The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-11-21

!
Father Heaney, wearing a miners ca
and carrying a torch, was down in tn
mine with the rescue party. He said:
Just about o'clock, when we wer
probably 300 feet into the gallery frou
the hosting shaft, our party slackenel
up because Of a pile of debris in the way
suddenly David Powell said, Listen
boys; 1 thought heard something W.
were all silent. faint pounding, as /
/ coming through the thickness of a wall
was heard My God said Powell, L be
lieve somebody Is alive in there Som
of the other men replied, No. that Is i'm
possible. Nobody in the world thinks 70
a minute the men could live down her
for seven days WELL 1 said, let
listen again
Could Not Believe 1t True.
I'VE all listened for what seemed to b
a full minute. Sure enough, there cam
| the same muffled pounding sound we hae
heard before. Then we were too mucl
affected to speak. We could not believ'
our own senses. Grabbing hold of tn.
picks and axes, our men began to teal
down the Moose pile Of earth and rock
Frequently we stopped to hear whether
the pounding continued. 1t took us sew
eral minutes to make much Roadway intC
the obstruction.
''It was a weird scene. The lights o;
our torches on our caps kept bobbing VI
and down as we labOred, filling the place
with moving shadows.
Now let's stop and listen again, said
Powell. Much to our Joy the pounding
sounds came louder. A few more digs
brought down the dirt from the top and
Alive and Hungry.
Two OF three of US climbed over the
dirt and yelled:
Are any of you alive in there, boysY'
An answer came back. Yes
-
again and soon large gap appeared. We
torches
How many Of you are alive in
there, boys? We will save you in a
I'm faint. husky tones the men
called back, Yes, we are alive and, you
bet, we are hungry, too. Have you
got some lunch out thereT"
Il crawled up as near the hole as
could without interfering with the
men.
"'God bless you, men; we viii get
you out in a minute and give you all
the lunch you can eat. Be patient as
you can
~ couldn't see anything back in
there, for the men were in total dark
ness, so 1 climbed back and prayed that
God would make the number we were
about to rescue from the living grave
as many as possible.
HSePiH9 Up OouEd9cs
I'VE kept yelling in to the men to
keep up their courage, promising them
that the water would soon be clear
and the cage in the hOisting shaft was
down and ready to carry them to the
surface.
zone of the men inside answered
back, Most of US are all right and
feeling fine. but there Is one poor fell
low here-a Frenchman called Frank
who is almost gone, and I'm afraid he
will be dead in a few minutes If he
doesn't get some fresh air.
when the pile of dirt finally tum-
bled down some Of the men were stag
gered by the thrush of air and the
lights from our torches. For during
seven days they had lived in total
darkness.
Rescued Men Joyous.
with a shout We jumped over and
met them, throwing our arms around
their necks and almost lifting them
from their feet Their Joy was in
expressible They pounded us on our
backs and continued TO laugh and cry
aloud until. the whole place reverber-
ated with the cheering.
we wanted to carry the men to the
hosting shaft in our arms, but they
insisted they were strong and well
enough to walk out themselves. The
only trouble was they were practical
" blinded by the torches. We threw
to escort them.
MY first concern was to get after
the poor little FTenchman who was
a aTRT on Ris back n Breathing nl R his
last. Holding a torch over his face,
which was black with SCOT, 1 said
to him, Do you give your soul to
He answered, 7 am afraid I will
never get up alive
"That was true. administered the
last sacrament and in a minute he was
dead.
Heroic Walter Waite.
81 then Joined the others and
walked toward the shaft, there occur
ring one of the greatest acts of hero
can hardly be believed,
Walter Waite, one of the men we
rescued, on hearing that there were
others alive IN -, ANOTHER part OF the
we had covered his head and shouted:
Well, then, by God. 1 am not going
out of this mine until I get the
others
I'VE demonstrated, saying that for him
to remain down there longer would mean
his death.
We will take you up to the fresh air
and give you some warm food and then
rest Of the work But Waite protested
and we actually had to force him into
the cage. All the way up he shouted,
Let me go down and help get the others
up
as during the last three or four days, a
firm conviction that everybody in the
mine was dead. Nobody conceived any
other possibility. 1t was a great Joy then
to cry up the shaft, We've got some men
alive. Hoist her up
up we went like shot and rushed
them into Pullman car standing near"
Joe Pigati's Letter.
Joe Pigat who was being revived,
brought out with smile letter he had
written on piece of brown paper on the
fourth day of his Imprisonment when he
thought there was no hope of escape.
The letter was addressed to his wife and
freely translated from the Italian read.
This is the fourth day that we have
been down here, That's what / think.
but our watches stopped. am writing
n the dark because we have been eating
he wax from our safety lamps. I also
nave eaten a plug of tobacco, some bark
and some of my shoes. I could only cnew
{. l hope you can read this. / am not
afraid to die. Oh Holy Virgin, have
mercy on me. I think my time has come.
You know what my property IS. We
worked for 1t together, and it is all yours.
This is my will and you must keep IT,
You have been a good wife. May the
Holy Virgin guard you. / hope this
caches you some time and YOU cam read
t. 1t has been very quiet down here, end
wonder what has become Of nur com
AIDES. Goodbye until heaven Fhall bring
rs together.
Signed). JOE PIGATI."
This Man Had Fears.
Another man who was brought 10 the
urface very solemnly requested that hts
wife be kept from the car.
I've been away seven days. ] think /
an apologize better to her at home"