourteen men were rescued by the buck
ct and rope. All of them were sick and
some half4fainting.
AT 8 o'clock the first body of rescuers
descended, the cages having been tempo
rarily repaired. When they got within ten
feet Of the bottom the cage stopped. A
mass of wreckage was piled up at the
bottom of the shaft. With their faces
blackened and burned and their bodies dis
torted, lay seven men.
The rescuers started to clear away the
debris but it was Slow hard work, as
the force Of the explosion had been Ii
tanic. Pit Boss Thomas and three men
went back 100 feet to find the source. They
think they succeeded, but they had not
time to investigate, as they were over
come by the after damp. Other members
of the rescue party hastily rushed them
above ground, where they were resuscitat-
ed. Thomas was about dead.
Little Hope for Them
Tonight Mine Inspector James Blick
said:
Il would not like to say there is no hope
for the men in the pit, but doubt whether
single one remains alive. The men. if
alive, can live for two or three days with
out food in addition to what they may
have taken in their dinner buckets, but
the main point is, if they have air The
fan is running, but the big part of the
mine remains unVentilated and is proba-
bly, still checked with deadly afterdamp in
which no human being can live"
One of the mine officials, who spent NJ
most the entire day working in the pit,
said:
THE havoc wrought is alomst complete
and l have little hope that the men are
alive. The mine cars are wrecked be-
yond recognition and piled on each other"
No complete list of the dead can be COM
piled tonight. The managers of the mines
have the pay roll, but 1t has been impossi-
BILE for them to discover all the survivors.
But there is general agreement that from
thirty to thirty-five are entombed. About
one-half are Americans, and the balance
are Hungarians or Slavs. The list as OBJ
tanned, is:
Joseph II. Wagyror, single, has mother
and sister.
Joseph Butschme, 40 years old, has wife
and three children.
Peter Oris, 36 years old, has five children.
Albert Meese, IA years old, died after
rescue. Was trapper boy and badly cut
and burned.
Samuel Meese, his father, pit boss.
Henry Hager, 50 years o.d wife and
children.
James Thomas, married.
Among the fourteen brought out by the
rescuers on their first trip were Joseph
Meese, driver, badly burned on face and
body; Harry Atwood, badly burned.
Soon after the extent of the accident be-
came known, undertakers were sum-
moned from Brownsville.
A blacksmith shop was converted into
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 Braznell mine
last July 1t adjoins the Umpire mine,
in which eight men were killed last year,
the day before Christmas, by similar ex
plOSiOn