The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-12

l hack into the mine and shortly returned with eighgt more bodies, bringing the total bodies removed by o'clock thls morning I'D to s. During the day more bodies were removed and at night there were 113 bodies on the surface. Four more were brought to the surface | later on.
 Chief State Mine Inspector James Hili- house was suddenly taken i'll early this | morning and carried to the hospltal, where he suffered greatly for shor' time. Dr. Smith was summoned ana l treatment administered and after several hours MT. Hillhouse was able to resume his duties The illness of MT. Hilihouse has been the only one since the explosion occurred Dr. Smith stated this morning that everyone was doing unusually We'll At present so far as Is known there are five white convicts that have been brought to the surface. Of this numoet | two have been identified and the other | three are in such condition that 1T will be impossible to identify them as vet. They were horribly mangled around | the face and are unrecognizlble. The two identified white men are Charles Mcdonald and John Kilkutton 1 The undertakers are having conslder- able trouble with the bodies as they are | in bad condition and are very offenslve l Every effort was made to keep up with | the rescue work but at this time the men were laboring under difficulty and | had hard time in preventing the podles from becoming very offensive. The bodies of the mules were disposed of today
 The value of the oxygen helmets O., the government party was forelply dem- l onstrated Sunday morning when the lives l of all of the government experts on tho i scene with the exception Of three who wore helmets were overcome by the black damp which collected near No- shaft.
 l There were but three helmets in use in the party and those wearing theri did not experience any discomfort from the gas which overcame the others in 90 seconds.
 Helmit Saved Lives
 It was stated yesterday that but for the helmets worn by the exploring party the lives of all of the others would have been lost.
 After penetrating for a short distance helmets were donned by two of the party, who went forward to explore the mine, while the remainder sat down to aWait them The helmets permitted the wear CTS to penetrate the mine over thou- sand feet beyond where the party was left. 30 minutes trip was at first made without any accidents. On the second trip it was decided to go for an hour. It was during this trip that the gas over took the party near the bottom or the shaft and where the helmets did such good service.
 Returning at the expiration of an hour the two explorers found the others un- conscious and in the grip of the black damp. One had staggered toward the shaft and had fallen In an effort to l adjust a helmet One of the rescue party adjusted the helmet and he recovered i, sufficiently to go to the surface with
 out assistance. Although they had but
 ten minutes more supply in their tanks
 the men with the helmets went back and
 dragged those in the worst condition near
 the purer air. Dr. Rutledge was in the
 most serious condition. In the mean
 time member of the party had given the alarm and a second rescue party was
 rushed to their aid. They took the wrong
 direction and it was some time before | they returned.
 Members of tho government rescue party state that this was one of the mos' severe tests that the apparatus has ye' been subjected to and they are delighted with the result.