Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1913-10-27
1852 BODIES ARE
RECOvEREDAT
DAWSON
MINE IS NOW 50 FREE FROM GAS
THAT UNHELMETED WORKERS
HELP IN The RESCUE, ALTHOUGH
TONS OF DEBRIS LIE ON MANY
OF The REMAINS.
BODIES OF MCDERM0TT
and McSHANE RECOVERED

Dawson, n. NJ, Oct. 27.-Rescue
men, helmeted and unhelmeted spent
their energies today in an attempt to
remove bodies of the dead in Mine No
3 of the Stag Canon Fuel company
from beneath the mass of wreckage
under which many of the bodies lie.
Practically every accessible body had
been removed this morning, bringing
the total number of recovered bodies
up to 1872. OF the seven dead which
have been brought from the mine
since midnight, not one was identified
The task of Identification is mo-
mentarAy growing more difficult and
it is believed now that of the 1o1
bodies remaining in the mine today,
few will ever be identified.
The bodies of Mine Superintendent
William McDermott and of Henry P.
McShane, the wealthy young man
from New York, were recovered last
night in the fourteenth chamber north
in mine No. of the Stag Canon Fuel
company Both men, with sixteen 9th.
ers were buried under tons of debris.
Positive knowledge was had last
night that not of the 2S4 miners
caught in the explosion of Stag Canon
mine No. last Wednesday remains in
the mine alive Late Sunday the en-
tire workings had been explored by
helmet men, and it definitely was
learned that those bodies which have
not been located are lying buried be-
meath tons of debris. Two hundred
and sixty-one, the original death list
was increased by the death of two he'll
met men in their heroic efforts to save
possible life.
Twenty-three lives We're saved after
the explosion which, according to gov
ernment mine rescue experts, was the
greatest in point of violence i'll the
history of the United States, and
which they say ranks third in its ap-
palling loss of life. Last night to-
tai of 155 dead had been brought to
the surface and after vain efforts of
Identification, the pathetic word "un-
known was engraved upon the cof-
fins in which thirteen bodies were
placed 1t is that word which is aug
menting the grief of the mine camp.
Scenes in the morgue are becoming
intolerable in their pathos. Decom-
position has added to the horror of
mutilation, and wives and relatives OF
those known to have been buried in
the mine, stand how at the morgue
gazing in Mortified doubt upon con-
torted, lacerted face which may, and
yet may not that of their loved one.
A brief moment only is given for iden-
tification, the condition of the bodies
being such that they cannot long be
exposed. A look of doubt in the eyes
of the one upon whom the last hope
of Identification rests, sad slow
shake of the head and unknown" is
entered upon the roster of dead at
the morgue.
And then there are those that are
identified as probably" certain per-
son. To the family whose member he
might have been will live always the
sorrowful, wondering thought that he
who lies buried as their loved one,
may have been of another name. an
other nationality.
The mine remained relatively clear
of the death gas" which heretofore
had SO seriously impeded the rescue
work. The difference within the mine
was plainly discernible, even to the
Associated Press correspondent, who
accompanied helmet men into the
mine recesses in exploration work
The mental impression of condi- |
tions deep into the mine cannot be |,
put, accurately, into words. The
tragedy of it all is beyond description.
Over wreckage, heaped and strewn
throughout every foot of the mine,
the men who fearlessly face
death to rescue nothing
but the dead. Fighting death from |
black damp, guided only by the flash
from their electric torch lights, some
times walking, often crawling, these
helmet-clad heroes defy the law of
self preservation in their slow pro-
gress to the mine faces in order to |