The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1900-05-02
MINE DISASTER.
Late News Of Utah Ex-
plosion Adds to the
Ghastly Details.
MORE TNAN TWO HUNDRED DEAD
The Scenes q Horror and
Pathos Impossible to
Describe.

explosion III Milne mo. I, VI tfo tSe.is
Valley Coal Company, at Scofield, utan.
One hundred and thirty seven bodies nave
already been recovered. The work OF
rescue is till progressing although there
| is no hope that any of the men who are
| unaccounted for have escaped death. Ihe
scene Of the disaster is just ouside this
| place on theSline of the Rio Grande West
| ern Railroad. The explosion which oc-
curedin the winter quarters of the mine
| is attributed by some to the blowing up
of number of kegs of blasting powder.
The company has two mines saowns as
Nos and 4. The explosion occurred in
| No. 4.
! A special train was sent from Sale
| Lake bearing Superintendent Sharpe OF
| the Coal Company; Superintendent Welby
| of the Railroad Company and some doc
| tors AS fast as bodies are reached they
| are taken to the boarding houses and
other company buildings, where they are
| dressed and prepared for the Coroners $
| inquest These buildings are nuemrous
| and in each are from ten to thirty-five
| bodies, which are laid in long rows TO
J those which have been identified are at
| tached tags, with name and address.
These await the coming of relatives or
! friends.
| Two hundred collins have been ordered
| through local undertakers to be sent at
| once to the scene of the disaster. A
| special train bearing the seriously wound
ed has started from Seofield for Salt
| Lake
| The first news of the Scofeld disaster
| received in Salt Lake gave the list Of
| killed at twenty-five but it was not until
| evening that the full extent of the tre-
mendous calamity was understood. Many
people of this city have friends and rela-
| tives at the mines and the newspaper
| offices and the coal companies offices
were visited by number of anxious people
| who feared some of their friends or rela-
| tives might be numbered among the vic
Tins. AS the list kept constantly growing,
the anxiety of the inquirers increased and
many Of them never went to bed The
calamity was of such size and SO unpre-
| cedented in the history of the State and
even of the West that the mind did not
seme to be able to grasp it.
| 1t appears to have been one of those
| accidents that are comman to the very
best regulated mines and against the best
enfIeavors of the most competent super
| intendents The State Mine Inspector IS
still without the data to lay blame on any
one. OF course an inquest will have to
determine just where the blame rests,
and perhaps it can never be fully deter
mined.
! w. c. Wilson was one of those for
| tunate ones on the lower level of No. l
| who escaped He tells his story as fol-
| lows
ssThere was a low rumbling noise heard
! in the distance, followed by a sort OF
wave that can be hardly be described,
| hut that is known to all who have been
| i nexplosions, and 1 have been in several.
| said to my partner that if gas was
| known to exist in the mine should say
| that an explosion had, occurred. l ad-
vised that we run to the tunnel and with
me came six men working in that section.
.sIn the maintunnel we met the driver
| and asked him if he had noticed the
| strange occurrence. He replied that he
| had almost been knocked off the bar by
| the rush of air. I was then convinced
! that it was indeed an explosion and .ad-
| yised by comrades to hasten with me to
! the mouth. We met two others further on
| and they proceeded with us. We were
| none too soon, for the afterdamp reached
| US some three or four minutes before we
reached the open air, almost suffocating
| u.s.
The afterdamp delayed the work of the
| rescuing party, but the magnitude of the
disaster soon became apparent.
! All men on the raise known as pixies
| Peak were lying in clusters. John
James, a county commissioner, was found
with his son, George. entwined in loving
embrace in each others arms.
All these men apparently had realized
4 that death was coming, for all were found
| as though in attitudes Of defense. Some
had their cloaks about them; others had
tried to protect themselves by burying
their faces in the ground floor of the
| mine hoping thus to escape the deadly
gas that was fast enveloping them. They
must have lived for some time in expecta-
| ton of rescue reaching them.
| Bernard Dougall. a young engineer;
| from Springville, Utah, who had just en-
| tered the mine a few minutes before with
\ his assistants, was found with his instru-
ment set while he and his men lay dead
around it. As fast as the bodies We're
removed they were carried to the com-
pany barn across the canyon, where they
| were prepared for identification.
The scene was ghastly, and most pa
thetic. Between the blackened and stall
wart men lay about dozen lads. who
had been employed as couplers and trap
pers. Some lay beside their fathers and
| elder brothers. 1t was a scene that made
| strong men turn away in tears.
After the foul air cleared away from
No. /, the work of rescue began and it
was soon found that a great many of the
miners Of No. had been suffocated. The
| men of the lower levels had been warned
of the explosion and had made their es-
cape before the gaseous air had reached
/ them.
Cars were taken in and the dead were
brought to the mouth of the mine. Here
! the scene beggared all description, for the
men. women and children, relatives of the
dead miners. had begun to gather and as
| the bodies were brought out and recog
/ nized by their families their lamentations
were heart-rending. The dead were all
! carried into the boarding houses directly
| opposite the mine and at midnight 1877
| men, nearly all heads of families, were
| laid out in the cold embrace of death.
| Bishop Thomas Parmey, Superintend-
| ent Of the Operations here, gave 1t as his
! opinion that the explosion was brought.