The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-11-15
Implicit Adherence of the En-
gineer to Orders of Mine
Boss May Have Caused the
Deaths of Rescuers Sunday.
REFUSES TO LIFT CAGE
ON DEMANDS OF OTHERS
After Ten Minutes Have Passed
the Man in Charge of the
Engines Finally Listens to
Appeals When 1t Is Too Late
INQUIRY is CONTINUED

Cherry, ILL.,, Nov. 14.-Implicit ODE
dience by Engineer John Cowley to
orders of his superior may have
caused the death of the rescuing par
rty which went down into the st. Paul
mine yesterday afternoon.
At the coroner's inquest, which be-
gan today, Cowley, who is engineer
of the main shaft, testified that he
declined to accede to the demand of
persons standing at the top of his
shaft that he at once lift the cage
containing the rescuers.
The reason he declined, he. said,
was because he had been told by the
third vein boss, Alexander Nosberg,
to move the cage only in answer to
the regular bell code.
When the rescue party had been at the
bottom of the shaft some time without
by the usual means, Martin Powers, DR..
Howe and Herbert Lewis, the latter
brother of one of the rescue party. rushed
TO Cowley, so the engineer testified They
demanded that the cage be raised imme-
diately.
Cowley refused for perhaps ten min
utes. CoWley said he would not listen to
their frantic appeals. but finally referred
the matter to John 1lufnby OF the top
cage. Quinby hesitated and. as MacSin-
list John Chadester entered, Cowley asked
Chadester what should be Done.
Go ahead and raise it, answered Cha
dester, according to COwley's testimony,
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
when they reached the top.
Cowley defended himself on the stand
by saying he had received MOSbergS or
der to await the bell signal before NOV
ing the cage. and that the three men who
demanded that the cage be raised had
no authority to tell him what TO do.
Fears to Raise Cage.
According to Cowley he feared in rails
ing the cage he would risk injuring some
of the men below and that he might
leave them without means of escape
should he lift the cage while they were
not in it.
cage with men in il had been raised, the
cage was let down and raised five OF
six times, with the chance that some Of
the miners might reach the shaft He
testified that he lowered and raised it
slowly every time.
One of the jurors asked why Cowley
could not have raised the cage slowly
when Powers. Howe and Lewis appealed.
Mosbergs orders again were given as
an excuse.
Previous to the final raising of the cage
bearing the rescue party, Cowley said
the bell signals had been unusual ana
disconcerting.
He received one signal of three bells
to hoist away" followed almost imme-
diately by q four-bell signal, meaning
hoist slowly" At a height Of eight or
nine feet the cage was stopped at a one
bell signal and started up at another.
Then came a six-bell signal reverse
the FAM and then two bells, lower
Cowley lowered the cage in answer TO
the signal. the last ever sent from the
rescue party.
The jury adjourned after Cowley, John
Raisbeck, engineer in the airshaft, and
several relatives of the dead in the res
cue party had testified. The jury will
meet again tomorrow. More testimony
concerning Ccwley's refusal to lift the
cage will be heard.