The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1922-09-21
ALL WERE DEAD
In JACKSON MINE
2escuers Penetrating Into
ArgOnaut Mine Find
Only Dead Bodies.
FACE DEATH BRAVELY
den EntOmbed Three Weeks
Ago Believed to Have Died
in a Few Hours.


Jackson, Cal.--Jackson, mining town
n the mother lode country, has paid
ne toll demanded of those who delve
the earth for gold, and stands un-I
fraid but not dry-eyed today.
(Forty-seven of her men died in the
rgonaut mine early on the morning
{ August 18th, she learned last night,
nd today she waits the bringing of
leir dead bodies from the rock tun-
Ell, walled in with fimsy bulkheads of
leir own building that has been their
NIB for three weeks. But Jackson is
nafraid, for her men showed they
new how to die. Moreover, those who.
ID not meet that fate showed they
new how to live, for they gave of
lemselves without stint in the effort
save their entombed fellows.
1t was CALIFORNIA; worst mine dis
ter, in one of CALIFORNIA; greatest
I'D producers, and it was the hardest
ow Jackson ever has had to suffer.
Three weeks ago last Sunday night
en- deep in the Argonaut believed
lev smelled smoke A shift boss took
70 men and went to investigate. They
)und the shaft Attire at the 36O0-foot
vel, CHANGED death from gas and were
arried through the fire to the top of
lie mine. Then began the work of fire
ghting which presently merged into
ne of rescue for the men below for
he Are blocked the shaft and prevented
he escape Of the miners.
For many weary days, disappointed
ometimes by unexpected difficulties
md heartened sometimes by equally
Unexpected bits Of good luck, rescue
rews drove through the choked tunnel
hat once had connected the two mines,
VI battered at the rock separating one
# the Kennedy's drifts from the Ar
;onauts 42O0-foot level.
Yesterday drill was driven through
he last barrier Of rock into the Argo-
laut.
No Sign of Life in Mine.
Sweating shoulders and unbreakable
Wills drove steel picks at the rock UNI
il this hole had been enlarged enough
20 permit man to pass. Five men
made hasty and unauthorized explor-
alton Of part of the Argonaut, seeking
survivors at the imminent risk of their
own lives. The opening was enlarged
so that rescue crew could pass and
all day explorations went on without
any result.
The levels were clear, there was no
sign of any miner left in them either
dead or alive. The rescue men, hamp-
cred by their oxygen helmets and the
heat of the underground workings,
turned their attention 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 that
fatal mine three weeks ago.
Hope rose anew at this evidence that
some at least 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 not built
Of planks and timbers and stuffed with
torn clothing like the first, but erected
of earth, rock and debris. 1t was a
pitiful structure, gaping in places so
that the rescuers could see through it,
but it checked the air currents some
what and the men in the oxygen he'll
NETS halted before it, afraid to tear it
down while the air before it was poi
sonous, lest they thereby cause sudden
death to anyone who might be alive
beyond it.
Hope Changes to Despair.
Hope stood at its highest when this
second bulkhead was found and from
that height it made its greatest plunge,
Before those who waited above for
news of their loved ones knew even
that the rescuers had broken through
the bulkhead, word came that the bod
les of AZ men had been found and
counted. Not long after, word came up
from the telephone station hurriedly
advanced to the 4200-foot level, near
the bulkhead place, that the other five
also had been found dead.
jackson took the blow calmly and
presently found comfort in the sure
knowledge, gained from notes left by
two of the men and from the reports
Of the rescuers regarding the mems
work before they died, that quick
merciful death had come to them in.
stead of the agonies Of starvation
There was no lingering in inky dark.
ness 5000 feet below sea level. The
gas came, then lethargy, then oblivion
Records scrawled on paper by one
J man and scratched on a timber by an
other showed they had lived but little
more than three hours after erecting
their pitiful barricades. Saddest of al
was the mute record of the bare be
ginning of third bulkhead when ga'
had driven them from the scene of the
second.