The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-07-15
(By the Associated Press.D

JoilIlSlONH II, L a., =
this morning it can be stated that OF the
six hundred men supposed TO have enter
ed the mouth Of the rolling mill mine OF
the Cambria Steel Company Thursday
morning, one hundred and forty-thrce
are known to be dead and twenty-five
rescued. Four hundred, SO the mine Of
fcials claim, escaped when the eNplos-
ion occurred, leaving cighty-eight stii
to be accounted for. Some Of these, ac-
cording to those in charge Of the rescue
work are dead, but the majority, they
claim, have escaped.
This has been a day OF heroic res
cues. Thrilling experiences attended
the efforts of the forty brave and daring
fellows who went down into the bowels
of the earth with a very faint nope TO
spur them that still they might be III
time to restore to life some OF those VINO
are entombed. Death lurked every
where around them, but undaunted they
surged forward, swaycd With the noblcst
of human purposes.
The reward Of their efforts was the
saving of lives of fourteen of their fell
low men and bringing them again into
the sunlight and back to loving families.
Dead and manned bodies were located
but no effort was made to bring them
out of the vast theatre Of death until
every human energy was put forward to-
wards seeing that no living soul might
escape their aid. That done, the dead
were attended to and put in tram cars,
brought up and exposed to morbid gaze
while being transferred to wagons in
which to be taken to the mOrgue. Eighty
seven dead bodies were recovered from
the mine between daylight and night
fall. Still a party of officials and min
ers battled on, three miles inside the
mine. Occasionally word would come to
the surface by some mysterious means
that another group of remains had been
exposed to the view of the scarchers.
There remains dangerous headings in
the Klondike section Of the mine yet to
be explored. No one knows how many
more dead will be found there. The
mine officials refrain from guess work
on the subject.
A feeling prevails that $50 is a low
estimate of the causalty list. Johnstown
spent the day horror-struck From
dawn to dusk flying ambulances coursed
the streets bearing gruesome burdens
from mine to morgue, from morgue to
homes.
Great thrOngS surgCd about the pit
mouth, the improvised morgue at the
Armory, and last, the stricken homes of
the dead. Bulletin boards were eager
~ scanned for news from the scene of
the disaster. Exaggerated rumors of all
Kinds prevailed. One report gained cir
culation that disaster has oycrtakcn the
rcSCulnS party which entered the mine
shortly after Q o'clock. This proved
one of the entertaining yarns that had
its origin among the crowd at the pit
mouth. Returning rescuers substantial
ed the details of the report by officials.
1t is difficult to picture with any de-
gree approaching it's full worth, the
work of rescue and the attending
scenes and incidents of the day at the
center of interest. How brave men
went into the jaws of death in its most
horrible form, encountered their fellows
transformed into raving maniacs by
hours OF waiting in the pitch darkness
of the earth's interior, lifted them moan
ing from their beds of fallen rock and
then bending and crawling on all tours.
carrying them a quarter of a mile under
ground to where cars could be reached
to take them outside.
Along III the early part of the after
noon cheering word came from tho inner.
most r~cccsscs of the mine that life vet
fingered in some of the bodies found
me reScuers made first for No. 4. left
heading, which they had been unable to
reach the night before. DcsoIate even
Tor the scene of a mine interior was the
heading that stretched out before them.
rails OF roof almost opened the heading
but through and over the debris the
brave men pushed their way. In the
front young Patrick Martin, his brother
Peter, Philip White and several cousins
OF the Martins made their way. Sud
denly in an open space they were startled
by the maniac laugh which emanated
fran a blackened form that rushed at
them out Of the darkness. The man
sraspel firmly a pick handle and tried in
his frenzy to beat down his rcscucrs.
He was ovor-powered and dragged back
to the main heading to the cars. Thir-
teen other living men were found in this
m and physicians were quickly
taken to the SPOT.
At , p. m. the train of mine cars came
to the pit mouth whore waiting ambu-
lances stood. Eight men were lifted over
the sides of the cars and half carried.
wendell their way to the ambulances.
lhey were all Poles. One big straDDing
fellow among them collapsed as he
reached the ambulance and doctors spent
several minutes resuscitating him. AS
the men were driven hurricdly to tho
Cambria Hotel, the train of coal cars
with tee physicians re-entered the mine
In another half hour they came out again
this time with six living, but almost
dead miners. One man in his paroxysms
had locked his jaws SO that force had
to be employed to pry them open for the
insertion of life instilling fluids. These
six We're taken in an unconscious condi-
tion % the Cambria Hospital. One man
brought out with this crowd, died Just
as he reached daylight.
At that time three more headings. DO
liCved to be filled with the dead were
searched. Thirty-nine bodies were "
ing within reach in the main heading
I ILGse MerE hrnught ont At 2.t-u -