The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1926-08-12
FIVE TRAPPED MEN
SAvEDFROMMINE

NJ @ AH~HFA ssAhA A@
Continued From Page y
solved by me sleeping half the time
on one and then going over to the
other. They were the most uncom-
Portable maps I have ever had.
Prayer Meetings Held
thine went on and ever so often
we held a sort of prayer meeting,
praying for rescue. We were hold
ing one when the boys broke through
to us this morning.
ut seemed like eternity. One
by one our matches were used up
relighting the carbide lamps on
our caps. We didn't have any
flint lighters. When the matches
were gone, the blackness just set
tied down and stayed.
After a time we began to hear
lamp. lamp. lamp up above. II
certainly cheered US. We knew it
was a drill. Then we heard the
wheeze and felt compressed air be-
ing shot into the drift.
Made 1t Colder
"Of course, the fellows above
thought they were doing us a good
turn, not knowing wA>were already
getting plenty of fresh air. For our
part we heartily wished they would
stop. The breeze from the com.
\pressed air made it colder than ever.
well, that's about all except we
hadn't the slightest idea as to
whether this was Sunday afternoon
or one day last week"
Wives, mothers and children made
little demonstration as they saw the
men whom they had almost de-
SPARED Of as dead. There were no
embraces, no historical sobbing.
"I want my mules," was the
first request of Harry Watson,
the only unmarried member of the
group. Il gotta be gettin' on
home"
One Of the most maddening ex-
periences of their week in the
depths of the mine was the fact that
they could hear water running
somewhere far below them but were
unable to reach it,.
To quench their terrific thirst the
men sucked water from old, rotten.
watersoaked timbers that supported
the stopping, or high scaffolding,
used in zinc and fuorspar mining
to reach the vein.
New Shaft Sunk
But the sinking of a new shaft
went on. Rock struck ten feet from
the main shaft two days before. was
not encountered in the new shaft
started Wednesday. The main shaft
was reached this morning. 1t was
matter then of only few Minutes
until debris barring the passage was
wrenched away and Cobb was able
to enter and find the entombed
men.
Watson was the first to see the
rescuers.
He had climbed down in the shaft
to search for water. which he knew
was somewhere beneath. Just as
he reached the bottom of the scat.
folding he saw the lights of the res
cuers.
Come on down, boys" he called
to the others, who had waited to de.
termine the outcome of his venture.
More than 500 men had worked
day and night to reach the trapped
miners.
The five were caught when they
drilled into an underground lake.
Five other men, who were in the
shaft at the time escaped before
the rush of water and climbed to
safety. The other men fled back into
the level Of pocket which was
higher.
The geological structure of the
earth at the mine is similar to that
where Floyd Collins was buried.
Despite the pessimistic attitude of
the thousand or more miners and
anu their IdnllHeS VINO EdtnefeQ
about the shaft, mine company off,
Gals and veteran mining engineers
persisted in their belief that the five
men were alive. 1t was the deter
mined fight of these half dozen or
more men against the dark fatalism
of the Kentucky mountaineers that
saved the men.
Three different rescue operations
were pushed forward against terrible
hazards. Time after time machinery
gave way under the strain Of day
and night pressure. At the same
time that a shaft was being blasted
and hewn through the solid rock a
well driller was pushing down a
small hole through which it was
hoped food and a telephone might
be lowered to the men. When this
small hole had been pushed to a
depth of 107 the engineers directing
operations We're forced to concede
that they had missed the pocket in
which the men were trapped.