, 1908-04-16

Comrades, and Were Themselves
Made Victims of Second EXPLOSION
Did so at Their Own Risk-sac
Story Of Pretty English Maiden.
Hanna, the little wind-swept camI
on the Wyoming plains, is itself again
The cry for bread from the parched
Threats of forty-two widows and lis
orphans has been answered, and all
Wyoming, as well as her sister states,
have poured of their fullness into the
desolate community, writes Elizabeth
Kelly in the Denver Post. The doors
of the company" store are swung
wide open and there is food and there
is clothing for the present; but what
of the future?
Company Discialms Liability.
There is a vague M afloat in WY
oming which has not penetrated Han
na just yet, for which fact due graft
tude should be expressed, that the
company operating the mines at Han.
ma, in which fifty-nine men went to
their death on March 2S, will not as
sumo liability for the death of any Of
the forty-one men who went in the
relief expedition. Definite plans to OPP
pose any measure to force payment
are quietly being made, the road o
tending that under the employers Ii.
ability law they are responsible for
the first disaster which snuffed out the
lives of eighteen miners, but those OF
the band which followed David Elias
into the t~reacherous depths did SO of
their own volition and not under in
structions from the company. A fine
point, however, will be made in case
the widows undertake to fight for their
claims, in that it is held that if the
lamps were given the members of the
relief expedition by officers of the mine
the company is technically responsi-
BILE.
No Free Transportation.
Then another feature of the settle
HELL WIlCh WILL Dc oOle pIoW W
the widows and orphans when the truth
Is made known, is that there is not
likely to be any railroad transports
ton for those who want to go far from
the scene of the disaster. After the
explosion in June, 1903, the company
furnished transportation even to Fin
land and other points across the wa-
ter for those who had come far from
home to the mining district. In adii-
ton to this, $500 was given to each
widow and $50 to each child rendered
fatherless by the catastrophe.
Hepburn Law Rules.
Hepburn law is in effect and there are
no passes. The widows and orphans
must stay near the scene of their mis-
cry unless the generous-hearted pub
lie sends funds to defray the expense
of travel.
But Hanna does not know all that to-
day. Hanna still lives and hopes and
waits. Hanna is waiting until the
bodies of the lost miners are extract
ed in order that decent burial may
be given the dead men.
Perhaps the saddest heart in all
Hanna pulsates in the breast of Edith
Birohall, little English girl whose
father, brother and two uncles, for
whom she kept house, were killed with
the relief expedition. She is just IS
and the second Oldest of nine children.
Seven of them are with the mother in
Liverpool, England. Two years ago
Edith Birchall came with her father
and brother to this country. They
were to work in the mines.
Easier for Them.
TT was easier work for them," said
the girl yesterday in telling how she
had come to make her home in Hanna.
AT home the men folks had to work
on their hands and knees all day be-
cause the English mines have only
low coal in them. But up here the
veins were four times as thick and
they could stand all day. So my father
and my brother wrote home after we
had been here awhile and told my two
uncles about it. My uncles, John and
Andrew Hoy, came last October, the
very last day, and l kept h%ouse,for all
of them. The men have only been
working three days a week this year
| because there wasn't much to do. One
of my uncles had never been able to
give me a cent for board because he
was paying the railroad back for his
transportation. He would have had il
all paid-up next payday and then | was
| going to get my money. 1t took all he
had to send home. He has a wife and
seven children in England. The old
est is in a blind school in Liverpool
My other uncle was married three days
before he came to America.
All Went to Death.
my men folks, four of them, al
wen to the mine when the explosion
came and got to work. / stayed home
and cooked supper. I waited until ]
O'Clock the next morning for them tt
come and then learned that they had
been killed. NV brother sent a cable