The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-04-29
TAKING CORPSES
OUT OF MINE
Rescue Parties Are Busy To-
day Searching for Living
and Dead Under
Ground.
MANY WERE ENTOMBED
Worst Disaster In West Virginia
Since December 1907 When
s66 Lives Were
Lost.

8
UNITED Press Leased Wire Seryice.1
CHARLESTON, w. Va, April 2s.-
A rescue party headed by officials Of
the state mining department was un-
able early today to enter number five
mine of the New River Galleries Co.
at Eccles, W. Va. where 1876 men are
entombed as the result of an explo-
sion yesterday The bodies Of eleven
men have been taken from No. 6
mine, connected with the other by an
air shaft and sixty miners were taken
out alive. OF these, several are seri-
ously injured and are in the hospital at
.Beckley, w. Va, four miles from
Eccles. Three in No. mine are un-
accounted for.
8. c. Bayless, general manager OF
the New River Company's mine said
early today he believed the explosion
was caused by dust and that he had
no hope for the safety of any of the
entombed men.
Both mines have long been listed as
gaseous and fire boss has been
constantly on watch.
The first explosion occurred at the
500 foot level of the No. mine and
was Of such force that hoisting ma
chinery above the shaft opening was
wrecked An instant later lesser
explosion occurred in No. 6 mine at
the 300 foot level. Rescues Of men In
this mine were effected by the crew
OF the rescue car Of the Pawama
scrsl esenpany ssa srnahed
from Matoaka and by volunteers
from Beckley. Rescue work is in
charge OF Earl Henry, chief mine In
spector of the state mine department,
who arrived last night on a special
train with Governor Hatfield, DR.. J.
S. Mccullough. chief examiner under
the workmen's compensation law,
md Chief Clerk w. l.. Thomas.
The crew of federal mine rescue
car is also at work. The disaster was
said today to be the worst in West
Virginia since December 1907 when
3s6 miners lost their lives at Mono
gah in the Fairmont Coal field.
Men in No. mine We're burned by
the back fire from the first explosion
in No. s because of the connecting
air shaft 1t is through this air shaft
that rescuers hope to be able to en-
ter the No. 5 mine.
The first explosion occurred on the
500 foot level and experts say the
comparatively slight loss Of life in the
adjoining shaft was due to the fact
that the men in the No. 6 mine were
working at q higher level. There is
little hope for the men entombed IN
Mine No. 5.
The dead, whose bodies have been
recovered are:
T. @. LIGENNIAlN, mine foreman.
A. w. BROUGHMAN, chief electri-
clan.
CARL v. DARDEN. %, electrician.
JOSEPH H. CARPER, %.
HENRY MMILLION.
WILLIAM BOST1C.
D. l.. PHILLIPS.
UNIDENTIFIED NEGRO.
TWO UNIDENTIFIED HUNGARl-
ANS.
Probably 2o1 Dead.
ECCLES, w. Va, April 29.-Prac-
tically all hope that any of the 1S6
men entombed by an explosion In
mine No. of the New River Col
lieries company here are alive was
abandoned at a. M, to-day. Ffantlc
efforts at rescus were still progressing
at tha. hour, but with little promise OF
an entrance through the gas filled
and f,bris choked shaft, before late
this afternoon.
The death toll of one of West Vir-
ginia's worst mine disasters will
reach 201, according to conservative
estimates today Three men are still
unaccounted for in mine No. 6, wreck
ed by an explosion shortly following
that which brought death far under
ground to the men in No. 5. Twelve
bodies have been taken from this
shaft and sixty men rescued alive, a
full score OF them horribly burned.
Throughout the night and long att
er dawn two hundred wives and chill
dren-widows and orphans without a
doubt-but still clinging to faint
thread OF hope, surrounded the rope
enclosure that kept then back from
the entrance to mine No. 5. The
walls and means of the bereaved ones
CONTINUED on pag~