Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1909-11-25
SCENES OF JUBiLAT1oN

Among the rescued was Geo. Eddy.
mine examiner for the company. The
greatest 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-
lieyed 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 a 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: 4s., 49,.
LAS soon as we discovered last Sat
urday that there was no hope of es-
cape, we retreated to safe place
where water was found. Fortunately
some timbers behind us burned out.
and this let the earth and rocks 70"
cutting us off from the heat and gas
How time went we don't Anow .,s
must have been unconscious part of
the time.
CHEWED BARK, FROM sTANCH-
IONS
Il remember drinking quantities of
seepage that dripped down into a gut
ter, and eating my lunch. After that
some of us pulled off the bark. chew
ing it.
We did not realize how serious our
position was, in fact some men joke
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 little hole was seen at the
top, and 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:
cat 2 o'clock, when we were 500
feet into the gallery from the hosting
shaft, our party Stacked up on account
of the debris. Suddenly David Powell
said: Listen, boys; l heard some
thing. We all became silent. A faint
pounding on the wall was heard. MY
God,'. said Powell, Il 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
1--WE listened full minute There
came the nuffled pounding we heard
before. We were too much affected to
oPSoh eAAAu NOulu AOI USilcNe OuI SeuS0
but grabbing picks and axes we began
to tear down the loosened earth anc
rocks. When we listened again the
hole opened before us.
ALMOST HISTORICAL
Three of us climbed over the dirt,
and yelled: Are any of you alive in
there, boys?'
The answer came, yes
Soon q large gap was made and
we yelled: How many of YOU are
alive, bo!s? 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 minute. and give you all
you can eat. Be patient as you can
II could not see anything back
there, so climbed back, and prayed
to God to make the number we would
BY that time the hole was wide o Ell,
oAAo q uoASiA PeAl . VI 61AoISllluS C5 CT
shining from black faces appeared
I'VE 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,
Frenchman, Is almost gone
When the pile OF dirt finally tum-
bled, some ofthe men we're staggered
by the thrush of air and the light
from the torches. With shout we
jumped over and met them, throwing
our arms around their necks. Their
joy was inexpressible. They pounded
ns on the backs and laughed and cried
until the place reyerberateo
We wanted to carry the men to
the shaft; but they insisted they were
strong and well enough to walk.
II found the Frencnman breathing
his last. Holding a torch over his
sooty face | asked: 'Du you give your
~ 81