The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-07-11
TWO HUNDRED MAY BE LOST
J0HNSTOWN, PA, AGAIN VISITED
 BY YAPPALLING DISASTER.

the Cambria Steel Company-severaI Days Will Probably Pass Before the Exact Number is KnOwn-Pathetic scsnes-Two Men Go Two Miles Into the Mine but Are Driven Back.
 Johnstown. Pa, July 1O.-Johnstown has again been visited by an appalling disaster.
 It is only less frightful than the aw- full calamity of May S1, 1889, in cost of life, but in it's terrible consequences it has brought the shadow of sorrow in hundreds of homes made desolate by a mine explosion which took place in the Cambria Steel company's rolling mill mine, under Westmont Hill, at 1920 o'clock this afternoon.
 How many are dead it may take sev- eral days to fully determine but that it is a long and shocking list is cer tain. It may reach 200 or more men. It was nearly an hour after the eXplo- sion before any general knowledge of what happened got abroad. Men who came from the mines, escaping with their lives, told the terrible news and soon it spread like wildfire all over the city. In scores of homes there was the most pathetic scenes. Mothers, wives, daughters, sons and relatives were frantic with grief. Hundreds rushed to the point and with sobbing hearts awaited news that did not come from the ill-fated mine.
 At the opening across the river from the point, the Cambria Iron company police, with several assistants stood 2 guard, permitting no one to enter the mine from which noxious gases were coming. It was nearly o'clock when all hope of sending rescue parties from the Westnort opening was abandoned Two men who had escaped from the mine-Richard Bennett and John Mey- ers-went back two miles to see what assistance could be rendered but the frightful damp drove them back and they fell prostrate when they finally, af- ter desperate struggle, reached the outside.
 Two doctors gave the men assistance and after working with them half an hour restored them. Their story of the 4 situation in the mine made it clear that the rescue work could not proceed from the Westmont opening and then nasty preparations were made to begin that sad mission at the Mill Creek entrance. Soon after the news of the explosion reached the Cambria officials, Mining Engineer Marshall G. Moore and one of his assistants, Al G. Prosser, made an attempt to enter the mine. They were followed by Mine Superintendent George T. Robinson, but the deadly gases stopped their progress and they were compelled to return to the sur face.
 ,u Mine Foreman Harry Rodgers, his assistant, William Blanch, and Fire Bosses John Whitney, John Retallick and John Thomas were overcome by the gases and it is feared they perished in an heroic effort to rescue the min CTS. A son of Harry Rodgers then tried to reach his father, but he was quickly overcome by the deadly gas and was carried out unconscious.
 William Stibich spent several hours at the Mill Creek opening. He said that he believed as many as 45O men were still in the mine. In his opinion, from all he could glean not to exceed 150 men had come out.
 The armory of Company H, Fifth reg inent, N. G. P, will be turned into a charnal house.
 After conference tonight it was an- rlounced that the dead miners will be brought to the armory tomorrow. The removal of bodies will begin at an early hour in the morning.
 The ambulances of all the undertak- CTS in the city are at Mill Creek in readiness to begin the transfer of bod ies.
 At midnight President Powell Stack house gave out the following state ment:
 'tThe disaster is an awful one ard came on us entirely unexpected. The mine had been inspected only three days ago and was pronounced in sat isfactory, condition. In the thirty years that the mine has been operated no se- rious accident has occurred. The cause is yet indefinite, but I believe it was caused by gas escaping from the fifth heading, which was closed, into the sixth heading.
 "The number of casualties is now placed at 125. No list of the names of the dead miners can be given, for the majority of them were foreigners and were known only by check and not by name"
 The mine is one of the largest coal mines in the United States, according to the statement of officials tonight :, From the entrance in the hill across the river from the Point to the one at the Mill Creek is a distance of three and three-quarters miles.
 Johnstown, July 11.-At ? o'clock this : morning Mayor Pendry stated that the first of the bodies of the dead miners would be brought from the mine at 8 o'clock. Mayor Pendry stated that General Manager Price told him the number of bodies in sight at 1 o'clock was sixty-five.
 GAYNOR-GREENE CASE.