The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1909-11-26

days waiting for news OF their love-
ones, and they would not be denied. :
The first hour after the living mel
appeared chaos reigned and it was not
until $3.50 pm. that q semblance Of or
der was restored. AS fast as the sur
vivors were brought to the surface the,
were hurried to the sleeping cars. Thu
physicians, fearing that the sudden tax
ing of food might result seriously, care
fully fed the men small quantities Of
soup and thin milk, aiming to restore
their strength gradually.
Some of the rescuers of the entOmbed
men were so overwhelmed with graft
tude by the relatives of the rescued
that they had difficulty in getting
through the big crowds. Joseph Pigattl
and his brother Giacoma, were the first
men brought up. They were hurried
to the sleeping cars, where physicians
were n attendance and there Pigatti and
his wife and two children standing in
the crowd. Despite his weakened con.
dition he leaped past the people stand.
ing about and gathered them in his arms
and all four dropped upon the ground
and kissed the feet of their rescuers,
sobbing out their gratitude.
Escape Cut OFF.
Graphic stories of their hardships and
how they fought to stave off starva-
ton and suffocation were told by the
rescued men. William Clelland, who is
,raI,4oI H., rcoo A. ,r:%1
having saved their lives, appeared none
the worse for his experience after he
had partaken of a little food.
"The fire started in the mule stables
about 1 pm. last Saturday from a torch.
l was working with a lot of other men
in the main tunnel, running west from
the hosting shaft. We heard of the fire
about 2 o'clock, and 1 yelled to the men
to get out, because the mine was burn
ing. We dashed through the tunnel to-
ward the main shaft, but found that
escape was cut off by the flames.
"We realized that unless we protected
ourselves we were doomed, so we ran
back in the tunnel where the air was
clearer. About 800 feet back from the
main shaft there is another tunnel run
ming north and south, and we threw up
a barricade across the main tunnel to
keep the smoke and gases out. While
we were working on this the timbers
overhead burned away and a great mass
earth fell, blocking the tunnel and
keeping the heat away from us.
Food Parceled Out.
"Then we retreated into the north
and south tunnel as far away from the
main fire as we could get. We were
about a mile from it, 1 should say.
"There were 81 of us, Is being mar
ried men and six single. Most of the
men had kept hold of their dinner buck
SO we put the food all together and
parceled it out in small bits. We had
a water hole, so we thought we
were well fixed.
at got awfully lonely down there and
didn't have any idet what was GO
ing on about us, but we passed the time
by telling stories and cracking jokes.
One man had a pack of cards and we
with them by the hour.
Sunday afternoon-I think it was
about that time-the Frenchman died.
He had been hurt in building the barri-
'ade. We buried him under the ground
because WI didn't want the stencil of
flesh to kill us. l don't know
what we did after that except that /
,ried to cheer the men up, and tell them
We would soon be taken out.
"After a time-it seems like it was
'nly a day, but l guess it must have
,een three or four days-our water ran
nut and our food supply was getting
We drank the oil from our lamps
nd the seepage in the gutter of the
unnel. w ate only sparingly of our
God, most of the men tearing bark off
he timbering and ~devouring that.
Rescuers Are Welcomed.
"After awhile the air became foul and
had a hard time retaining our senses
Whenever we moved about, we crawled
n our stomachs, afraid of the black
amp which we knew must be in the
unnels.
FINALLY today one Of the men heard
ounds outside the barricade and came
back to tell us Of. it. We all
to the barricade and sounded. on
he walls and yelled as loud as w could.
"Thep we heard them digging and
retty 0 2 we saw a light Gpds but
was coed to Z the light We just
ip1bea over each ether to get out of
hat tnnnelasnd I guess we acted pretty,
ueery we were. SO glad to see those men,
he first thing NEST o. vs. asked the h
wssh;; 1s . il Sunday spr Mondays3iiIv
hey to0Qk us1 n isloYlyrand, you wiki
.vezs know how good itlaAfamsd itAoaeeh
aamHA4BB beings in the ,sAnaqhgglhtN" sa nrsasjE
s sd''' ''j9AH. s. g1EENTTass aa.we-.f,
i MISUNDERSTANDING siinsas;xe 1sJ:1y
efuses Absolatseylto Ceaanent, 1eufStsfl
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