The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-07-11
Eighty-seven Brought to the
Surface During the Night.
CAUSED BY FIRE DAMP
The Superintendent of the Mine
Makes a Statement.
Families of the Dead Will Get a
Thousand Dollars Each.
Number of Lives Lost Estimated
at From 100 to 800.

at From 100 to 300.
johnson, Pa. July 11--Early today it
was not known how many persons
-erished in the awful disaster at the
rolling mill mine of the Cambria Steel
company. At O'Clock this morning 81
bodies have been recovered. OF these,
At, all contorted and many blackened
and burned and some of them headiess'
lie stretched on rough slabs in the inn
provised morgue in the armory building.
Forty more are in the cars in the mine
ready to be borne out as fast as room
can be made for them. Last estimates
of the NUN ber of dead reduce the fatal
scope of the calamity. But those, while
fixing it around 100, are not conclusive.
General Mine Superintendent George L.
Robinson would not say at this time
whether he thought there were lOO or
300 dead. He said there was no way or
knowing until full investigation of the
mine was made. When that will be he
says he has no means of telling. All
rests with the difficulty to be encoun-
tered in clearing the heading of after
damp.
1t was 5:55 o'clock when the first train
load of victims was brought to the
mouth of the main entry. FOrty-nlne
cars were used in bringing out 46 dead
bodies and four living injured. The dis
covery of the dead bodies was made by
a searching party about 10 o'clock last
night They We're lying in the main
heading two miles in from the main
pit mouth. No attempt was made to
remove then until certainty was estab
lished that no more living remained in
the mine. The first statement of the
Press reporter by Superintendent Rob
tnson at O'Clock this morning He
said:
SUPERINTENDENT'S STATEMENT.
LAS to the direct cause of the ex-
plosion / cannot exactly say. We know
there was an explosion of fire damp in
the sixth heading of a section of the
mine commonly known as the Klondike
not more than three or four deaths from
the explosion itself The balance were
caused by the afterdamp.
Our mine officials, the mine foreman,
Henry Rodgers, Fire Boss John Retallic,
Machine Boss William Robinson, who
is my brother, and a Slav, whose name
l do not know, were back eating lunch
when the explosion occurred. They in =
mediately went to the point of the ex-
plosion to put up the sloping in order
to carry the air in it's proper channel
again. These were blown down by the
force of the explosion.
They, with the exception of the as
sistant foreman and one of the fire
bosses, were overcome by afterdamp.
They were found by a rescuing party
and the chances are that all will re-
cover with the exception of my brother.
"As to the rescue work. 1 directed 1t
TO commence just as soon after the ex-
plosion as possible. We started in at i
p. m. We worked our way down by
putting up brattices in order to carry
the air in with US. 1 suppose it was 10
o'clock at night before we came across
the bodies of the living. Doctors John
Lowman and John Hannah went down
with us. They carried tanks of oxygen
with them and they were emptied with
good effect on the living.
I'VE found 25 dead on our way to
these four living. Twenty more were
found later They
through that section of the mine. Most
of them were their way out when
caught by the fatal afterdamp.
Mining Engineer M. G. Moore and
myself will organize another searching
party and go in at o'clock this morn
ing. There is damp in the left head
1ngs which will make our progress toll
some. Part of the mine is so filled with
afterdamp we cannot get in until we
turn the current of air in"
WAITING FOR THE DEAD.
When the bodies of the victims came
from the mine, a long line of undertak-
ers, wagons and picnic wagons were in
waiting to take them on the roundab bout
route to the morgue in the city. There
they were backed up to a door and q
large force of police were ready tc
check the great throng from pressing
in too close. Body after body vas
dragged from the wagons and borne in
side. All of them were blackened and
unrecognizable, until the undertakers
got 10 WOTh. 1Ue uedQ OF one man was
crushed and the only means of identifi-
cation will be by his check number. The
arms of most of them were twisted il
front of them as if to shield their faces
from fire. The left hand of one mar
was torn off at the wrist. The bodies
now recovered were all found about two
miles In from the main pit mouth The
headings leading from that region off tc
the left, where it is expected most OF
the dead will be got, may not be enter
ed by the searchers today.
The rolling mill mine has been work
ed for about so years. Five or six years
ago the section where the disaster o1
yesterday occurred, was opened. The
miners fancifully called it the Klondike
1t is said that for the past three years
gas has been noticed in it and careful
inspections were kept up. In the last
three years safety lamps had been car.
rled by the men, Frank Sabot one o1
the boys who met death in a heroi,
endeavor to save his comrades. was
safely out of the mine after the explo.
sion He worked in the mine ever since
the Klondike was opened up. After the
explosion he FASTENED into the vault oj
death to do what he could to close the
terdamp. He was found lying near q
. partly-closed door leading off to one OF
the left headings.
THE ARMORY A MORGUE
Soon after the discovery of the first
corpse the mine officials began to ma Ike
arrangements for the removal of the
Dod1es from the scene of the disaster
The armory of Company H, a big barn
like frame building on the outskirts OF
the city, was transformed into a tenn
porary morgue. Chairs were placed in
0Dn0SifA afh