River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1908-12-03
MINE DEATH LIST
IS AT LEAST 1873
HORRIBLE RESULTS OF EXPLo.
SION AT MARIANNA, PA.
SECOND BLAST is FEARED
Twenty-Five Bodies Recovered, But
Work of Finding Victims is
Slow, Owing to Gases
and Debris.


five bodies, all but two of them horri-
dismembered, were taken Sunday
from the mine of the Pittsburg-B Buffalo
Coal Company here, in which an ex-
plosion occurred Saturday, killing
many men and casting into gloom
what was until then considered the
model mining town of the world.
There is no doubt that the death list
will reach 1873 men. Officials of the
company, who had stated that not
over 125 men had been killed, Sunday
night admitted that 1873 men went
down the shaft to work Saturday
morning According to miners and
others familiar with the number of
men generally employed in the mine,
the death list will exceed the COM
pany's estimate by at least so.
Exact Number Is Not Known.
AS in nearly all mine disasters,
there seems no way at present of
knowing how many men went to work.
The number check-off system has
again proven defective and from no
SOuIC6 Cdu oil dCCu1dIS SLdCCmSuI dS
to the fatalities be secured.
1t is possible that the exact number
of men killed will never be known
Up to darkness Sunday night 25 bod
les had been brought to the surface in
an iron bucket Arms, legs or heads
were missing from some and the
trunks of others were burned, bruised
and cut
Two Were Suffocated.
Two of the men taken from the
mine had been suffocated and their
bodies were not even scratched. One
of these was John will, a. cousin of
John H. Jones, president of the Pitts
burg-Buffalo Coal Company, owners of
the mine, who was employed as head
time-keeper. wills body was found
beneath a coal-digging machine and it
was apparent that the young man had
crawled there in a vain effort to es-
cape the deadly fumes
The body of the other man was
found near will. The unfortunate had
placed his face in a pool of water,
which all miners are advised to do
when an explosion occurs, in a desper-
ate attempt to fight off suffocation I'M
til rescued.
The opinion was expressed by a
number of expert miners that the
several days.
Danger of Second Explosion.
Reports have been in circulation
that a second and more terrific eXplo-
sion is likely to occur at any moment.
The company officials assert this is
not true. There is considerable gas in
the mine, however, and there is un-
doubtedly danger of a second explo-
sion.
Many relatives of the victims stood
all day close to the ropes around the
shaft, but there were few of the har-
rowing scenes usually associated with
a mine explosion. Most of the relatives
are English-speaking people, who bear
their grief in silence. 1t is estimated
that one-fourth of the victims are
Americans. AS rapidly as possible the
work of rescue is being carried on. At
short intervals new men are sent into
the mine to relieve others searching
for the dead Owing to the danger
Gus gases and the mass of wreckage in
the mine, the rescue work is slow and
is being carried on with great pre9au-
ton. Experts from Pennsylvania
and West Virginia are in charge of the
work of exploration and are being
materially assisted nv T w Pau1 and
Clarence Hall of the United States ex-
detrimental and testing station in Pitts
burg.