San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-02-11
'NEAAY 100
| GRAVES DUG
( At DAWSON
New Cemetery Near Resting
Places of 263 Vic g..
tins in 1918.
. BLACK COFFINS READY
! Widows Draw Last Pay
Ever Earned by Their
Husbands.
BLACK COFFINS READY

Dawson. y. NJ. Feb. 1G.-Fifty -four
bodies had been brought out of Daw-
so" mine No. l tonight: following the
\ ex' losion Thursday which imprisoned
. LIZ miners.
Grave diggers in the cemetery Of the
) Phelps-Dodge corporation, owners of
/ the mine, had completed nearly 100
|. graves tonight. The dead will be buried
J in two rows, shoulder TO shoulder.
Row upon row of plain iron crosses.
Immediately back of the new graves.
mark the resting places of 263 victims
of q mine disaster in 1913.
: The funerals Of the victims of the
; Dawson mine disaster Thursday We're
Z held tonight while rescuers penetrated
s the tunnels in search of the remaining
men imprisoned in the explosion.
Workmen at the freight station busily
! uncrated dozens of black collins today,
1 preparatory TO trucking them to the lit
tie plain box houses that dot the hills
of rail canyon.
Groups of Weeping Women.
Groups of weeping women and SOM
. bre-faced' men stood in the pleasant
sunshine in front of their homes look
! ing down toward Dawson, awaiting the
E trucks that would deliver the collins
and the bodies of the dead.
Some of the houses were empty. their
tenants being grouped about the mine
: entrance. scanning the faces of add.
tional bodies that were being brought
out of the grim tunnel.
The funerals will b. conducted indivi-
dually. it was announced today. Rela-
I. tives and fiends and religious and fra
ternal organiza tions to which the dead
men belonged were arranging the do
. tails.
Practically all the burials will take
! place in the Phelps-Dodge corporations
:. cemetery here.
The company will give collins and
burial plots to the widows and rela-
tives of the victims. it was stated.
Widows of the dead men appeared in
the payroll line today to draw the last
money earned by their dead husbands.
Two Walk Cut Alive.
Officials of the phclpsDOdge cor
poration said it would be at least two
months before the Dawson mine No. l
could be placed in workable condition.
They refused to estimate the amount OF
damage caused by tho explosion.
Two of the men. Charles Rental and
+Felini Martini, walked out of the death
tunnel uninjured after waiting sixteen
hour for fresh air to be pumped into
the shaft. cheating death by wrapping
-their water-soaked sweaters about their
heads to combat the poison gases that
followed the blast Thursday afternoon
in the Phelps-Dodge corporation mines.
1T is more than doubtful that any
ione remaining alive in the mine"
Judge T. l.. Kinney, coroner. said to-
night. "The men in the shaft have been
there As hours" he said. land the
chances are mighty slim that any of
them are living.
Escape of Two Amazing"
{ Kinney said the amazing Pscane of
Rental and Martini probably is due 70
.ihe fact that they were a considerable
distance from the scene of the explo-
sion. He declared the mine engineers
told him searching parties had not pcne
trated to that part of the working
where the blast occurred.
!. My jury is making preliminary in
'vestigations now but the final inquest
will not be held until the mine is
cleared and it is possible to go into the
'place where the let go happened" he
said.
Kinney conducted an inquest here Oc-
etober %, 1913, when 263 men were
killed in a mine explosion.
: Mine rescue car No. from Tucson.
and car No. . from Wyoming. arrivd
tonight on a special train.
The first car brought General Mana
ger Beckett of the Phelps Dodge cor
poration.
Daniel Harrington, supervising engi-
neer in charge of the bureau Of mines
at Denver, arrived with the rescue cars
and will direct the rescue work.
These cars were at the recent Ar
ronaut gold mine disaster at Jackson,
Cal. in which AZ miners lost their
lives.