Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-11-24
All but About a Score of
Cherry Victims Now
Accounted for.
DEATH CAME QUICKLY
All Succumbed to Black Damp
After Struggle of Not More
Than Two Days.

Cherry, III. Nov. 24-Practically all
The bodies of the victims Of the mine
disaster were found this morning on
the staircase at the mouth of the third
or lower level. One hundred sixty
eight bodies were found, leaving about
score to be accounted for.
The miners evidently had died in
the first rush for safety in the explo-
sion Nov. IS. Their bodies were in
great tangled mass. completely block
ing the staircase leading from the
third TO the second vein, and were
scattered along the vein, where they
had dropped before reaching the stair
way.
Black Damp Cause.
Black damp was the cause of death,
all means of escape having been block
ed by debris falling and covering up
the top of the staircase. Death evil
iently did not come to many for hours,
f not for days.
Make Rude Fans.
Two rude wooden ventilating fans
we're affixed TO the shaft wall and
stairway. The men had turned these
by hand in frantic struggle for air
and in a hopeless effort to brush back
the black damp One of the dead min
er's hands was found firmly gripped
about the fan, as he had died. The
fans were made of pieces of wood has
thy nailed together, and whirled about
the handles of the miners picks.
Dinner Pals Full.
Dinner pals were found in the mass,
many partly filed, showing the men
did not suffer from hunger and that
death must have come shortly after
their escape from the depths of the
level One body was badly burned.
On Elevated Surface.
The bodies were found 500 feet
from the main shaft on an elevated
surface where the men had retreated
before the advancing water and fata'
black damp. They had not been able
to escape the latter and had died
after a struggle that may have con
tinued for two days.
Messages scrawled on wood and
natural slate cropping from the walls
placed the number of dead at 100 or
90. AAlIC O1llNiclil bCAAC'C 100 NiAeNAi
a dozen bodies will be found in other
sections of the mine.
Wnded Through Water.
The exploring party were in the
gallery more than an hour before the
bodies were found. They had to
wade in water waist deep through a
circular tunnel, making their way :
ward the elevation shaft or ridge
where the bodies were found. To
take out bodies today skiff will be
lowered to the vein in which the |
bodies were found and it will be
rowed across four feet of water in |
the vein to the spot where the bodies !
lie and they will be transported to
the main shaft to remove to the sur
face.
Reversal of FINN Deadly.
With the reversal of the fan un-
der orders of those directing the work |
on top the explorers assert the deadly |
gas forming in the second gallery |
and creeping out of the escape shaft |
was hurled back into the lower level. !
where the men had gathered and |
they struggled before they had op- |
portunity to seek the pockets or err
rect protection against it.
Machinists BaIk.
The announced intention of mine |
officials to pump out water before the .
arrival Of a skiff was baked by the |
refusal of the machinists to aid them. /
Connections of the pump have been ,
disconnected near the second level. |
The machinists who were called upon /
declined to risk their lives in re-
pairing machinery.
One Company Sent Home
Springfield, Ill, Nov. 24-The gov
ernor having received word from the .
sheriff that 1t was unnecessary to
keep the Galesburg company at Cher
ry, ordered the company home last |
night, leaving only the Kewanee com
pany at Cherry.
McAllister In Charge.
Following a telegram sent to the gov
ernor by the executive board of the
state organization, asking that
the state designate somebody to take
charge of the mine, Mine Inspector
Hector McA1lister was placed in
charge.
Diary OF One Now Dead.
A diary begun on the 18th was found
In the clothing taken from one of the
eS bodies found in pocket of the mine.
1t was written by Samuel Howard, 81
FEARS old, and refers tenderly to Sam