The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-04-24
FIVE BUTTE MINERS
ARE KILLED
Continued From Page One)

as the signals to hoist the cage to the
next level were given, the men re-
naming on the cage heard the OTHER
cage in the compartment adjoining
falling. The station tender pulled up
the lever which imprisoned the men
OH the lower deck of the cage then
stationary and two men jumped, just
clearing the edge and saving them
selves as hat cage also dropped.
More than $500 fee of cable fell on
the cage in the east compartment, and
it was hours before the four bodies
were recovered.
That more men were not killed by
it seems almost miraculous. AT $40
O'Clock the engineer received the sig
nal to lower the east cage to the so,
which is the first station under
ground. AT that time the cage in the
west compartment was at the 1,400
level and was about to be raised to
let men off at the 1900 and the 1900.
How 1t Happened.
When the cage was lowered to the
first station, SO feet below the collar
of the shaft, he lost control and the
reel began to spin around. The en-
gineer applied the brake and it did
not hoM. Then all was chaos.
AS the engine attained frightful
speed it began to go to pieces. There
was a roar and instantly the air was
filled with flying pieces Of steel. Some
of these, weighing hundreds of
pounds, tore through the roof, one
piece as large as the body of a mar
flashed past the engineer, who at his
post, was frenziedly trying to apply
the brakes. 1t grazcd his chair and
passed out through the end of the
engine house. Had it touched him
HIS life would have gone out instantly.
The great drum, over which was
wound $500 feet of steel cable band,
went to pieces. Nothing is left of it.
The spokes of one of the great drive
wheels We're broken off as neatly as
if they had been made of paper. 1t
was all over in an instant.
Outside near the collar of the shaft,
beside a pile of mine timbers, lay the
body of TregloWn, who a been
struck down by a piece of steel. Not
far away Ruddy had fallen. The sta
ton tender, Abe Jones, and the watch.
man escaped without a scratch. So
~miraculously, did the engineers as
sistant inside the engine house. 9th
ers in the neighborhood had narrow
escapes from flying pieces of debris.
Tho Main Tragedy.
In the shaft it was different. There
was where the main tragedy took
place. The four men left on the cage
as it dropped from the 60-foot station
had no possible chance of escaping.
They dropped to the bulkhead over
the stump, a fall of 1900 feet from
the collar of the shaft. What that
impact was can only be imagined.
Certainly the men must nave died in
stantly. On top of their cage piled
the heavy steel cable weighing many
tons. The weight of the cable drove
the top and bottom of the cage nearly
together.
This cage. containing the bodies of
the four men killed in the shaft,
lodged on a bulkhead placed Is feet
below the 1900 level. This bulkhead
had been built to protect miners
working in the stump. There were
four of these in the bottom of the
shaft at the time, Mike McNichols,
Tom McNally, Dan Stewart and Mat
Mattson, none of whom Were injured.
The bulkhead was splintered a little
by the fearful impact, but it held and
the men blow escaped.
When the cage in the east shaft
was lowered by the engineer on his
brake to the 60-foot station the cage
in the west compartment was at the
1,400-foot level. Four men were UNI
loaded there, leaving the station ten
der, Albert Lumbardi; Charles Rob-
erts, an oiler; Richard Voquist and a
fourth man, name unknown, on the
lower deck. Roberts and one of his
companions We're going to the 1900
foot level. The upper deck was filled
with men who were stationed at the
/. 50O-foot level. Lumbardi gave the
signal for the 1900. Just then the
noise of the cage falling on the other |
side was heard. Instinct told Rob