The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1904-01-29
EXPLOSION CUTS
OFF $50 MINERS
Two Men Dead, and Much Mys.
terry Prevails About the
Entire Affair.
MULE BLOWN FROM SHAFT
There Were $50 Men at Work in tho
Mine and Their Avenue of Escape
Was Shut OH-Fatal Explosion
at Another Place.

PlttSDurg, Pa, Jan. 26.-Df. w. u.
Mccullough of Cheswick. who has been
in the mine for two hours, has just
come to the surface and told the Assoc
ciated Press representative that In his
opinion not one of the miners who were
in the shaft at the time OF the eXplos-
ion Is alive. He thinks it will be sew
eral hours before any Of the bodies can
be brought to the surface.
PittSburg, Pa, jan. 26.-The report or
the rescurers an hour 6 to the effect
that many were alive was rudely shat
tered at 2:25, When the body of Selwyn
Taylor was brought to the surface. He
had evidently been dead for several
hours and now hopes for the other inn
prisoned men have been abandoned.
The are being brought out
coated with ice, drenched to the skin
and unable to walk. They report that
the dead are scattered thickly about
the different headings. Water is fast
pouring into the mine, covering the
corpses with Il shroud Of ice and max
ing the work Of rescue almost lmpOS-
sible. Afterdamp is now collecting.
P%ittsburg, Pa, Jan. 25.-An explosion
occurred in the shaft of the Harwick
Coal company, near Cheswick, Pa, on
the West Pennsylvania railroad, today,
cutting off escape of at least $50 miners
Who were at work. Three triple men
were badly burned and one later died.
Three injured men We're put on a train
for Allegheny and ono died on the way
to The city. When the explosion oc-
CURED the conclusion was SO great that
a mule was blown out Of one shaft. 1t
is not yet known what caused the eX-
plosion or just how it occurred.
About 200 men were employed in the
mine, $50 inside and the remainder on
the tipple. The latter were badly
burned by the explosion, which calne
with Il lou report, and Il shock like an
earthquake. The tipple was destroyed,
the walls of the shaft filled with debris
and earth. completely cutting off means
of escape.
Just in what part of the mine the ex-
plosion occurred is not yet known, n
there is no means of knowing how
many were killed. Unless the entrance
can be cleared and fresh air forced in
hours.
Gangs of men are at work in the at
tempt to clear the entrance n relieve
the men inside. The mine is located a
mile from Cheswick, and opened two
a 60. 1t is owned by the Ale
gheny o company. At 2 o'clock no
one had been able to descend to the
mine.
Crowds Soon Gather.
AS soon as the u bic of the eXplo-
sion and the crash at the pit mouth
startled the little village the wives and
children of the men below rushed to
the scene Of the disaster, but to gain
no encouragement. There was no way
to get into the deep workings. The
cages that let the men into the mines
and brought them out again when the
days work was done were both demol-
ished.
All day long there was a jam Of
-r.;{;,,cr ,,,,, :, ,,l ,n1,tt' I % about TIA
mouth Of the pit. There were calls for
assistance and for surgical aid from
the men in charge of the mine, but 1t
was not until II O'Clock this afternoon
that the first attempt ut rescue was
made. This was a failure, as the two
men who volunteered were driven back
by the foul air. Shortly after s o'clock
Selwyn Taylor and IL of his assist
ants signaled for the engineer to lower
them into the shaft. Taylor is still
down. Three times efforts have heen
made to reach him, but so far without
avail.
Thomas Wood, one of the first Of the
his story of his trip through the mine.
He said:
Il was with Taylor, and we clam
bered over three or four falls. Taylor
laid out the mine and seemed to know
the way. There was a man alive at the
fOOC OIL the Sllill. lit Was Scill Up, lllN
then we TOOK the mule path into the
south level. We saw two men who.
were alive, and notified those back of
us, then went on. We passed the third,
fourth and fifth headings and then
through an overdrift into the air shaft.
l began to feel dizzy and sick and then
I saw Taylor stagger and fall. His
lantern fell. We tried to lift him, but.
could not carry him up, and l made my.
own WlV to SafetN,'
f. w. Cunningham, the mine in
spector of the Fourteenth district,
reached Harwick tonight. When seen
by an Associated Press reporter soon
after his arrival he said:
"The mine where the explosion took
place was inspected, l think, about the
list of December. There was some gas
in there then, but l never considered
the mine dangerous"
The last inspection blank in the mine
company's office is dated July IT,, 1903,
but it is evident that a later report has
been torn off.
Hartwick Horror Stricken.
The little village Of Hartwick has
been horror stricken all day. The wives
n relatives Of the entombed men
LAY crowded about the entrance to
the pit, beseeching for news Of those
below, but only to meet with the same
sad answer: I'VE do not know yet, if
w AAN AAiA wv NNAAA III I'LL llolllC.
The little school house has been pre-
pared as a morgue and hospital. The
benches and seats have all been re-
moved. and eight girls from the highest
class at the school have been impressed
as nurses.
Doctors have been summoned from
the surrounding towns of S~pringdale
n Denny, n also from Pittsburg,
but nothing can be done until further
details come from the min
Mr.. Scheetz, the manager of the
mine, said last night to a representa-
tive of the Associated Press:
The explosion Monday morning was
terrific. Both cages were Llown from
the shaft, one Of them a distance of
over 200 feet. Three men at work on
the tipple were blown to the ground
and one of them is already dead. The
other two are badly hurt, but 1 am told
they are resting easy and may recover.
"Ihere are at least 100 men in the
mine, and I am afraid there are a
number more, although there are sew
eral men on the pay roll who did not
-eport this morning"
Mrs. Craig Dead.
Sioux Falls, S. D., Jan. 25.-Mrs. Lucy
Parker Craig, a pioneer resident of Sioux
I Falls and mother of G. H Crajp c,ty