Mexico Missouri message., 1909-11-18
SCORES BURIED IN MINE
MAY YET Be RESCUED
Fire in The Cherry Shaft Has Been Elk
tinguished and Rescue Party De-
sends to 3OO-f. Level
THE ENTOMBED NUMBER 372

Of thirty-three houses on Long Row
| only two miners we're saved.
/ In a family named Love the father
l and four sons persisted.
The list Of the missing was COM
| piled in the office of the mining COM
/ pany. and It reached the astounding
| total Of 3S5, including the dead whose
| charred bodies were taken from the
/ burning cages Saturday afternoon. 1t
/ was declared to be probable that this
/ list might be increased. One hundred
/ and seventy men who entered the
mine Saturday morning have been &C
| counted for. The company had scores
Of tracers at work rounding up the
I employees. and at nightfall the COM
pany officials admitted that the num-
/ Der OF men in the mine was greater
Z than they first had believed possible.
Among the missing are many Amer
leans, who have lived for years and
reared their families in the mining
/ section Of Illinois, so often the scene
Of terrific tragedy Though the
majority Of those who never may be
found alive are foreign born, yet all
had their homes here or in the sur
rounding towns and villages, and the
grief over their probable fate has
cast a pail over the community.
Mines in Two Shafts.
The catastrophe probably the
greatest in the history Of mining, &C.
CURED shortly after ! o'clock Satur-
day afternoon, when the miners were
at work in two Of the big shafts of
the mine
A fire started and the men were cut
of from air. Out OF the 45O miners.
only eighty-flve are known TO have
made their escape.
A rescue party, consisting of thir-
teen men, made two trips in the mine
cage and brought out a number of
men. On the third trip the entire
rescue party was suffocated and were
dead when the big cage was brought
TO the surface.
A majority of the victims met death
from suIocation. although many are
| believed TO have burned to death.
The disaster was the result of a
load Of hay catching fire in the sec
ond vein of the mine, over 300 feet
below the surface. the explosion fol-
lowing. Quickly the mine was a mass
Of flames.
The entire population Of Cherry
was at the mine when the bodies Of
the rescue party were brought to the
/ surface. The scene that followed is
| beyond description. 4 great moan
I swept through the crowd. Women
| tainted and men wrung their hands
/ and wept. The cries and shrieks of
the mothers, wives and sisters Of the
victims, mingled with the hoarse
shouts Of the men who were attempt
ing 10 aid the entombed miners.
Aid Sent by Special Train.
James steele, superintendent Of the
| mine, Immediately wired the Office Of
/ the company in Chicago for aid He
was notified that a special train bring
ing supplies and physicians would be
/ sent al once.
The terrible loss Of life was indi-
! rectly caused by the reversing Of the
[ big fan which supplies air to the two
/ big veins Of the mine.
When the fire was first discovered
/ it was thought that the blaze could
be drawn out by the fan. The reyers-
ing Of the fan shut OF all the air in
the shafts below and also drew the
flames up the shaft. The fire came
out with such fury that the fan itself
was burned almost Immediately. II
was realized that unless the miners
were brought to the surface within
few moments they would die from
suffocation.
The only means of rescue left was
the cage. BY this time large volumes
OF smoke were issuing from the shaft
and 1t was thought to be impossible
for any one TO live in the big cage.
John Flood and Isaac Lewis, mer-
chants, however, stepped forward and
called for men to go down in the ele-
vator
Volunteers Reach Second Vein.
Volunteers answered Immediately.
They entered the cage, and the en-
gineers lowered them to the second
vein.
Here the rescue party left the ele-
vator, and as quickly as possible they
carried the unconscious miners TO the
cage, Only few minutes was spent
in this work, as the air was such that
the men could not breath. Back TO
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~ IN HRs