Lower coast gazette., 1909-11-27
20 MINERS ARE RESCUED
Imprisoned Men Win Desperate Battle and Are
Restored to Their Families.
WaIed-in 100 Hours, Hymns, Prayers, and Sermon Dispel tho
Spirit of Dependency AssaiIing Them-Tragic Scenes
Enacted-l1en Tell Graphic Stories.

physicians attempted to point out that
the rescued men must have food. These
women had stood for seven nights ant
days waiting for news of their loved
ones, and they would not be denied.
The first hour after the living mer
appeared chaos rcigned and it was not
until 2:3O pm. that a semblance of or.
der was restored. AS fast as the sur.
vivors were brought to the surface they
were hurried to the sleeping cars. The
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 Pigatti
and his brother Giacoma, were the first
men brought up. They were hurried
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 sutfocation were told by the
men. William Clelland, who is
credited by most of the survivors with
saved their lives, appeared none
The worse for his experience after he
mad partaken of a little food.
"The fire started in the mule stables
'bout 1 pm. last Saturday from a torch.
was working with a lot of other men
n the main tunnel, running west from
ne hosting shaft. We heard of the fire
bout 2 o'clock, and l yelled to the men
o get out, because the mine was burn
ng, We dashed through the tunnel to-
ward the main shaft, but found that
scape was cut off by the flames.
I'VE realized that unless we protected
ourselves we were doomed, so we ran
ack in the tunnel where the air was
learer. About 300 feet back from the
main shaft there is another tunnel run
ing north and south, and we threw up
barricade across the main tunnel to
eep the smoke and gases out. While
'e were working on this the timbers
verhead burned away and a great mass
I earth fell, blocking the tunnel and
the heat away from us.
Food Parceled Out.
"Then we retreated into the north
nd south tunnel as far away from the
laln fire as we could get. We were
bout a mile from it, l should say.
There were Fl of us, Is being maj.
ed men and six single. Most of the
'en had kept hold of their dinner buck
IS, so we put the food all together and
arceled 1t out in small bits. We had
'und a water hole, so we thought we
ere well fixed.
1T got awfully lonely down there and
Q didn't have any idet what was 90
g on about us, but we passed the time
7 telling stories and cracking jokes.
ne man had a pack of cards and we
aged with them by the hour.
Sunday afternoon-I think it was
out that time-the Frenchman died.
E had been hurt in building the barri-
de. We buried him under the ground
cause we didn't want the stencil of
flesh to kill us. l don't know
nat we did after that except that
ed to cheer the men up, and tell them
would soon be taken out.
"After a time-it seems like it was
ly a day, but I guess it must have
three or four days-our water ran
t and u food supply was getting
". We drank the oil from our lamps
d the seepage in the gutter of the
mel. We ate only sparingly of our F..
ID, most of the men tearing bark off
timbering and d~evouring that. !
Rescuers Are Welcomed.
After awhile the air became foul and
had a hard time retaining our senses. {
henever we moved about, we crawled
our stomachs, afraid of the black i
MP which we knew must be in the &
Finally today n of the men heard ,
'nds outside the barricade and came
wing back to tell us of it. W. all ,
wled to the barricade and sounded on !,
walls and yelled as loud as we could. :
Then we heard them digging and .
tty soon we saw a light. God, but =
was good to see the light! We just =
nbed over each other to get out of :
t tunnel and / guess we acted pretty '
er, we were so glad to see those men.
first thing most of US asked the !
q was: is it Sunday or Mondayy Il
y took us up slowly and you will
er know how good it seemed to see t
hoinoo ~ H. .. q