The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-07
EXPLOSION IN MINES BURNS OUT LIVES OF
 HUNDREDS OF MINERS
CONFINED FROM FACE n

that men still living may be impris- oned. The cars are being righted as fast as possible and removed from tn @ entry together with all otlfer obstruc- tions.
 All of the headings leading off from the main entry are being cut off by canvas and barricaded as fast as they are reached by the relief workers so that the innermost workers of the mine may be given the benefit of the venti- lating system to sustain any that may be yet living and make possible an early exploration of these workings.
 The American miners of the town have been placed in charge of the re- lief work, but the Italians and other foreigners are working under them most faithfully. It is impossible for a man to remain long in the depths of the mine, and the rescue forces are divided to work in relays with frequent reliefs. Many in the relief party have already become exhausted and have been sent to the surface.
 The mines are owned and operated by the Consolidated Coal company of Baltimore. General offices are located in Baltimore and the operating of fees are in Fairmont, w. Va. The com- panY is said to be one of the largest operating in the bituminous coal in- dustry in America. 1t is capitalized at 0,000, 900 and has in operation about 100 producing plants. It's largest mines are located In Fairmont and Clarks- burg, W. Na.; Somerset, Penn, and Cumberland, Md. Clarence W. Watson is president.
 MononGah Is a mining town in Marion county, w, Va, nbout six miles south west of Fairmont. It has a population a a of whom tOl- eigners, although there is larger pro portion of American miners in this dis irict than in most of the other bituminous fields.
 All Hope Gone.
 Along the bills, far back from the main opening on Mine No. & there are a number of openings into the mine and to these hundreds of relatives and friends of the entombed men frantically rushed in the vain hope that their loved ones might md escape through these channels or that they might be more readily reached and released So far as known however. not single man escaped this way, and the Youd-be rescuers are helpless at these points, for out of each entry there is pouring a volume of poisonous gas which no human being can face for more than a few minutes at a time.
 The scenes about the entrance to the
  pathetic and heartrending than those which usually mark q mine destruction because of a larger proportion of Ameri- can and Americanized foreigners than Is usually found in a purely mining settle ment. Wives and mothers and sweet hearts together with children and mem bers of the stronger sex move from place to place, Nainly seeking information and making no attempt to conceal the griel that oyerwhelms them. But little news can be given them, and such as they do get is bad None is encouraging to hope that any one miner has survived the eN- .plosion and the suffocatng gas that im- mediately thereafter filled the mine.
 From time to time there comes word from the searchers in the mine that bodies have been found at one place or another, and in nearly every instance it is also stated that the bodies are each ter ribly torn and mangled or burned and blackened.