The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-02-23


 explained, the options will lapse and will be difficult to renew.
 ney Check weighman at the Virginia
 mines; Ed Mitchell.
 The jury will commence its active in- vestigation into the trouble as soon as possible, and Coroner Paris intends that 1t shall go down in the mines and make
 as thorough an investigation of the con- ditions as possible. He has selected sey- eral men who are capable mine men and
 thoroughly familiar with every detail of the work
 The coroner is having the bodies fully identified as they are brought to the sur face and then they are delivered to the families or to the undertakers to be pre-
 pared for burial. Identification becomes
 harder as decomposition sets ia, and it Is
 possible that some mistakes will be made,
 but at present 1t is not believed any have
 been made.
 Three Bodies in Water. There are three bodies in the mines which will scarcely be reached for week or ten days. They are those of the pump CT, coupler and one other man who were all in the very lowest portion of the mine, which is now filled with water The water mas risen dDOuI ltel III tHc SlOpc anu it will be impossible to get it out until the piping can be repaired and the en- zines can commence work. A conservative estimate of the loss to the Alabama Steel and Wire company Is
 $1OO0C0, which will have to be spent for repairs and getting the mines open again.
 Much new machinery will have to be put into the mines, pumps and other
 machinery having been ruined by the fAFar wnst1l have to be bratticed again and 1t will re- quired a long time to get the debris cleaned out.
 It may be late tonight before the last of the bodies are brought to the surface,
 and 1t Is even possible that the rescuers
 will not be able to get into some places rntil tomorrow. The damp is increasing
 and also the stencil
 In the third left Is where 1t is thought
 more bodies will be found than in any
 other level. and they are trying to get
 into it as soon as possible. The work will
 be much harder, it is believed. in this
 levef
 The last special train sent to Bessemer
 arrived there about o'clock last night.
 It contained about a dozen bodies, the last to be brought from the mines. The train will not return to the mines until
 this morning, as it is believed that the rescuers will not succeed in getting out many bodies until this morning.
 InduIged Too Freely.
 Late yesterday afternoon a number
 of people carried bottles of whskey to
 the mines. and not few, mostly specta-
 tors and idlers who had no business about
 the place, indulged too freely. At times there were only two deputy sheriffs at the place. and they could
 hardly handle the crowds Jerry Fountain and Will Patton have been at work ever since the explosion, but they should have been assisted by at least a half dozen other deputies. The work was great and no two men could handle the crowds. Both of the deputies deserve praise for their work, and es- pecially Deputy Fountain, who was In charge and showed much executive abil- ity.
 It was a hard matter to insist on peo- pie staying away from the bodies. There were hundreds in the crowds whose reia- tives were in the mines, and it required a heart of stone to refuse them adms- sion to the lines to see if they could
 identify any of those bodies brought up, but it had to be done so as to preserve order and prevent mistakes. The unpleas- ant duty fell on the deputies. but they conducted themselves so that no one
 feelings were injured.
 Have Never Slept.
 There are men at the mines at work this morning who have not closed their eyes to sleep since Monday afternoon, and some of them who will probably not get any sleep for a day or two to come. | During all that time they have been at work, and they have proven themselves heroes in many instances. | Something of what the rescue parties l endured yesterday afternoon and last night may be learned from Ed Flynn, president of district No 20, United Mine 1 Workers, who was In the mines on one 1 of inc shifts yesterday afternoon. He | said:
 President Flynn Talks. 1 "All we could do down there was to l load the bodies on the cars as fast as | nossible and send them to the top. We
 would pick uJ the bodies but the smell | was SO awful that we could scarcely | hold them. and we could barely get to the 1 cars with them to send them to the top. 1 Some men who had weak stomachs could l not stand it ana they sickened and had l to come to the top. l am strong man. | hut 1t was almost too much for me.
 "The only way WE could work was for | the party in tho mine to divide in two 1 gangs. One would go into room and bring out one fr two men or as many l ----------