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Show HARVEST OF DEATH BE0UABS DESCRIPTION Scofield, Utah, May 1. Never before in the annals of .the state of Utah has there been such a harvest of death as there is at this camp tonight. Never I before in the history of coal mining in me i lined states nave so many lives been lost in a single accident. Txvo hundred blackened and mangled man-gled corpses tell the tale of horror. That number . :f men and boys this morning went to tluir death xvhen they entered Winter Quarters mine No. 4. For, at 10:20 an explosion, like unto an inferno, rent the mine asunder. So terrific was the explosion that the top of the mine xvas blown off. The men who' xvere not killed outright out-right by the explosion, by falling timbers, tim-bers, flying debris and caving rock fell victims to the deadly after damp. Every one seems dazed by the magnitude mag-nitude of the explosion. Number 4 mine and No. 1 mine at Winter Quarters are operated as separate sep-arate mines, under different foremen, but they xvere formerly connected by man-ways, all of xvhich had not been stopped up. The explosion must have come about by giant poxxder, xvhich, igniting the dust, set off all the mines of No. I. Blown 200 Yards. John Wilson, who xvas driving at the mouth of the tunnel, xvas bloxvn over 00 yaros dnwn tn? dump. .1 he. power house, together xvith cars ? u ,roa! house, xvere entirely demolished. demol-ished. The ifam was killed at the mouth. Wilson had his skull mashed and his recovery is doubtful. John I Kirton xvas brought out xvith his head entirely burned, and although still alive his recovery is doubtful. Bishop Parmlev first attempted to get through No. 1 tq Np. 4, but after part of the rescuing party were so -4- - . A i i lAAAAAAAi-i overcome by the damp that they had to be taken out on cars, he then led a party into No. 4 and the horrors of the calamity began to be realized. One hundred stretchers xvere made at once, and as the air became better the gallant party pressed on. The xvork of carrying, out the dead then commenced, and not until the party had ad-anced some distance did they realize xvhat was before them. After Af-ter -the exploalon and before the firedamp fire-damp had got in its deadly xvork, the men knew xvhat hp ti"""--t, and bogan to congregate hunting air. The leatn The death scenes were beyond the power of pen to describe fathers daeping ons, brothers locked in each others arms, and men xvith their faces to the earth vainly endeavoring to get air. While part of the men carried out the dead, the rest piled them up inside and hurried from one to another, vainly vain-ly hoping to find some one still alive. The advance of the relief party was sloxv, on account of the bad air, and not until evening could the upper levels be explored. At No. 1 the men xvere. all killed by the deadly gas that came from No. 4 through the openings. Some drivers rushed in and halloed to the men on the levels done to the opening and most oi' them escaped. Foreman Andrew Hood at the head of a party in No. 1 wa5 overcome by the E"as and had to be carried home, Bernard Newreii xvas also overcome by gar. By this time the dead began to be brought out through No. 1 and they xvere laid in the old boarding house. Word xvas sent to Clear Creek and all the men there were brought doxvn by special train, there not being enough men left, here to carry out the dead. Bernard Dougal, the surveyor from Springville, xvas brought and laid among the dead. This was his first trip into the mine. A special train arrived ar-rived . bearing doctors and the mine managers at about 2 o'clock. The distribution of the dead has com- ! menced and about ten teaniis are busy. Every house has from one to five dead. 1 The conservative estimate of the I number dead now numbers 200 men and boys. Scofield lodge I. O. O. F. No. 32 has seventeen brothers among the dead. The bodv of William Parmley the foreman of No. 4 haa not been recovered recover-ed yet as it is lying under a heavy fall. Horses, cars and men are lying inoome i plac es in tangled masses. County Attorney Hoffman has been sent for and an inquest xvill be held ! tomorrow. : ; I According to Captain Benjamin Tib- boy, State Mine Inspector Ootner Thorn- ' as was cognizant that conditions.of the I mines in the Cas-'-tle Gate district for some time past xvere precarious Cap- tain Tibbey warned the state inspector i that unless better ventilating conditions were inaugurated in the mines and the dust frequently sprinkled down, that it ' would only be a matter of time before i the country would be startled by the nexvg of a terrible mining catastrophe. d Three weeks ago that gentleman told hie old companions, with whom he used to work in days gone by in the mines among the, green hills of Wales, unless ' they agitated for better ventilation in the Winter Quarters mine, that .they dally carried their lives in their hands, j 4 When eeen last night. Captain Tib- j ' bey. stated that lie did not care to.tallt 1 with regard to the matter. Finally. ' t 'however, he admitted that such xvas the case. He sain: "I happened to be down in that district just a few days after that man and woman xvere arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the Penney murder. While a.t Scntteld I met several old miners, xvith whom I xx-as acquainted xvhen I xvas a "boy working in' the coileriea of Wales. After a xvhile xve began to talk, naturally, about the mine in which they xvere working, and they stated that there was cons-idraMe dust to be encountered encoun-tered there, although it was practically free from noxious gase.. "According to their account, the ventilation ven-tilation xvas nothing to boast of. After talking upon the subject.- I told them that they xvere running a great risk every time that they entered the mine. They sai dthey knew they did, but you know how miners are, they evidently did not worry much about the matter." mat-ter." "Warned Inspector Thomas. In regard to the purported warning to State Mine Inspector Thomas. Captain Cap-tain Tibbey admitted that he had met him at Pleasant Grove on the day prior to the explosion there recently, on I xvhich occasion, happily, there was no loss oS life. " I told him at flue time," he said, "that there would be a big explosion there if they continued to fire from 350 to 500 shots at the same time by means of a battery, as the coacurflioti from this number of simultaneous shots j xvould of necessity raise a big cloud of dust, which, at any moment, was liable to Ignite xvith disastrous effects. Sure enough, only a few hours later what I predicted happened, only, fortunately, owing to the rule, all the miners had left the mine previous to turning on the current." Captain Tibbey k a man of experience, exper-ience, having been connected with the coal mining industry, man and boy, since the early sixties, in Wales, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Montana and Utah. He knows something about cause and effect in regard to explosions, avlng passed through no less than twenty-one ex-plceions, ex-plceions, xvith the loss of a finger or. each hand; also several scalp xrounds. In comparing mining operations on both sides of the Atlantic, he said that in the majority of cases coa,l mining, a.l operated in western America, vva.t carried on in a very haphazard fash-icm. fash-icm. "Over In England." he said, "the laws governing scientific mining are compiled by men of experience and education, for the protection of the' man that xverks in the bowels of the j earth. The majority of men who gain a livelihood in this country by mining coal do not seem to. think it worth their while to study the subject. Take, I for instance, out here, where' it is true-that true-that every mine is furnished with a barometer to record the weight of the air, and a thermpmeter to test the heat, a hydrometer 13 very seldom neen a'round a colliery. Most miners are axvare of the fact that a change of weather affects the mine, but they can't tell you why." Captain Tibbey Calculates. Here Captain Tibbey produced a pencil pen-cil and proceeded to indulge in mathematical mathe-matical calculations. "Every school boy knows." he continued, con-tinued, "the pressure of the air is fifteen pounds to the square inch. Multiply Mul-tiply that bv 144. and you get the total to be 2.160 pounds to the square foot. Supposing the mercury drops an inch in the mine. That means that thn i-i 2,160 pound; lesw atmospheric pressure in a drift of thirty feet, xvhich means a great deal, a; anyone can see, to the successful ventilation of that chamber. All bituminous coal contains from :J7 to 40 per cent volatile matter, which rises from the seam. j "Without successful ventilation iti stands to reason that the no.xiouai gases must &nn predominate. In an- j thraeite coal there is only from 3 to i per cent volatile matter in evidence, and one never hears of a dust explosion explo-sion in an anthracite mine. Dust, too. plays a great part in the ventilation of a mine. Dust absorbs the moisture, and consequently the even balance of tho atmosphere i;i not maintain )'. "To successfully operate a mine, all J these things must be taken into consideration, con-sideration, and the dust should b.j thoroughly wetted down from time to time. If this is not done there is sure to be an. explosion sooner or late;-, and after the explosion of dust, the oxygen being all consumed in th-i drift, it is naturally impossible for any living thing to fxist under th- circumstances, i "A coal dust explosion is similar in its effects to that which occurs from! time to time in large Hour mills, which j are badly ventilated, and if it were j possible to have a flour dust explosion ' under similar conditions to that in a, coal mine the effects, of course, xvould 1 be the same. j "The men who perished in this explosion ex-plosion at Winter Quarters died from) j the effects of afler-damp. xvhich is an- j other name for the absence of oxygerfj Jn the air." Captain Tibbey's Career. j Captain Tibbey for seventeen years j held the position of superintendent of I the Parrott mine near Butte, during xvhich period there were only three men killed. In explanation of this fact he last night stated that xvhen he took the position in the mine he inaugurated inaugu-rated the rule that any man xvho got hurt xvould be discharged. This, he said, had the effect of making the men careful, with the result that there xvere only three casualties, and that in the majority of cases it was the action of j some careless fool that caused these j disasters. I In speaking of the precautions xvhich I he invariably took before entering a mine, he said that he always carried j a close meshed ladies' veil, and minia- j ture pair of belloxx-s in his pocket. On several occasions he had saved his life i through these means. He asaerted that if the nozzle of a pair of bellows had I been inserted in the nostrils of those who were found in the mine who gave j evidence of retaining a spark of life ' in their anatomy, that their lives might probably have been saved. He i had 9een this remedy tried on several j occasions with a successful issue. i He related the circumstances in the j explosion in the Cleveland mine at Lu- ; cas, la., when he successfully brought j twenty-seven men out from the mine, after lying on their faces with a xvet j veil tied across their nostrils for the scace of five hours. ! The two largest catastrophes which I hax'e happened in coal mining in Great j Britain, he said, were at the Oaks col- j liery. Dec. 12. l$6fi, on which occasion 352 lives were lost, and on Feb. 19. 1S57, at Lund Hill, on xvhich occasion 1 159 souls perished. Both the? mines are situated in north Ecghuid. |