The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1909-11-27
The Most Appalling Accident Of
It's Kind In the country's
History.
RESCUE PARTY MEETS DEATH
Town Of Cherry the Scene Of Tras-
edy-FIre Started In Load Of Hay
Being Lowered Into Mlne-Rescued
Men Tell Heart-Rendlng Tales Of
Their Experiences.

Cherry, ul.-An extraordinary SEES
sion of the Illinois legislature to fur
nish relief and conduct an investiga.
ton into the st. Paul mine disaster
which occurred here on the afternoon
Of November Ia when over three hun
ired miners were entrapped In the
shaft by fire, was asked while the
work of rescue was just beginning.
Representatives w. ]. Mcclure of
Kewanee and w. J. Scanlon of Peru
made the appeal to Gov. Deneen. A
fund of $4,000 was suggested in the
letter sent the governor and reasons
given for the request that the legisla-
ture conduct an inquiry into the acct
dent.
Friday night miners were put to
work In the galleries replacing the
burned timbers and clearing obstruc-
lions which impede access into the
coal veins for more than two hundred
and fifty feet from the main shaft.
Five bodies of the entombed have
been recovered. More were found and
explorers were forced to fee for their
lives, as they were about to bring them
out, when falling earth and rock en-
dangered them.
A few score Of survivors, blackened
by smoke and singed by flame,
crawled from reeking .crevices in the
earth to tell an incoherent story of
almost inconceivable horrors in the
corridors below. The rest-there were
565 human beings in the mine when
the fire broke out-in the flame-swept
works, strangled slowly in the after
damp or made their last stand against
fire and smoke in the stub ends of
corridors, where they had sought sur
rease from the torturing heat.
After hours of unsuccessful work in
fighting the fire, the exits Of the mine
were all battened down. This heroic
remedy was decided on as a last
means of extinguishing the fire in the
works beneath.
Man Saves Twenty-Five.
The Cherry disaster, like every
great disaster in America, developed
its men of the hour, its heroes. There
is in Cherry one man who is deserving
of all the glory that the highest per.
sonal bravery and self-sacrificing mer.
1t. He is DR.. L. B. Howe, the ST.
Paul Mining Company's physician.
To him 25 of the rescued miners owe
their lives.
Escaping by miracle from red.
hot lift in which IL of his compan-
ions were roasted like quail on a
griddle, he returned six times alone
into the seething inferno of the shaft.
and each time came to the surface
with a group of men he had saved.
He desisted from his efforts only after
1t had become apparent to every one
that to descend into the shaft again
would be certain death.
The fire broke out at about 1880.
Engineer John Cowley, in charge of
the elevator running from the surface
to the higher of the three veins in the
mine. had descended with load of
six bales Of hay. On the way down
the hay was ignited by his torch
Reaching the level below him he
dragged the bales out of the car and
attempted to hurl them into the SUNNI
Of the second shaft, at the bottom OF
which is a pool of water.
Two Shafts on Fire.
Before he could do so both the first
and the second shafts were afire. A
strong draught coming up to the sur.
face turned the two shafts into red
hot fiues. Almost before the danger
could be realized the mine was ablaze
everywhere, and the main avenue OF
escape cut OF.
Cowley, with the greatest difficulty
fought his way back to the cage, and
made his way back to the surface
The alarm was quickly given and IN q
few minutes the whole population OF
the town--some 1900 persons--were
gathered at the pit mouth.
DR.. Howe was the first to arrive. He
called for volunteers to go down into
the shaft, and 10 men, two Of then
business men In the town and in M
way connected with the mine, stepped
forward. The IA men stepped into thu
cage. Only one of them, DR.. Howe
came back alive.
"Band Of Heroes.
The band Of heroes who deserve I,
be .immortalized. who faced an almos
certain agonizing death in the effor