The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1909-11-25
q men RESCUED
ALIVE FROM mine
Miners Thought Dead Snatched
From the Tomb.
THE FIRE AGAIN BREAKS OUT
Reseuers Are Working Like Demons
To Reach Other Entrapped Men
Whose Signals Are
Heard.
THE FIRE AGAIN BREAKS OUT

men rose from the grave. Twenty-one
men, pronounced dead days ago by all
the mining experts in Illinois, rose
from the depths of the st. Paul mine,
where, with $40 others, they had been
entombed for seven days, and when
the people looked at them they were
alive.
New Fire Breaks Out.
But, just when the hopes OF the
waiting wives OF fine remaining en-
tombed miners were at their highest,
when the rescuers seemed likely to
bring scores of other living men to
the surface, the sickening news came
that the mine was again on fire. Fire
apparatus had to be lowered and a
stream of water had again to be
turned into the mine.
The bodies of 40 dead men were
u taken out of the east entry of the
mine at midnight. Forty were taken
out in the morning. This makes a
total of IS corpses recovered from
the mine.
The news of the rescue of living
men swept through the village like
telepathic wave. 1t transformed a
community which was groveling in
the deepest pits of woe into com.
munity delirious with Joy, intoxicated
with hope. When the men came forth
from the shaft they found the whole
countryside gathered to give them
welcome.
Gaze at Own Collins.
When their eyes, accustomed for a
week to the inky blackness of a
sealed-up mine, were able to take in
the sights around them one of the
first things that they saw was the
piled-up collins in which, by all the
- laws of science and engineering, they
were to have been buried.
When they were able to speak the
first words that left their lips were
words that brought up hope that hun
dreds of other men yet in the mine
might be still alive. During the long
watches of their own Imprisonment
they said they had heard sounds that
made them sure that the crannies and
corridors about them held living men.
As nearly as can be ascertained
NhNlC OAO hlCA AZ AhC ~. ahl
mine when fire sealed the shafts.
Forty-eight of these have been brought
to the surface, dead and shapeless.
Twenty-one have been saved. Two
hundred and forty-one still remain
unaccounted for.
Third Vein Untouched.
Hope that there are other men alive
in the mine is based on the fact that
fits area covers nearly a square mile
and that the third vein has scarcely
r. been touched by the smoke. All the
men saved were in the second vein.
II the miners have been wise enough
to block themselves up so as to keep
out the black damp and the rescuers
can reach them in time they will be
saved. In the third vein are at least
100 men. There is a great quantity
of water there, but there is still hope
that some of them are alive.
Working Like Demons.
Rescuers are fighting in the mine
with the energy of demons. They
know that from now on every minute,
every second, counts. They know that
in the case of the 81 brought up alive
human vitality was tested almost to
the utmost. An hour longer and many
of the 81 would have died
So furious has been the struggle
that already four of the workers have
fallen down unconscious with their
shovels in their hands. great fall
of coal bars the way and must be
torn through before the mines gates
are completely unlocked. The work
ers say that from behind this wall
they have heard sugnals, and they be-
lieve living men are there. They are
working amid the reek of sewer gas
and the fetid odor of dead bodies, but
in the face Of the most revolving con
ditions they will work until they
drop.
Ten minutes before the first of the
rescued miners came to the surface
the news that they had been saved
had been flashed like lightning over
the town. Workmen dropped their
tools, storekeepers left their counters
the local banker directed that his
vaults be locked and deserted the in
stitution.
1.-THE Men Are Alive"
THE men are alive!" rang in a
scream through the streets. Women
dropped their work and, snatching up
their children. ran to the main shaft.
Hope and despair fought battle on
every face. Men showed their excite
ment by shouting incoherent nothings
at one another, while the women,
trembling in every limb, could not
even weep. They stood and stared
At last the first car came to the sur.
face. It contained eight men. all on
cots. White canvas was spread over
each so that the face was hidden. The