Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1903-01-09
HOUSES SWALLOWED Up.
Big Cave-In Occurs at olyphant,
Pa, But No Lives Are
Lost.
THE SUPPORTS IN MINE GIVE WAY.
A Large Hotel Building and Other
Houses Fall Into the Yawning
Abyss-sccond Cave-In Occurs and
Large Cracks Have Appeared on
Adjacent Property.

Scranton, Pa, Jan. 5.-Just before
noon Saturday another fall of earth
enlarged the big cave-in at ELEPHANT
and removed over. half of the support
from beneath the Evans building
which stands on the corner of the
cavity made by Fridays cave-in. Sew
eral large cracks have appeared on
the surface of adjacent property and
the feeling of security which pre-
vailed at daybreak has given way to
one of alarm.
The Delaware & Hudson company
has built switch to the edge of the.
cavity and is dumping hundreds of
car loads of ashes into the big hole.
1t will take about week to fill it
even If it does not become enlarged.
story of the Disaster.
Scranton Pa, Jan abandoned
workings of the Eddy Creek colliery
of the Delaware and Hudson com
pany beneath the very heart of the
town of Olyphant caved in Friday
afternoon and engulfed four frame
buildings, covering an aggregate
space of 5000 square feet. The set
ting was gradual and people in the
affected territory escaped without be-
ing Immediately endangered. A gang
of men and boys who were at work
in the mine beyond the fall encount-
cred flooded dip" or depression in
vein in making their way out by a
circuitous route and had to swim from
one rise to the other. No one either
above or below ground, however, sus-
tanned any injury.
Alarm Given in Time.
The vein that caved is lis feet be-
low the surface. The settling start
ed in the street just in front of the
hotel property. The brick pavement
was seen to be working and the tele-
| graph poles and trees along the curb
were noticed to be webbing. The
cause was at once apparent and the
alarm given to all the neighborhood
Two sick guests were removed from
| the hotel and taken two blocks away
! to private house. Some attempt
was made at saving the contents OF
| the buildings, but the rapidly in
creasing size of the opening in the
| street put stop to this and every
one fed from the neighborhood.
buildings Disappear.
At three o'clock the settling began
| AT $3.50 it was no longer perceptible
In the intervening half-hour, O'Brien':
three-story hotel, Mrs. Anna Evans
double dwelling, Mrs. Jane Ackerly'
double store building and one-story
Il 1,o vi, 1o Ja1N "
the yawning pit, with the uppermost
part of the mound 40 below the sur.
face. O'Brien's hotel plunged first
into the opening and entirely dis
appeared. A few houses are project
ing over the edge of the pit. Twenty
minutes after the disturbance was first
noticed the opening had widened unit
it reached all the way across the street
and halfway beneath the OBrien no
tel. Then. with a terrific crash, the big
hotel pitched forward, turned com
pletely about and landed on its roo
in the bottom of the abyss. An i'm
mense amount of earth from all about
the edge of the hotel went down with
it. and a moment later the adjoining
double dwelling of Mrs. Evans fel
over the edge and demolished itsel
on the ruins of the hotel. The Acker
| ~ double story building and the Ev
ans barber shop property slid into thu
chasm about the same time and pilet
themselves broken and twisted on tn,
debris.
| At nightfall it was believed Their,
would be no further settling, but NJ
one, it is safe to say, went to bed il
any building within so yards of thu
disturbed area. The property damage
is estimated at $4,000.
The Cause.
The workings which caved were il
the uppermost part of the worked out
veins. The timbers, it is explained b.
the company officials, supported |
thin roof of rock, which in turn sup
ported stratas Of quicksand and grave
extending to the surface. The timber
rotted, the roof gave way and tn
quicksand sifted through, carrying tn
gravel with it. The water mains brok
and torrent of water poured throug
the aperature and down .45-foo
plane, which has its heading just a
the point where the roof brok
through. Not until all that was abov
the area of the old workings whic
caved in had been sucked into the open
ing and down the slope did the settlin;