Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1909-11-25

physicians attempted TO point out thai
the rescued men must have food. Thea
womca had stood for seven nights sns
days waiting for news Of their losse
ones. and they would not be denisyL
The first hour after the living urr
appeared chaos reigned and il was no,
until e;30 pm. that a semblancr "a ~
der was restored. IA fast as ths. sur
vivois wers brought 90 the s~rfscs the,
were hurried 20 the sleeping ears. Ths
physicisns, 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 restor,
their strength gradually.
Some Of the rescuers Of the entomb.,
men were 30 overwhelmed with graft
tude by the relatives of the re~cuec
that they had difficulty in gettini
through the big crowds. Joseph Pigitt
and his brother Giacoma. were the tr.t
men brought up. They were hurric,
TO the sleeping ears. where physical n,
were attendance and there Hgstti and
his wife and two children standing ir
the crowd. Despite his weakened con
dition he leapcd past the people stand
ing about and gathered them Ia his arnis
and all four dropped upon the ground
and kissed the feet Of their rescuers
sobbing out their gratitude.
Escape Cut on.
Graphic stories Of their harlships and
how they fought to stave of starva
tion and sufFocation were told by tho
rescued men. William Clcllaud, who is
credited by most of the survivors with
having saved their lives, appeared non,
the worse for his experience after h.
had partaken of a little food.
The fire started in the mule stable.
about pm last Saturday from torch
| was working with lot Of other mer
in the main tunnel. running west from
the hoisting shaft. We heard of the fir,
about ? o'clock. AMI yelled to the mer
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 or by the flames.
we realized that unless we protected
ourselves we were doomed. so We rar
hack in the tunnel where the air was
clearer. About 900 feet back from ths
main shaft there i another tunnel run
ming north and south. and We threw W
barrieade across the main tunnel to
keep the smoke and gases out. While
We were working on thls the timber
overhead burned away and great mas.
Of earth feil. blocking the tunnel and
keeping the heat away from us.
Food PareeIed Out.
Then We retreated into the nortl
AMI south tunnel a. far away from tn,
main fire as We could get We wer.
about a mile from il. | should say.
There were 81 of rs. Is being mar
ried men and six single Most Of the
men had kept hold Of their dinner buck
, ets, 50 We put the food all together and
parceled II out in small bits. We hal
found a water hole, so We thought We
were well fixed.
1T got awfully lonely down there AM
We 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
played with them by the hour.
Sunday afternoon--I think il was
about that time-the Frenchman died
He had been hurt in building the barri
cade. We buried him under the ground
because we didn't want the stencil oi
decayiN iesh to kill us. I don't know
what we did after that except that
tried 10 cheer the men up. and tell then
we would soon be taken out.
After time-it seems ike il wa.
only a day. but | gtess il must have
been three or four days-our water rar
out and our food supply was getting
low. We drank the oil from our lamps
and the seepage in the gutter Of ths
tunnel We ate only sparingly of oui
food. most of the men tearing bark of
the timbering and devouring that.
Reseuers Are Welcomed.
After awhile the air becaIue foul and
we had hard time retaining our senses
Whenever We moved about, we crawlet
ON our stomaehs. afraid ef the black
damp which We knew must be in ths
I tunnels.
Finally today one of the men heard
SQUADS outside the barricz,de and came
crawling back 10 tell US of it, We all
erawled to the haricade and sounded on
the wallis and yelled as loud as We could
Then We heard them digging and
pretty soon we saw a light. God, but
it was good to see the light, We just
climbed over each other to get out Of
that tunnel and | guess we acted pretty
queer. We were so glad TO see those men
The first thing most Of Us asked the
men was: Is it Sunday or Monday 2
They took Us up slowly and you will
never know how good il seemed to see
| human beiugs in th., zftnlighf