The Tupelo journal., 1907-12-13
ANOTHER MINE HORROR
WORST ACCIDENT OF IT'S KIND
IN LAST CENTURY.
Only IL Out of 500 Men at Work
Accounted for and Six of
These Are Dead.

morgue prepared near the entrance Of
the mine, five men in a temporary hes
pital, lowering between life and death
deadly gas,s inhaled, and at least 800
men imprisoned by tons of coal, rock
and mine debris in the depths of the hills
surrounding this mining town, with the
chances all against a single one of them
being alive, is the most accurate sum-
mary obtainable tonight of the results
of a mine explosion today which, in all
probability, was attended by greater
loss of life than any former disaster in
the history of the bituminous coal min
ing industry of America.
The explosion occurred shortly after
10 o'clock today after the full force of
mines affected.
The finding of the six bodies and the
five badly injured men is the only reward
of strenuous and uninterrupted work on
the part of a large rescuing force that
Immediately set to work at every posi-
BILE point.
The five living men are unable to give
any detailed report of the disaster or to
even explain how they reached the sur
face. They state that Immediately back
of them when they began their frantic
struggle for liberty, there were a large
number of men engaged in a similar
struggle, while still further back in the
workings there was a larger number of
whom they know nothing.
Only the most slender hope is enter
tanned for the survival of any one of
the men in the mine until the debris can
DO cleared away and communication with
the outside re-established.
The two mines regularly employ 1000
men, working in two shifts, 500 during
the day and 500 during the night, and
the best information obtainable at this
time is that the entire day force had
gone to work this morning and that all
were caught.
There is much speculation as to the
cause of the explosion, but the most gen.
orally accepted theory is that it resulted
from black damp, scientifically known al,
methane. 1t is believed that a minei
attempted to set off a blast which blew
out and ignited an accumulation of this
deadly gas, and this in turn ignited the
coal dust, a highly infiammable substance
found in greater or less qauntity in all
West Virginia mines.
Other evidence of the awful force is
shown in every section of the mines that
has been reached by the rescuers. Huge
quantities of coal and rock have been
loosened and hurled into every opening,
and all of the underground structure is
wrecked beyond semblance of its original
shape.
The reports in Monongah were deafen-
ing. The buildings of the city tottered
and wavered as if they would collapse.
The pavements were upheaved and some
of the frazier structures fell to the
ground. None of the 5000 inhabitants
had to ask the cause of this. They saw
instantly that a great mine horror had
taken place.
Pedestrians and even horses were
knocked off their feet. Street cars were
derailed. Fires started in various parts
of the city.
But all these were minor incidents to
the chief horror. Wives and sisters of
the entombed miners LIVING in cabins on
the outskirts of the city rushed to the
shafts to find them blocked with debris.
The face of the hills where these mines
were located had been changed by the up
heaval.
Monongah is a mining town in Marion
county, W. Va, about six miles south.
west of Fairmont. 1t has a population of
about 5000.
Until about ten years ago the mines
were operated almost exclusively by
Americans, but during a general strike
CT miners in the Pennsylvania and Ohio
fields, many of these West Virginia min
ers went out in sympathy. At that time
che mine owners brought in a large num-
Der of foreigners to take the places of
strikers, and they are now in the ma
jority. Mine No. 6 is located on the east
side of the West Fork river and No. s is
on the west side.
Along the hills, far back from the
main opening on Mine No. 8, 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 find escape through these channels
or that they might be more readily
reached and released. So far as known.
not a single man escaped this way, and
the would-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 entries to the
mines and throughout the town are even
more pathetic than those which usually
attend a mine disaster, because of a
larger proportion of American and Amer
icanized foreigners than are usually found
m a purely mining settlement.
Work of Rescue.
Special trains have brought doctors
and nurses and surgical appliances, and
the surgeons and nurses, like the Others.
can only stand and watch results. There
is grave fear that nc surgeon or nurse
can aid the entombed men. That they
are past all surgical aid is the universal
belief in Monongah tonight.
Near the choked-up entrances to the
mine are piled more thar 800 caskets, de-
posted there by order of the company.
Clarence Watson, president of the Con-
solidated Coal Company, who chartered
a special train from Baltimore to Monon-