The New York herald., 1921-11-04
dig DAY And night
/. FOR BURIED WORKER
Cave-in Fifty Feet Deep i'm
Shifting Sand Defies Ef-
forts OF Comrades.
SUCTION UNDERNEATH
q Men Risk Lives i'll
TreacherOus Pit That Holds
Bill Graham Fast.
ENGINEERS ARE PUZZLED
After 80 Hours They Decide on
Extensive Operations to
Recover Body.
ENGINEERS ARE PUZZLED


lam were still trying last night, as
hey had tried for thirty hours, to
throw sand out Of pit faster than il
could slide in and thus to reach their
Bill Graham. who was buried
alive on Wednesday afternoon.
One moment Graham, derrick
operator, was treading ground thai
seemed as solid as earth can be. The
next hole opened beneath his fee'
and he fell as if into a cavern. The
sides Of the hole closed in. Dari
brown sand not only flooded him bu
pulled him down. The only word h,
shouted or had time TO shout wa.
Help" On the floor of the derrick
a few feet away lay a length Of rope
A pal of Graham's, Frank Smith
snatched it up and tossed an end
swiftly and accurately. Graham go
lis hands on the rope, got a clutch OF
1t. and for breath 1t looked as If h,
would be saved. But the sand hat
AicW S0 dliOWCO iilliI lar dS tIlt CIllIl
SO that only his upturned face, strain
ing this way and that, and his up
raised hands we're visible. But tn,
suction of whatever hidden slide wa,
going on below him was greater thar
his strength. The rope slipped through
his fingers, slowly. then fast, until h,
lost it altogether and disappeared.
Saw Hole Fifty Feet Deep.
Where he had been was now a conica
pit six feet in diameter. A fellow work
man who had been standing near Ora
ham and who had vainly tried to reacl
out a hand to him says that when tn,
hole first appeared he got a glimps,
into 1t and it seemed 10 be fifty fee
deep. The engineers doubt this, bu
they have not yet found an explanatio,
satisfying TO their own minds of one o
the most peculiar accidents they hav
ever known.
II was 2:30 o'clock on wednesda,
when Graham was trapped. Even thei
most of the twenty-one other men o
the pile driving crew felt that he wa
done for. But perhaps on the theor,
that II a man can be blown through tn,
roof of an East River tunnel. up through
the water and out into the air, and still
live, as was the experience of a sandhoy
few years ago, the incredible ma,
happen again. Graham's mates went I,
work. Henry Weller, their foreman
directed them.
The men fetched light plank and drov,
them into the sand all around the cir
conference of the pit to keep the side,
from caving IN again, and then, as on,
SQUAD hammered the planks deeper an
other, taking their lives in their hands
scrambled into the pit Itself and began
o dig. Its bottom did not give way
More pine boards were brought an,
buckets, In which the shovelled sane
could be hoisted.
Used Compressed Air Pump.
The sesrchers toiled at first frantic
ally, then rnethodically. as they go
deeper and deeper and realized tina
their first faint hope Of finding Graham
Just below the surface was vain.
compressed air pump went into action
a steel pipe leading from It was thrus
down into the sand and air was driver
through IL. so that If Graham was still
alive he might have something {,
breathe. Now and then the foreman
tapped on the pipe or raped with {
hammer on the driven snoring. expect
ing no answer, but believing Il barrel,
possible that the Imprisoned man nigh
hear the blows and know that rescuer,
were doing the best they could.
Some of the workinen said that a few
short pieces OF timber had been lyin,
on the ground and had sunk into tn,
earth when Graham did Maybe thes.
,hunlSs had formed a protection arounc
Graham or over his head, SO that h,
wasn't crushed or suffocated. Graspin;
it anything they talked among them
selves
Wednesday afternoon and nish
passed. Shift succeeded shift. Ever,
man OF the hundreds working on tn,
Wanaque dam was doing something
.oward the finding of Bill Graham. A
physician. DR.. David N. Shippey, stooi
By with pulmotor and kit. hour aftei
lour. Laurent J. Tonneile.. chairman
of the North Jersey District Water Sup.
ply Commission, which is having ths
lam built. got out OF his car and re.
used TO go home. So did other member:
" the commission, and the chief en-.
,ineer. Arthur II. Pratt. From Buffalo
,ame James r. Horton, the contractor
Who owns the derrick.
Jack MuIcahy Wou't Give Up.