Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1902-07-17
TIE WORK Of RESC)ERS.
The Noble Miners of Johnstown Are
Doing Heroic Work of
Rescue.
MANY ARE BEIHG BROUGHT OUT ALIVE.
Thrilling Experiences Attended the Efforts
of the Brave and Daring Men Who
Went Down Into the Bowels of the
Earth to save the Lives of Their Eel
low-Workmen.

EdTtu 10 save the Lives VI Ahch W.
Iow-Workmen.
Johnstown, Pa, July 11.-This has
been a day of heroic rescues at the
fated rolling mill mine of the Cam
bria Steel Co. Thrilling experiences
attended the efforts of 40 brave n
daring fellows who went down into
the bowels of the earth stirred by a
very faint hope that still they might
be in time to restore to life some OF
those who are entombed. Death
lurked everywhere around them, but
undaunted they surged forward,
swayed with the noblest of human
purposes.
The reward of their efforts was the
saving of the lives of IA of their fol-
low men and bringing them again
into the sunlight and back to loving
families.
Dead and MANNED bodies were To-
Gated, but no effort was made to
bring them out of the vast theater
of death until every human energy
was put forward towards seeing that
no living soul might escape their aid.
That done, the dead were attended
to and put in train cars, brought up
and exposed to the 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
nightfall. Still a party of officials
and miners battled on, three miles in
side the mine. Occasionally word
would come to the surface by some
mysterious means that another heap
Of remains had been been exposed to
the vision of the searchers. There re-
main dangerous headings in the
Klondike section of the mine yet to
be reached. No one knows how many
more dead will be found there. The
mine officials refrain from guesswork
on the subject. The impression pre-
walls among the outsiders and certain
employees of the mine that $50 is a
low estimate of the casualty list.
Sohhsto"h
Fated Johnstown spent the day hor-
ror-stricken. Great throngs surged
about the pit mouth, the improvised
morgue at the armory, and about the
stricken homes of the dead. Exag-
gerated rumors of all kind prevailed.
One report gained circulation that
disaster had overtaken the rescuing
party which entered the mine short
ly after nine o'clock. This was not
disproved until word finally came
from the men in the mine.
1t is difficult to picture with any
degree approaching its full worth the
work of r~escue-how the brave men
went into the jaws of death in its
most horrible form, encountered their
fellows transformed into raving mani
acs by hours of waiting in the pitch
darkness of the earth's interior, lift
ed them moaning from their beds of
fallen rock, and then, bending and
crawling on all tours, carrying them
a quarter of a mile underground to
where cars could be reached to take
them outside.
Scene of DesOIatiOn.
Along in the early part of the aft
ernoon cheering word anne from the
innermost recesses of the mine that
life yet fingered in some of the
bodies found. The rescuers made
first for No. A., the left heading which
they had been unable to reach the
night before. Desolate even for the
scene of a mine interior was the view
that stretched out before them. Fails
of roofs almost choked 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 cous'
ms of the Martins made their way
Suddenly, in an open space they were
startled by a maniac laugh which
emanated from a blackened form that
rushed at them out of the darkness
The man grasped firmly a pickhandle
and tried in his frenzy to beat down
his ~rescuers. He was overpowered
and dragged back to the main head
ing, to the cars. Thirteen other liv
ing men were found in this chamber
and physicians were quickly taken tc
the spot.
Work for the ~Ambulances.
At 3 D.. m. the train of nine car.
came to the pit mouth, where waiting
ambulances stood. Eight men were
lifted wei the sides of the cars, and
half carried, wendell their way to thu
ambulances. They wers all Poles
One big, strapping fellow among
them collapsed as he reached thu
ambulance, and doctors spent severe
minutes resuscitating him. AS thu
men were driven hurriedly to thu
: Cambria hospital the train of Goa
cars with the physicians re-enteret
the mine.
Awful Death Agonies.
At that time three more headings
believed to be filed with the dead
were unsearched. Thirty-nine bodie
were lying in reach of the main head
p ing. These were brought out at 4:3
. p. m. Their bodies were piled higl
in the coal cars and covered witt
canvas.
These remains were in a terribl
state, showing that there had beel
i, slow death in each case. One of tn
1 men had his mouth and nose tied wit
4 a towel. The rest of his face wa
8 burned beyond recognition. The bod
les were all twisted.
One of the volunteers rescuers VIII
came out with this load of dea
:. stated that fire was raging in parts q
y the mine. Most Of those who wer
. brought out alive this afternoon ha
saved themselves by crawling into