The Oskaloosa herald., 1909-11-18
tailed to reach anybody and had
rushed back for air.


Choke, Gasp, and Then Return.
K For few minutes the brave men
choked and gasped In the open. Then
they re-entered the cage. Again the
engineer stood at his levers and the
cables Kissed over the drums. Again
there was a short wait, another fran
tic signal to pull UP. For the second
time the rescuers, came to the top
this time with q number of miners
who were alive.
Half stified, with lungs parched and
all but bursting. the rescuers returned
to the cage a third time, and for a
third time made a descent into the
pungent darkness OF the mine. They
found the stables q furnace, but the
men they were trying to rescue had
not reached the bottom of the shaft
So up they went to the air again with
a load of rescued men and to gain
breath for another battle with the
mine.
When the rescuers staggered out of
the cage for the third time, DR.. Howe
was overcome by the heat and smoke.
He recovered sufficiently to struggle
to get back into the cage for the
fourth trial. but his companions, rec.
ognizing that his weakness had put
him beyond usefulness, forced him
back and went down alone to the he.
roic venture.
Heroes Toasted; Cargo of Death.
For the fourth time the engineer at
the top Of the shaft-the shaft by
this time was smoking like factory
ehimney-opened his throttle to pull
up the cage. Perhaps half the cable
had coiled itself about the drums
above the rising cage when flames
spurted out of the top Of the shaft.
The downcast shaft had become .
chimney in very truth.
AS the car continued to rise down
there in the narrow shaft the flames
snvelope4 it and broiled the heroes
within as bread Is toasted in a kitchen
utensil The engineer, John Cowley.
stood at his lever until the car was
out at the top, but he hauled up not
living men but blistered corpses.
BY this time the population OF
Cherry--about 5000 people-had gath
cred at the shaft mouths of the mine.
Telephone and telegraph had been OPP
Grated to bring all the physicians
within a radius of 20 miles to the
scene.
Doctors Rushed to the Scene.
All the doctors In Spring Valley
rushed to the town of Ladd by auto
mobiles and reached Cherry by spe-
cial train over the Chicago, Milwau-
kee & st. Paul railroad. All the drug
stores in Spring Valley were ran
sacked for surgical supplies and auto
mobile loads Of them were hurried
into Cherry at top speed. 'r-. ...
Strong men. volunteered to fight
back the frantic relatives of the en-.
tombed miners The tongues of most
Of the countries of southern Europe,
but especially Austria, Italy and
Lithuania, were heard in a tempest of
lamentations. H.. 4. .f-. ,-
The workers in the mines of Cherry
come from the countries named in
numbers proportioned to the order.
Many of the miners were boys of rs
or II. ,tt r,s-ss.. ..-.., "a.
Their mothers, many Of them, had
been widowed years before by similar
catastrophes in other mines, felt the
full force Of the horror.
Fan stops; Horror Grows.
The huge ventilating fan controlling
the air supply of the mine continued
20 work until three o'clock. Then the
fire reached the machinery and II
stopped working. A gasp Of horror
went up from the watchers, for they
knew that without the fan working
a man could not live ten minutes
perhaps not ten seconds-in the lower
levels of the mine.
There were five hours more Of fran
tic but Intellectual effort to stop the
fire. At eight O'Clock 1t was found
necessary to take the final step Of
sealing both shafts OF the mine, cut.
ting of all hope of anybody surviving
in the huge underground furnace. It
was a generally acknowledged impos.
sibility to even consider taking out
bodies Of men without first smother
inc tho fro