The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-22
IMMENSE CROWDS SWARM AT MINES One Man Is Seriously Injured
 In Rush to Cherry GRAPHIC STORIES TOLD Incidents of the Rescue of the Men and Their Stories of Imprisonment
 and Suffering Are Thrill
 ing With Interest.

l of Kewanee received internal injuries In ] the overturning of his automobile, att 1 tended the rush of thousands of visitors here today to gaze upon the scenes of the great mine disaster The accident oc- cured near Princeton as the physician was motoring toward Cherry. pr. Wash burns son, Raymond, who accompanied i his father, sustained a broken arm. Throughout this section curious per- sons took advantage of the holiday, con1- Ing in by train, automobile and horse- drawn vehicles of every description. ! Nearly every fence post in town served l to restrain horse and 312 automobiles were parked near the coal company's 1 offices. Every train arriving was packed. even all standing room in the cars being occupied. Probably 5000 strangers visit ed the city and viewed such parts of the coal plant as could be seen from the rope barrier.
 graphic description. as the rescuers saw 1t, of the recovery of the men was told 1 by Father James P. Heaney of St. Mary's l church. Mendota, H., who was down in the mine with the rescue party. He said:
 Just about 2 o'clock, when we were as near as can tell. 300 feet into the gallery from the holsting shaft, our party slackened up because of pile of debris l in the way. Suddenly David Powell said :: Listen, boysl I thought I heard some- thing
 We were all silent. A faint pound ing. as if coming through the thick ness of wall. was heard.
 My Godp said Powell, T believe somebody is alive In there
 Some of the other men replied No, that is impossible Nobody in the world thinks for 8 moment the men could live down here for a week
 :" Well, now said, Let's listen again
 MuffIed Sound Heard. We all listened for what seemed to | be a full minute Sure enough, there came the same untitled pounding sound we had heard before. Then we were too 1 much affected to speak We could not be- lieve our own senses. Grabbing hold of l the picks and axes our men then be- i gan to tear down the loose piles of earth l and rocks Frequently we stopped to hear II. It took us several minutes to make much headway into the obstruction.
 Finally I, who had been in the rear, l came forward and with a shovel re- l lieved one of the men who had become tired out.
 Tt was a weird scene. The lights of our torches on our caps kept bobbing up and down as we labored and filled the place with moving shadows.
 Now, let's stop and listen again. said Powell. Much to our glee. the pound i ing sounds came nearer. A few more digs brought down the dirt from the top i and a little black hole appeared be- 1 fore us.
 l dirt and yelled: Are any of you alive i in there, boys?
 An answer came back: Yes
 Before another word could be uttered the men began pulling at the dirt again and soon large gap appeared. We yelled into them Hold one of our torches
 How many of you are alive in there. boys? We will save you in a minute.'
 "In faint, husky voices the men called back: Yes, we are alive and you bet lunch out there?
 'I crawled up as near the hole as I coGld without interfering with the men.
 God bless you, men, we will get you out in minute, and give you all the lunch you can eat. Be patient as you can.
 In Total Darkness. l "I could not see anything back in there for the men were in total darkness. so I climbed back and prayed that God would make the number we were about to rescue from the living grave as many as possible.
 By that time the hole was wide open and dozen pairs of glistening eyes shin ing out from black faces appeared.
 We kept yelling in to the men to keep up their courage, promising them that the way would soon be clear and the cage was down and ready to carry them to the surface.
 "One of the men inside answered back: Most of us are all right and feeling fine, but there is one poor fellow in here a Frenchman called Frank-who Is al- most gone and I'm afraid he will be dead in few minutes if he does not get some fresh air.
 I ''Wnen the pie Ol ulIl iliidiiy lQliDieu down some of the men were staggered by the thrush of air and the lights from our torches. For, during seven days they had lived in total darkness
 sAs we approached the shaft there oc- cured one of the greatest acts of hero- ism have heard or read of. It can hard lv be believed Walter Waite one of the men we rescued, on hearing that there were others alive in another part of the mine, threw off the blanket with which we had covered his head and shouted:
 Well. then, by God, am not go- ing out of this mine until I get the others
 Couldn't Stop Waite.
 we remonstrated, saying that for him to remain there longer would mean his death
 '''We will take you up to the fresh air and give you some nice warm food and then maybe we will let you help us do the rescue work we said but Waite protested and we actually had to use force to get him into the cage. All the way up he shouted: Let me go down and help get up the others
 "All this time those on the surface had, as during the last three orj four days, a firm conviction that everybody in the mine was dead Nobody conceived of any other possibility. It was great joy then to cry up the shaft: We've got some men alive! Hoist her up, quick!
 Up we went like shot and rushed the men into Pullman ear standing near"
 Joe Piuati's Letter.