The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1900-03-08
THE SEARCH
FOR DEAD
CONTINUES.
The Terrible Story Loses Some Of tts
Horrible Feature Number Not
30 Great
NO HOPE FOR THE ENT0llRBD,
None Of Whom Are Believed to Be
Aliyo-lEine Thought to be

Special Dispatch to the Intalligencer.
CHARLESTON, W. Va, MaFch D.
The most conservative estimates place
the number Of killed IN the Red Ash
Mine disaster at between thirty and
forty. Up to a late hour this afternoon
twenty-one Of the victims had been re-
moved. Six were taken out this nnorn-
ing, ali dead. OF the tweuty-one oil
ready taken out, fifteen were dead, and
one Is fatally injured. The Other, i've
are seriously hurt. but may get wen
No Hope for Entombed Miners.
There IS absolutely no hope that any
Of those stiIl in the mines are alive, and
it IS not improbable that Il may be sey-
eral days before they can be reached.
This Is owing to the fact that ths air in
the mine Is SO very hot. It IS thought
that the mine may be on fire,
Number Yet Unknown.
The number Of victims stlll IN the
mine is as yet unknown. General Man
ager Howald estimates that the NUM-
Der In the mine at the time Of the ex-
plosIon was thirty-six. To-day the men
who were employed by the company,
INT who had not entered the mine when
the explosion occurred. assembled and
took a tally. This tally revealed that
thirty-nine men were not present 20
answer to their names. This is the
number which the surviving miners es-
Innate were in the mine at the time OF
the explosion. THE reason there were
not more was because OF the early
hour. II was only a little after q
when the explosion occurred. and not
all OF the men had yet reported. Many
Of them had escapes which are nothing
short Of providential.
one miner had intended to 90 to the
mine about O'Clock and set his tools,
having secured employment elsewhere.
BE awakened at that hour, but It was
60 dark that he decided to walt TIL a
little Inter. He oversight himself, and
thus saved his life. Another went for
his COW and a comrade went Tor him.
They reached the mine just as the ex-
ploslon occurred.
Rescting parties are stln hard at
work. Air is pumped into the shaft by
compression. ----'5i
The Open Lamp Theory.
Theories still vary as to the possible
cause Of the explosion. The latest to be
advanced IS that the substitute mine
boss. who was acting in the place OF
his brother, carried an ordinary lamp
with him, In addition to his safety
lamp, and thus failed to detect the
presence Of gas before st was ignited.
It Is said that. the men frequently.
AGAINST the orders OF the company,
would carry ordinary lamps to give
themselves better light. It Is thought
that n great many OF the victims will
be found az what Is known as the
"Great Parting"
Crowds Of People.
Several thousand people visited the
scene Of the explosion to-day. An day
long the crowds surged up ane down
the railroad track between the mouth
OF the mine and the village, u half mile
away, AS the dead were taken out they
were carried TO the homes Of the bereft
and prepared for burial. In one cot
take an aged father wept over the
corpses Of his two sons.
The five injured men VIII probably
be removed to hospitals in this city.
Store-keeper Shirley stnted that
when the explosion occurred DR. Smith,
the mine physIcian. was at once sent
for. and that he and several others im-
medIately hurried ncross the river for
more physicians.
Eye witnesses state that at the re-
port Of the explosion the women and
children rushed out Of their houses
screaming frRntically. Then the ter
rfble fact having dawned on them they
hushed, and a stiffness OF death en-
sued. There was not q sound in the
little grief-strlcken village.