The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-05-26
MINE EXPLOSION
STILL A MYSTERY
Were the Miners Victims Of
After-Damp?
OR KILLED BY EXPLOSION?
The Coroner's Investigation Has Fail
ed to Show.
OR KILLED BY EXPLOSION?
THE SWORN TESTIMONY or THE MINERS
Operations in the Mine viii be Resumed on
Monday. One Of the -Four Injured Ne
grses Cannot Recover. The List
CT Dead so Far is q.

Assistant Labor Commissioner W. E.
Faison, who has been at the Cumnock
mine making an investigation of the ds-
aster and it's causes, as required by law
returned to the city yesterday.
When questioned by News and OBJ
server reporter in regard to his conciu-
sion as to the cause of the accident, he
said:
II don't believe we will ever find out
how it happened. There is much mystery
and several theories about it.
1.-The most plausible one, though, seem
ed to be about this: Gas had during the
day collected in the part OF the mlne
where the explosion ocurred On TINS
point the evidence was conclusive IL
had entered the lamps of the miners ana
burned until it had exploded one tnem.
For a lamp was found with piece OF the
glass globe broken out from the inside
When this break occurred the dame was
communicated to the gas in the mine and
the explosion resulted.
also there is some evidence going
TO show that more deaths were caused
The position Of the bodies, all near to-
gether, not far from the engine leads to
the belief that after the explosion they
rushed toward the air shaft, but were
overcome before they COULD reach it.
After damp, you knew, has no oxygen IN
it and being poisonous to the lungs over
comes living being Immediately.
Superintendent Conneily's body was
quite distance from his compass-some
twenty feet 1t is believed he had either
walked or crawled this distance. He
was burned about the neck and face, and
was injured in the side from the eX-
plosion.
Two other bodies were at the hote
when l arrived at the mine Wednesday
afternoon. I did not examine them, but
| was told they were not mutlated. Al
the mine wash house | saw all the ne
groes who we're killed, except one. Only
a few of them were burned or injured
Twenty mem white and II colored-
were killed outright, and one-a white
man-d;ed soon after being taken out Of
the mine This makes a total CT twenty
one lives 6 white and y colcred) lost S:
far IN the explosion. There are foul
other negroes injured-one of them sc
desperately hurt that he cannot recover
The doctor thinks there is no hope fol
him. but the other three, he believes, will
get well.
Most Of the dead men were unmarried
and leave no families dependent on them
as was the case with SO many of those
killed in the 1895 explosion.
after the explosion this time also the
company did all in its power to relev1
the suffering Of the living and take care
of the dead
JUDGE WOMACK'S VIEWS.
Mr. Fason was accompanied en- his in
spcction by Judge T. b. Womack, attoc-
mack came back yesterday and was ais,
called on by News and Observer report
er. to ascertain the result of his investi
cations of the causes Of the disaster.
Judge Womacll said that a very thor
ough investigation had been made by him
by the coroner's jury and Assistant Com
missioner Faison.
These Investigations, he declared
have demonstrated the fallacy Of num-
explosion. For instance it has been sug-
gested that an open light might have
been used TO set fire to blast. This
was conclusively shown not to be true
and it is reasonable certain that the eX-
plosion was the result of a unavoidable
accident.
1T appeared from the evidence con-