Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-09-19
AZ MINERS REACHED, BUT
ONLY DEAD BODIES FOUND
CONTINUED from page ~

Sweating shoulders and unbreak-
able will yesterday drove steel picks
at the rocks until a hole large
enough to permit a man to pass had
been made. Five men made a hasty
and unauthorized exploration of part
of the Argonaut seeking survivors
at the immenent risk of their W
lives. The opening was enlarged
so hat a rescue crew could pass and
all day explorations went on without
any results.
The levels were cleared, there was
| no sign of any miners 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 atten-
ton to exploring the cross cuts n
drifts leading from the tunnels al
ready ~traversed. In Ole they found
a bulkhead hat had not been there
when the miners went below into
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 rescued
pressed on They found another
bulkhead not built of planks and
timbers and stuffed with torn cloth
ing like the first. but erected OF
earth, rock and debris. 1t was a
pitiful structure, gaping in places so
that the escu could see through
il. but it checked the air currents
somewhats and the men in oxygen
helmets faltered before it afraid to
! tear it down while the air before 1t
was poisonous lest they thereby
| cause sudden death to any VINO
might be alive beyond it.
Hone stood at its highest when
| this second bulkhead was found m
from that height it made its great
est plunge. Before those who walt
ed above for news of their loved
ones knew even that the rescuers
had broken through the bulkhead
word came that the bodies of forty
two men had been found and
counted.
Not long after word came W from
the temporary station hurrledly Gd-
vanced to the 1900 foot level neaI
the bulkheaded plane 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 reports o.
itSteCiS itSoluihS IN bi1b WA
before they died that a quick mer.
Ciful end had come to them instead
of the agonies of starvation. There
was no lingering in inky darkness
5000 feet below the sea level. Thu
gas came, then lethargy, ther
oblivion.
Records scrawled on paper by
one mar and scratched on a timber
by another showed they had lived
but little more than three hours
after erecting their pitiful barri-
cades. Saddest of all was the mute
record of the bare beginning of q
third bulkhead when gas had driven
them from the scene of the second
Identification will be difficult
The length of time since they died,
the temperature of their casual
tomb, the lack of clothing they had
torn off to stuff into cracks in their
first bulkhead, combined to remove
from most of the bodies any dis
tinguishing characteristics.
A revision in California mining
| safety laws will be urged in the mex
legislature, according to Fletcher
Hamilton, state m~ineroloSlst. He
said he thought it would be feast
| BILE to have Independent exits and tt
have underground safety stations
with a separate source of supply o
air and supplies of food and water