The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-11
By JACK BETHEA.

By JACK BETHEA.
 Banner, April 10.-(Special.) )-No
 bodies were taken from Banner mine between o'clock this afternoon and midnight tonight, but the rescue parties
 were momentarily expected to come up
 with the 20 or more bodies assembled ct the foot of the shaft.
 Considerable time was lost today in changing the method of getting fresh air into the mines. pr. J. A. Holmes, head of the United States bureau of mines, went down into the mine with
 the rescuers and had not returned at midnight.
 It is still believed that the total death list will be 12S.
 Fifty-fOur on Surface
 r--'rise -.t.e.rk of bringing. the-de bedses from the mines progressed more rapidly today than at any previous time. At l o'clock the total number of dead bodies actually on the surface reached 54. After the trip last night at 10 o'clock no more bodies were brought to the surface until this morning at daylight when nine were found and brought up by the morning shift.
 
 parties, mine officials and carpenters were ordered from the mine and kept out
 'veral hours while the work of chang
 i8 <he course of air circulation was in
 froGcss by a force of men.
 rIUEblediately after the completion of the 'For1< party from the government car MKred the slope through the manway Md went through the mine. The gov
 F1mest men were delayed at the top n the slope for several hours.
 Bodies Badly Mangled
 Rescue parties this morning brought up thine bodies from No. left entry, where Ythe explosion is thought to have oc- cured. One white man was found in the entry. All of the bodies were horribly mangled, the necks of all of them be- ing broken and their limbs twisted into 1nconceivabe forms. These bodies were handled with difficulty by the uncer- takers here and it took some little time to prepare them for burial Rescue,s who removed the bodies from the entry state that the timbers nearby were shattered by the explosion and cars hurled to the ends of switches to be demolished.
 While the cause of the explosion has not been officially determined, it is gen erally conceded that it was caused by powder being handled near an open lamp careessly. Mine officials are positive. however, that the explosion occurred m No. ' left but no official of the company will make a statement as 10 the cause of { the explosion until the official report of State Mine Inspector Hillhouse is made. Changes Air Current When it was at first thought that men , were alive in the mine, MT. Hillhouse ] thought it best to change the operation ' of the fan from an outlet to an intake, ] that is. to have he fan push the air into the mine at No. ? shaft instead of suck ! Ing 1t out. By this means it was thought to avoid pulling the foul air across the 1 men if they were alive. When it was dis covered that none of the men were lv- , Ing MT. Hillhouse though that better circulation could be obtained by changing hack to the original scheme of crcula- tion, which was done today. The undertakers at the stockade. where the bodies are being prepared for burial. are working night and day on the bodies, embalming them as fast as they come up. Echols Angwin of Enslev are doing the embalming and both members of the N firm are on the scene They are assisted Dy MT. RoDlnSon ana Martin Kennedy of the Johns Undertaking company of Sir mingham. None of the above four mon has had any sleep to amount to any thing for the past AS hours. With the first bodies the undertakers had little trouble and 1t was not until the bodies from No. left had been brought to the surface that they ex- i, perenced any difficulty. Several of thes bodies were without heads or arms, only small portions of the members remain ing.
 Within a radius of several hundred i, feet from the seventh entry left, the ! bodies were horribly mangled. Fragments of the body of a white man were found near No. this morn ' ing and after long search enough of \ the body was found to be taken to the {. surface. This was the worst body that { has been found yet It is possible that 1. the man was the one who was handling x the powder at the time of the explosion. A rumor was current here today that there were ten or fifteen more dead in e the mine than the 12s checked up When M asked in regard to this however, com pl pany officials say that there were but 4 12s men in the mine. and that this is all t that the books of the company show. 4 While 1t is possible that men were .a N the mines without the knowledge of the
 
 CONTINUED ON FACE sl