Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1909-11-25
SCENES OF UTILIZATION

/ g1 eatest credit is given him for the
work of saving the entombed miners.
The scene around the shaft and the
| company's office was one of the wild
est jubilation.
/ The names of the men rescued were
shouted from group to group down the
railroad tracks and into the VILLAGE,
which was suddenly elevated from the
| depths of despair to the pinnacle of
| hope.
Every shopkeeper joined the crowd
| of women and children in a hySterical
rush for the mine.
Since Monday no expert, either OF
the schools, or practical mining, be-
lieved a soul remained alive.
HOSPITAL IN THE MINE
Inspector Crawford, of the state
board of health, after being down the
mine for half an hour, reported sixty
seven of the live men so weak that
| they were unable to stand the exer-
ton of being moved. All the doctors
on the grounds and in the village were
hurried into the mine, where tenn
porary hospital is arranged.
| William Cleland, one of the surviv-
ors, after drinking bowl of soup, ap-
| peared none the worse for the exper-
| fence. He said:
CAS- soon as we discovered last Sat
urday that there was no hope of es-
cape, we reiterated to safe place
where water was found. Fortunately
| some timbers behind us burned out,
and this let the earth and rocks fa1,
cutting us off from the heat and gas
| How time went we don't know. we
must have been unconscious part of
| the time.
| CHEWED BARK FROM STANCH-
IONS
81 remember drinking quantities of
| seepage that dripped down into gut
| ter, and eating my lunch. After that
| some of us pulled off the bark, chew
| ing it.
I'VE did not realize how serious our
position was, in fact some men joked
about it. After we drank all the wa
| ter and the seepage had run dry, we
| began to pound on the wall, to cause
more to drop down. Soon after this
we heard voices. We could hear them
digging on the other side of the rock
and dirt which filled the passage, and
soon a little hole was seen at the
| top, and a CLEAN of torches came
| through.
Our first question was: is it Sun
day or Monday Most of us thought
it was Sunday, and that we had been
in the mine only twenty-four hours"
FIRST SIGN OF LIFE
Father Heany of ST. Mary's church,
Mendoza, who was down with the res
cuers, said:
Eat o'clock, when we were 300
feet into the gallery from the hosting
shaft, our party Stacked up on account
of the debris. Suddenly David Powell
said: Listen, boys; [ heard some
thing We all became silent. A faint
pounding on the wall was heard. My
God said Powell, II believe somebody
is alive in there Some others re-
piled: No, that is impossible; nobody
believes the men could live down here
for seven days
Well, now I said, let's listen
again
I'VE listened a full minute. There
came the muffled pounding we heard
before. We were too much affected to
speak and could not believe our senses
but grabbing picks and axes we began
to tear down the loosened earth and
rocks. When we listened again the
pounding was louder. A little black
hole opened before US.
ALMOST HYSTERICAL
''Three of us climbed over the dirt,
and yelled: Are any of you alive in
there, boys?'
1.-THE answer came, yes
"Soon large gap was made and
we yelled: How many of you are
alive, boys? We will save you in
minute
I'm faint, husky voices the men call
ed: Yes, we are alive, and you bet we
are hungry. Have you got some lunch
out there?
81 crawled UP near the hole and
yelled:
"'God bless you men, we will get
you out in a minute, and give you all
you can eat. Be patient as you can
"I could not see anything back
there, so I climbed back, and prayed
to God to make the number we would
be able to rescue as many as possible
"By that time the hole was wide oren
and dozen pairs of glistening eyes
shining from black faces appeared.
1--WE kept yelling to the men, prom
Using the way would soon be clear
and we would be ready to carry them
to the surface.
Zone of the men answered: Most of
us are all right, but one fellow, a
Frenchman, is almost gone
When the pile of dirt finally tum-
| bled, some ofthe men were staggered
| by the thrush of air and the lights
from the torches With shout we
jumped over and met them, throwing
our arms around their necks. Their
joy was inexpressible. They pounded
us on the backs and laughed and cried
until the place reverberated.
eve wanted to carry the men to
the shaft; but they insisted they were
strong and we'll enough to walk.
II found the F'rencnman breathing
| his last. Holding torch over his
sooty face I asked: DO you give your
soul to God?"
HE answered yes I administered
the sacrament and in a minute he was
dead.
UNPARALLELED HEROISM
when walking toward the shaft
there occurred one of the greatest acts
of heroism | ever heard of.
walter Waite, one of the men res
cued, on hearing there were others
alive in another part of the mine,
threw off the blanket that covered his