The Newark star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1909, 1909-11-19
WOMEN FAINT AS
I. BODIES Of MINERS ]
!. ARE DRAGGED OUT
Heartrending Scenes at Cherry
Disaster Rival Those of
Messina Earthquake.

c,t4 .--9---- >-y and
atten1s .~-~~.-..sf-
was continued II
today. r. '>.s,, -, *.
The bodies Of two men and q boy
were brought 70 the surface.
They were quickly identified. One
was that of Richard Buckles, stable
boy, the other that of Louis Gibbs.
Gibbs's widow was too i'll to leave her
home. The body was identified by
Gibbs's FORMER comrades.
There were many women in the
crowd that gathered around the bodies,
but there were more children. All
looked at the bodies and one after
another turned away. some weeping
silently. others choked with sobs.
II was at Messina after the earth
quake, but the scenes following that
this said Ernest P. Bicknell, national
Red Cross Representatives.
Among those in the crowd were a
woman and her little. daughter The
mother stood speechless and with dry
eyes as the child tried to comfort her
Never mind, mama" said the lit
tie one, we'll find papa" but her hope
full prattle fell on unhearing ears, for
the mother made no reply
After the bodies of Buckles and
Gibbs had been removed to the tenn
porary morgue, the remaining one of
the three bodies was identified as
George McMullen identification was
made by one of his brothers, who said
that he had two more brothers down
in the mine.
McMulIens widow reached the tenn
porary morgue just as the body of her
husband was being carried in AS she
saw who it was she screamed and col
lapsed into the arms of her brother
in-law. In moment she revived and
struggled to force her way into the
morgue. Two men attempted to re-
strain her, but she brushed them aside.
Her husbands brother and two others
by main force dragged her from the
spot, screaming and struggling.
William Redmond, a Chicago fireman,
who aided in dragging McMullen's body
from the mine, pointed to the body of
the stable boy, Buckles, and asked
rs that little boy his son?'
mo- he had no son. was the reply
of McMuIlen's brother
"Well, he had that little boy clasped
in his arms when we found then,"
said Redmond "The boys arms were
around McMullen's neck. McMullen
had on a black sweater, and this he had
pulled over his face, as. though he had
tried to protect himself from suffoca-
tion. The lads head was tucked down
under McMullen's coat. That is, the
way they died. The two were found
about a hundred feet from the shaft. l
suppose the man had been trying to
carry the boy to the airshaft."
The fire in the mine now is entirely
extinguished Great credit for the task
was given to- Chicago firemen by
Thomas Steele, superintendent of the
mine, who went into the galleries with
them early today.
They fought that fire inch by inch."
said steele. AFTER we had been down
there nearly two hours before daylight
l thought it was long enough for one
effort and started to go back. ] told
the firemen toe back and rest They
refused to come and kept on driving
the fire back. They stayed in that
gallery for two and half hours, and
did not leave until every trace of fire
in the vein had been put out
The condition of the bodies so far
shows clearly that they died
from suffocation, and that they had
been dead since the first day of their
The water at first
poured into the mine was converted
into rivers on the floors of the veins
where lay the dead That they did |
not die w fire; Is evident because theirl
clothing was not scorched