Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-09-21
QUICK AND MERCIFUL DEATH
CAME TO CALIFORNIA MINERS:
ENTOMBED FOR u DAYS

the men in the mine and decided
we had better go back and report.
So we went back around to the
Kennedy and helped take timber to
the foot Of the incline, where the
two levels joined"
Many Offer Help
Men came from all over the west
to offer their services, the curious
fellowship of miners bringing hearty
offers of service from all who could
get to Jackson. Mining companies
in distant states, even in Mexico,
telegraphed proffers of assistance.
The Kennedy Mining company,
operators of an adjoining shaft, sunk
the bitterness of law suit in it's
willingness to be Of service and
loaned all of it's property and facili-
ties to the work of rescue.
For many weary days, disappoint-
ed sometimes by unexpected difficult
ties and heartened sometimes by
equally unexpected bits of good
luck, rescue crews drove through
the choked tunnel that once had
connected the two mines or battered
at the rock separating one of the
Kennedy drifts from the Argonaut's
4,200-foot level.
A drill was driven through the last
barrier of rock into the Argonaut
yesterday.
Heroic Work of Rescuers
Sweating shoulders and III cak-
able wills drove steel picks at the
rock until this, hole had been en-
larged enough to permit man to
pass. Five men made a hasty and
unauthorized exploration Of the Ar
gonaut, seeking survivors at the
risk of their own lives. All day ex.
plorations went no without any re-
suit.
The levels were clear, there was
no sign of any miner left in them.
either dead or alive. The rescue
men, hampered by their oxygen he'll
NETS and the heat Of the under
ground workings, turned their at
tention to exploring the cross-cuts
and drifts leading from the tunnels
already traversed. In one they
found a bulkhead that had not been
there when the miners went below
three weeks ago.
Hope arose anew at this evidence
that some of the entombed men had
not died an instant death from the
gases thrown off by the fire in the
shaft, and the rescuers pressed on.
They found another bulkhead erect
ed of earth, rock and debris. 1t was
pitiful structure, gaping in places
so that the rescuers could sea
through it, but it checked the air
currents somewhat and the men s.:
the oxygen helmets halted before it,
afraid to tear it down while he
air before it was poisonous st they
thereby cause sudden death to any
who might be alive beyond it. Be-
fore those who waited above for
news of their loved once NEW ever
that the rescuers had broken
through the bulkhead word came
that the bodies Of forty-two men hal
been found and counted.
Blow Taken Calmly
Not long after word came up from
| the telephone station in the 4,2O0-
| foot level near the bulkhead place,
that the other five also had beer
found dead.
Jackson took the blow calmly, and
presently found comfort in the sure
knowledge, gained from Eotes left
by two of the men and from the re-
ports of rescuers regarding the
mems work before they died, that
a quick, merciful death had come to
them instead of the agonies Of
StarVa ton.
There was no lingering inky dark
ness, 5000 feet below sea level.
The gas came, then lethargy, then
oblivion.
Records scrawled on paper by one
man and scratched on a timber by
another showed they had lived but
little more than three hours after
erecting their pitiful barricades.
Saddest of all was the mute record of
the bare beginning of third bulk
head when gas had driven them
from the scene of the second.
Identification Difficult
Identification will be difficult. The
length of time since they died, the
temperature of their casual tomb,
the lack Of the clothing they had
torn off to stuff into cracks in their
first bulkhead, combined to remove
from most Of the bodies any distin-
gushing characteristic.
The Red Cross has received fund
of $4,000 for the miners dependents
and it is estimated that where
miner left a widow or child the Cali
fornia state compensation insurance
funds will pay an average of approx
imately $4,000 to dependents, The
Agonaut Mining Company had in
sured it's employees in the state fund.
Red Cross officials said $4,000
was provided by the Argonaut Com
pany for temporary relief. The local
chapter Of the Red Cross spent
much of that sum in maintaining
three temporary hospitals in supply
ing the needs Of miners families in
providing food and comforts for
rescue crews.
A feature of the Red Cross merci-
full mission was assigning it's mem
bers to the consolation of bereaved
families. Last night and early to-
day each of the families Of the IL
married miners am0ng the Al VIC
tins had with it a woman visitor to
speak words of sympathy and en-
enlargement.
A revision in California mining
safety laws will be urged in the
next legislature, according to
Fletcher Hamilton, state mineralo-
gist.
A history of the disaster resulting
in the loss of forty-seven lives will
be presented to Governor William ID.
Stephens in a few days by his per
sonal representative, Clarence T..
Jarvis, of the state board of control.
What action the governor would
take, Mr.. Jarvis said tonight, he was
unah1a to forecast
Mr.. Jarvis said, however, that he
believed everything possible had
been done to rescue the men. AS to
whether escape might Lave been
possible when the fire started on Au-
gust 81, he declined to express a
positive opinion.