The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1915-04-02

we found the note that he had place,
( two days before and showed a piec
, of bark in his mouth which he ha,
broken from the mine timbers. RI,
had another piece in his pocket an,
he told me he had nothing to ca
for four days but the bark, but h,
said he had had plenty of water.
Coming out with the men W,
reached the sixth or seventh whei
old man Whalen felt too weak {,
walk, and left one rescue mar
wearing a machine to attend to hin
until | could send man with /;
stretcher to carry him out. Shortl,
after left Whalen an Italian drop
ped out of the line. One of the res
cuerottended to him and | admin
istered oxygen from bottle, taking
the oxygen from one of the appara
tus, when he felt better and walk.
ed another piece. At this same place
the whole procession stopped for
rest and | found one of the miners
sitting on the left rib. He was tell.
ing me that his heart was ABOUT to
give out. | let him breathe oxygen
through the mouthpiece of my APP
paratus and few minutes later he
said, You have about saved me now
| feel fine, After this he got up and
commenced to walk out. In the
meantime men with stretchers passed
us and | instructed them about the
two men who had been left behind
Men with blankets started to arrive
and distribute them among the men
to put around them when they got
on the outside. We came to about
200 feet within the drift mouth
where Dr. Lynott. the Bureau of
Mines Surgeon. stopped the men.
telling them to be cautious with their
eats: not to eat anything but hot
soup or coffee ard to lie down and
sleep after getting out. and |, III
broken Italian. told the Italians the
same thing. The men got out of
the mine all right. 1t was a pathet-
ic sight, the rescued miners huggins
and kissing the rescuers."
Although the rcscuers were MOI
than a mile from the entrance of the
mine whey they discovered the for
ty-two men, q crew consisting of Fl.
r. Mason. Jr., assistant mip;rg en-
gineer OF the Bureau Of Mines aud
two trained miners- from Gary, un-
der orders pG;yc' 'ated further in the
hope OF saving more entombcd men.
That they were taking desperate
chances is evident from what Mason
said: "Thirtle, Toshie ana myself
were by this time feeling rather weak
and We sat down and turned on the
oxygen. TCshie became completely
exhausted and was forced to lie down
on the track, while Thirtle and my
SNAA sou uO "a WIN MIN iiliit lit LO4hS
menced to feel stronger. We pro-
ceeded once more and when We en-
countered strip of loaded coal cars
We were all so weak we had consd-
cradle trouble getting through the
cars. Proceeding slowly another s!op
OF five minutes was made a; the sew.
enth left where we all sat down
against the rib and breathed deeply
from our apparatus. We finally
reached the outside of the mine af-
ter having been in two hours and a
quarter and having travelled a dis
lance of 1920 feet wearing appa-
ratus. We all suffered from. weak
ness. high pulse and severe head
ache for six hours afterwards. No
more live men were found in the
mine"
Thomas -Whalen, the oldest sur
vivor and who had to be carried on
a stretcher from the mine gave a
III oihdtiS otdtChSht vi thC CApclicuCC
of the entombed men: 81 was work
ing with my son John in Room "a,
ninth entry. when we heard a rumb-
ling sound" said Whalen. 1--WE ran
down to the main entry, but the heat
was so great it took our breath; we
made a hasty retreat in on the
main entry but not before seeing
lead bodies of four men who worked
On a motor and whose bodies were
;treatched face downward with hands
full length. The only
hing | remember was the awful feel
ng that the top of my head was be-
ng lifted off, the feeding being one
Of terrible agony. My son was using
4 carbide lamp, while / used an oil
amp. which was extinguished by the
'orce of the explosion, the other re-
burning.
1--WE ran back into No. 10 entry
where we found forty other miners,
mostly foreigners. who were crazed
almost beyond control. BY persistent
begging they were made to go back