Year: 1869




of ho;st-way for the workmen and the


coal, and channel for the ventilating cur


rent which in all mines must be constantly


forced by machinery through the various


galleries and drifts. The sides of the


shaft were built up with wooden supports,


and a wooden partition ran perpendicularly


through its whole length, dividing it into


two passages, one for the upward, the other


for the downward current Right over its


mouth stood great wooden building, con-


tanning machinery for hosting and for


breaking, sorting, and cleaning the coal


To assist in creating a current of air fire


was always kept burning in a furnace at


the foot of the shaft, and from this it is sup


posed the woodwork must have caught


On Monday morning two hundred men went


down that shaft TO resume work after long


strike. They were followed, about 9


O'Clock. by one of the mule-tenders, with


hay for his beasts. As he reached the


bottom he was heard to cry Fire but


what he saw we never shall know, for in


an instant fierce column of fame rushed


up the shaft, caught the breaker as if that


had been house of paper, and wrapped the


whole structure in sheets of FIRE. The mouth


of the pit belehed forth destruction. Hun


dreds of tuns ofeoal in the shutes and bins


were so2IG17:5>a o2IG,7s5 n 5,EShts glow, and dropped


with t.se hereof b. ven TO E5rt-ssrsons Inter


was sevefr@f eight --1r5ufs weeks sue Df


gines which were hurried to the seA~of


disaster from all the neighboring towns
succeeded in extinguishing the burning


mass Workmen had focked to the spot
from the entire mining region, for 1t was


known that two hundred of their brethren


were imprisoned among the deadly vapors
of that awful pit. The rubbish was cleared
away from the mouth, and fifty experienced
miners volunteered to attempt the descent.
1t was now about 6 in the evening. To
test the purity of the air a dog and lighted
lamp were first lowered into the shaft as far
as they would 90. At the end of FIVE min
utes they were drawn up; the dog was
alive, the lamp still burning. A miner
named Charles Vartue then went down to
but about half way from the
bottom he found the shaft blocked with
fallen timbers. Two fresh volunteers were
then lowered with hatchets. After 20 min
utes they were drawn up again, faint and
breathless. They had penetrated 20 or so
yards into a gangway, finding three dead
mules. and coming at last to closed door.
They hammered at it and waited for an
answering sound, but no answer came, and
through the crevices poured clouds of sui
phur0us vapor-the fatal d" black damp.
Several other parties, in the course of the
evening and night, made attempts to pen
citrate into the gangwavs, but with little
more success. Few could remain more
than FIVE or SIX minutes, and when drawn
up they were all speechless and exhausted.
Several were brought back by their COM
panions entirely insensible. Two brave
fellows, Daniel Jones, and Thomas Will /
Jams, were brought back dead. There
was no hope now that any of the miners
alive, unless possibly they had
succeeded in walling themselves In at
some remote part of the mine 80 effectually
as to prevent the entrance of the foul gases
from the shaft. 1t was only the shadow of
a hope, still the work went on, while
women sat wringing their hands and
weeping for their husbands and chill
dren. and miners from distant regions came
in hundreds to offer their assistance. By
9 o'clock on Tuesday morning an engine
and fan had been placed in position to
force fresh air into the mine. All day
long parties went down at intervals, but
the black damp drove them back, and the
fans did not seem to gain upon it. About
I in the afternoon it was discovered that
the fire at the foot of the shaft, which was
to be entirely extinguished, had
- i
with a mass of coal lying
near Thus the workmen had actually
been accelerating the generation of gas,
and destroying what little vestige of hope
might remain for their imprisoned CON-
rades. 4 stream of water was with some
brought to play upon the flames,
and the greater part of the night was
devoted to the suppression of the fire, the
olouCs OF gas that came up the shaft being
meanwhile so awful that workmen at the
mouth were removed insensible Between
, and 8 o'clock on Wednesday morning
two bodies were found, both fearfully
and unrecognizable. About $50
4 party of four succeeded IN penetrating
some distance into one of the principal
and came upon the bodies of
over sixty more where they had met their
fate together They had constructed two
barriers of cars and refuse coal, and strip
ped off their clothes TO stuff the crevices.
One poor fellow, whose duty it seems to
have been to close the last aperture after
all had passed beyond it, had fallen dead
on the outside, his work not yet completed.
Fathers and sons were found in each
others arms. Some lay with their hands
cleuehed as if in agony, some with their
faces buried in the ground, some in the at
titude of prayer.


The pick-axes and shovels. which they
had used in making an embankment to
prevent the entrance of foul air, lay one
side. 1t seemed, then, that, that they
had fed a few steps, when in an agony
they fell in one another's arms, sufocated
by the deadly damp. In another chamber
every man was without shirt. They had
stripped themselves of clothes to use them
in filling up crevices and crannies. One
man had pushed part of his garment into
an aperture, when gust of the gas rushed
through and strangled him to death.