The Springfield herald., 1906-04-13
ANOTHER RESCUE.
MIRACULOUS ESCAPE FROM TIE
coURRIERES MINE.
DAYS
Aususte Berton Found Alive In the
Pit and Brought Out to Greet His
Wife as One Arisen From the Dead.

Wife as One Arisen From the Dead.
Lens, France.-Another living sur
vivor of the mine disaster at Cour-
rieres March 10th, was discovered this
wednesday, morning and brought out
of the pit.
The man was found in pit four, of
the Sallau mine. He was in good con
dition. According to his first state
ments, this man, AuSuste Berton, sui
fered less than the preceding rescued
men.
One of party of salvage men was
working in the mine this morning
when he felt the touch of hand on his
shoulder, and a man who turned out to
be Berton, said:
81 am saved"
An affecting meeting occurred be-
tween Berton and his wife. Berton.
who was covered with layer of coal
dust, described his experience as fol
lows:
Il was working with my cousin
when an explosion occurred. and we
became separated. Aftarward, alone,
| groped about in the darkness, trying
to find an outlet. first found dead
horse, but was unable TO eat any of its
flesh.
Later | found some lunch bags
which had belonged to men who had
been killed by the explosion, and |
lived on the food ! found in them. ]
suffered from the cold and took cloth
ing and shoes from the dead. | also
founu three watches and "a sous. At
one time | gave up hope and tried TO
commit suicide by opening vein.
slept ten times and tried to count the
days, estimating that eight days had
passed since the explosion.
AS the news spread through the re
gion it caused extreme eXasperauoh
against the engineers WHO have been
directing the salvage work. NJ. Leon
the state engineer, when he arrived al
the pit, was surrounded by a crowd OF
people, who cursed and swore at him
One woman went so far as to strikt
the engineer.
When the engineers came up from
the Courrieres pits at noon to-day the!
were attacked by a crowd of women
crying: Death to the murderers.
They were roscued by n squadron o
dragons. The people are intGnssi!
excited. They believed that there III,
ether men alive in the mine and sc
rious disorders are threatened.
A thousanad women are thronGin
about the pit mouth and are furcin.
the barriers. The troops and gen
darmes are trying to contIol the s-tua
tion.
Five search parties went down tins
morning to explore pit four, but ur
to 1890 p. m. they had not discovered
any more survivors. Other parties arc
searching the mines and the chief en-
gineer will remain below all night.
The crowd several times during TIL
day broke through the Gordon OF troops
surrounding pit No. 4, excitedly ques-
tioning the salvagers. who stated tina,
no further traces of survivors had
been found.
Several bodies OF miners. with TN
appearance of not having been long
dead and living horse were discov'
cred. The latter was in good condi'
ton. The crowds dispersed at mid
night except for few women. who re
fused to leave the vicinity of the pit
head.
In pursuance of Premier Sarrien's
instructions, a judicial inquiry was be
gun against the state engineers, who.
it is alleged, took over the superin-
tendence of the salvage work from
the companys engineers. Should this
examination establish a lack of celer-
ity, neglect of duty or incapacity on
the part of the state engineers, prose
cution will ensue on the charge OF IN
voluntary homicide, the penalty oil
which may be two years imprison-
meut.