The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1909-11-15
THRILLING STORY OF WORK
OF II HEROIC RESCUERS
Only 0ne Of Whom Survived the Ordeal Miner
Who Had Narrow Escape Tells Graphic Story
Officials Decide to Open Shaft--Mine
Best Equipped in the Country

or alive, was greater than at first be-
lieved.
| Among the missing are many Amer
lean men who have lived for years
and reared their families in the min
ing sections of Illinois, though a ma
jority of those who never may be
found alive are foreign born.
Coroner's Inquest.
Implicit obedience by Engineer
John Cowley to the orders of his SUI
perlor may have caused the death of
a rescuing party which went down in
to the st. Paul mine yesterday after
noon. This was brought out at a
coroner's inquest, which began this
morning. He according to the tes-
timony of Cowley, who is engineer of
the main shaft, he had been told BY
third vein boss Alexander Moseberg,
before Moseberg went down in the
mine after the explosion, to move the
cage only on answer to the regular
bell code. When the rescue party
had been at the bottom of the shaft
some time without getting into com
munication with the engineer by the
usual means, Martin Powers, DR..
Howe, and Herbert Lewis, the latter
a brother of one of the party, rushed
to Cowleg and demanded that he
raise the cage
Cowley refused, acting under Neur-
berg's orders, he tod the coroner's
jury. For ten minu,es he would not
listen to their frantic appeals, but
finally referred the matter to John
Quinby of the top cage. Quinby hes
itated and machinist John Shadester
told Cowley he should raise the cage,
saying, Cowley testified nobody is
alive down there.
Cowley then brought the cage to
the top but every one of the men
in the rescue party was either dead or
dying,
Cowley declared that after the cage
with the men in it had been raised, it
was let down and raised five or six
times. The inquest VIII be resumed
tomorrow.
A Thrilling Story.
William Vickers, VINO was at work
at the face Of the mine, was one of
the few who came out alive. For
more than 200 yards he crawled in
the dark on his hands and knees u.s.
ing the rail as a guide to the bottom
of the shaft. At one point, he says,
he met about G5 miners sitting in a
row who had given up the struggle
and were waiting resignedly for
death.
Il and my buddy (partner) were at
work on the second vein level when
the alarm of fire was sounded" said
Vickers "We started for the bot
tom, but had gone but few feet
when our lights went out. The entry
was last lining with smoke which
blinded us and made us gasp for
breath
Several times we attempted to
light our lamps without success. All
about us we could hear the shouts of
our comrades in adjoining rooms,
who, like ourselves mad been left in
the dark. Calling to my buddy had
warned him to get close to the road
bed and myself dropped to my hands
and knees and began to crawl along
the rails shouting at intervals to my
buddy to let him know where I was.
Passed IS Miners.
cat one point we passed about 65
miners sitting by the roadside al
most in stupor. tried to rouse
them and encourage them to go on,
but they seemed to have given up all
hope and did not stir. had no time
to lose and continued on expecting
to send back relief from the shaft
The sight of my doomed comrades is
sometihgn that will hauny me to my
dying day.
when within 100 feet of the mine
mouth. began to groE faint from,
the effects of smoke aid exhaustion.