Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1901-08-23
FROM DEATHS JAWS
Two Men Rescued from the Cleve-
land, O., Tunnel.
SURVIVORS OF WEDNESDAYS HORROR
Had E Entombed since wedaes-
4 day asst When the Crib Burned
They Tell OF Their Elk
p~eriences.

l.. hNtHnE EG.I=Ee-a NWgsHssA
Cleveland, O., Aug. 2o.-Adam Kest
and Joseph Eugine, two OF. a dozen
or more workmen who were trapped
in the waterworks tunnel q couple
of hundred feet below the surface
of Lake Erie, by the burning of crib
No. 2 last Wednesday morning, were
rescued from their horrible position
late Monday afternoon and are now
lying semi-conscious at Huron street
hospital, where, with careful nursing,
the physicians say, they will soon re-
cover their former strength and
probably be none the worse for their
thrilling experience.
.We gave up more thantonce," said
Kest. "We lost track of the time.
I didn't know whether it was six days
or three. The gas must have made US
sleepy. We slept a lot, I know. We
didn't know whether it was day or
night down there. The darkness was
awful. We tried to get out several
times. Each time the gas drove us
back. At last we decided that it was
get out or u4e, and we made a try,
tapping on the pipe as we went
along"
According to the story of these
men, the first intfmatior Engine and
Kest had of the fatal Wednesday
morning which saw the crib burned,
was the shutting off of the lights.
The two men were working far in adj
vance of the gang, and when the lat
ter made their rush for safety, Kest
and Engine were sitting down behind
the air lock waiting for the lights
to be turned on again. They did not
hear the shouts and cries of their
fellow prisoners. Both men are rest
ing comfortably, and their complete
restoration to normal health Is
thought to be very probable within
a few days.
Shut off from the upper world, the
men knew nothing of the catastrophe
that had killed Sc many of their COM
rades and imprisoned them. They
knew that something had severed
their connection with the crib. They
knew that beyond the air lock behind
which they had taken refuge the air
was too foul to breathe. Butthey sup
posed that the trouble was temporary.
Each day they expected to have their
comrades come down the tunnel bent
on rescue. When their signal for help
tapped on the air pipe was at last an
swered from the crib, Kest and Eu-
CINE were preparing to eat raw mule
meat. Their deliverance came in the
nick of time to make unnecessary this
desperate resort to keep them alive.
At the hospital Engine and Kest were
permitted to talk for a short time, and
they related some of their experiences.
They said that they did not know that
there had been a fire and that they
could not account for their plight un-
less ONE accident had happened
which would soon be repaired. AS the
time passed by, however, and hours
heightened into days, the men were be.
ginning to fear that they were doomed
to death either by starvation, suffoca.
'tion or drowning. Their tapping or
the pipe to attract possible attention
was done with little hope of it's being
heard, but fortune favored them and
their presence was realized when 8
number of men who were at work re.
pairing the burned crib heard the faint
noise away down under ground and i'm,
mediately set out to rescue the unfor
t%unates. *