The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-11-23
VICTIMS DEAD
ONLY TWO DAYS
Had Succumbed TO Poison.
Gus Gases From Fire.
HOPE FOR MANY OTHERS

Rescuers at Work In st. Paul Mine
Redoublc Efforts and Expect to
Find Hundred Men Alive In Lower
Vein - Many Bodies Found In
kneeling Posture as " Overcome
While at Prsyer-Governo Refuses
Martial Law Proclamation.
Cherry, ILL.,, Nov. 23.--Thirty.eight
miners dead bodies lying face down
ward were discovered on the second
level in the st. Paul mine whom the
coroner stated, after examination,
had been dead less than 4S hours.
Fire was raging In the vicinity. They
had evidently died from the poison
Gus gas in the colliery after des-
perate fight for life. The rescuers
In the third vein made desperate at
tempts to rescue more than 100 EN-.
tombed miners thought to be alive in
one of its furthermost pockets.
Qee of the miners discovered in
the second level, east end. was
thought to be still alive, and his body
was hurried to the hospital car, but
the physician declared that he had
been dead several hours.
Until last night no attempt was
made to enter the third vein of the
mine The discovery of the bodies
In the second level, together with an
emphatic protest from the United
Mine Workers of Illinois against tho
unwarranted delay, caused the min
ing inspectors to rush party of res
cuers into the lowest level. Accord
ing TO the mine officials estimates
there are more than $50 miners yet
unaccounted for. Many more bodies
arer believed to be In other parts OF
the second vein.
More than 100 of the miners are
expected to be found alive in the
lower vein. While 1t is known that
water has stood several feet deep in
the third vein since the disaster, It is
said there is an overcast, where hun.
dreds Of entombed miners could live
high and dry. Fresh air has been
freely circulating through this vein.
The experts admitted the likeli-
hood of saving more OF the impris-
oned miners. Capteins Latimer and
Hall, IN command of the troops at
the collieries. wired Governor De-
neen regarding the feasibility OF
placing the town under martial law,
explaining that finder martial Jaw tho
rescue work would be greatly facill
tated. ,he governor decided not to
issue such order at present. There
has been much dissension over the
way In which the rescue work has
miners are censuring the state In
spectors in charge.
81 hope they will hurry the work
and rescue those miners IL they are
still alive, but there have been too
many bosses. That is the trouble"
said Captain Lattimer of the state
troops, discussing the proposition to
take control of the situation from the
sheriff.
The fact that these newly found
bodies In the east end of the second
vein are those of men dead but re-
Gently has been kept quiet for fear
of inhaming public opinion at time
when there Is much indignation
among miners at the slow progress
of rescue work. Henry Smith, the
first of the rescuers who found the
men, returned to the surface and told
graphic story of how some of them
were found kneeling, as II In prayer,
while others were lying face down
ward. Farther on, In the same tun
nels, the rescuers could see where
the men must have dug away an i'm
mense fall OF earth with their bare
hands. No tools we're found near the
fall, but the marks Of fingers were
there to show how desperate fight
against death had been made. Marks
In the hard floor of the tunnel told
how the men had dragged themselves
foot by foot after the days hard dig.
ging through the rock and earth
Gompers and Mitchell Speak.
New York, Nov. 20 Samuel Com.
pers and John Mitchell, the convict.
ed officers of the American Fedora
tion OF Labor, who are awaiting the
decision of the supreme court upon
their sentences TO jail because of
contempt Of the United States dis
trict court Of Washington, spoke be-
fore the annual meeting of the Ma
tional Civic Federation, held at the
Hotel Astor. Their addresses were
upon the general topic of wage earn.
ers' Insurance and employees liability,
which held discussion during all OF
the first session of the conference.