Evening star., 1922-08-29
BLAZING GAS LOCKS
48 MINERS IN TOMB
Hope for Men Trapped in
California Gold Shaft Slim,
Rescuers Say.
GRIEVING FAMILIES PRAY
"Buddies" Boring Way Through
Mountain in Effort to Tunnel
Under Inferno.
GRIEVING FAMILIES PRAY
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
JACKSON. Calf, August 29.-Fam-
lilies and fellow workers of the forty
eight gold miners imprisoned since
midnight Sunday nearly a mile below
the earth's surface in the Argonaut
mine today clung stubbornly to the
shred of hope that their husbands
fathers and buddies might still live
although at least eighteen hours must
elapse before rescuers can reach
them.
Dawn today found that tense group
still waiting and praying. The pink
colors a serene rolling landscape
typical of the Sierra foothills and the
region of the mother lode. Light OF
a new day chased long shadows west
ward at the mouth of the black pit
But one it could not dispel The
shadow Of death still hung over those
who worked and those who waited.
From the mouth of the pit from
which these men have helped to take
fortunes in gold at an average Of a
million dollars a year came no tok en-
of hope. From it came no sign of the
hell of fame and smoke and poisoned
air that ragged between the imprisoned
miners on the levels below 1000 feet
and the workers who vainly struggled
to reach them.
Rescuers Near Death.
During the night men attempting in
mine "skips'' to ride down through the
flaming levels were dragged back to the
surface their faces blackened. They
came to gasp eagerly for fresh air and
to tsll OF the hopelessness Of the trip
below. The tracks on which the skips
run were warped and distorted with the
heat. in some places even melted away.
Canary birds told the rescue workers
of the futility of attempting further
descents into the shaft OF the mine.
The birds were lowered into the shaft
by workers from the state bureau of
mines at Berkeley. The strings tied to
the canary cages were let down and
carefully measured. Some of the birds
came back with wings fiuttering feebly.
Others were dead. The tests showed
that the descent to 2.70O feet could be
made. but that further it was perilous.
= The flames which started yesterday
morning at the 3,000-foot level today
had worked above the 2, 2,400-foot level.
A half mile below the earth's surface,
working frantically with drills and picks
to break through a concrete barrier
which long has sealed the shaft Of the
Argonault from the shaft of a neigh
boring mine, the Kennedy. other miners
sought to make possible channel OF
escape for their trapped comrades. 1t
was a slim hope.
Eighteen Hours From Men.
One miner at the mouth Of the pit.
his face showing pale beneath the
pallor of years underground, spoke
with the knowledge of worker from
the drifts when he said:
THE boys can't get through that
wall in month
supt. Virilio GabaTini said every
thing humanity possible was being
done toward the rescue OF the en-
tombed men. He said that workers
exnected to establish communication
with the miners, IL any still are alive,
within eighteen hours. Until their
bodies are brought out. the nope that
some of the forty-eight still live will
endure.
the ) 57O0-foot level had caved in. and
u.orkmen could remain at the 2,400-
foot level to fight the flames only a
few minutes at time. The trapped
men are believed to be on the 4,5o0-
foot and lower levels.
A considerable establishment for
firefighting and rescue Work mas Deen
SET up at the 2,400-foot level. Tele-
phone lines were repaired ana other
made.