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Show lliy W. U. Telegraph. PAKTICl LARSOP THE P1TTSTOJI CATASTROPHE. Pittston, iS. Fire engines have been playing on the ruins of the burning burn-ing mine, which were so hot that no one could approach them, but before the morning the lire was controlled and j a dog sent down the shaft of the mine ; was brought up alive, which fact encouraged en-couraged the belief that the thirty-three thirty-three men may yet be saved, j lt has been ascertained that there are thirty-seven men down the mine. ' W. Low, Mining Engineer for the i Pennsylvania Coal Company, was 1 lowered a distance of twenty-live feet, as far as he could penetrate with safety, and when drawn up reported air at that distance below the surface, which is I favorable for the entombed below. Every exertion is being made and it is i thought that the bottom of the shaft j will be reached by midnight. Hopes are entertained for the safety of the j men. The wildest excitement prevails throughout the whole valley, i Later. Communication has at last iheen had with the men in the mine. . It is known that all of the men are 'alive, though none have as yet reached ; the surface. i Latest. All the men in the mine, thirty-eight in number, have been j brought up; eighteen dead. At 12-30 j last night an entrance was effected to . the bottom of the shaft. At T2-45 I word was sent ud that the men had barrieadecWtiiemselves in and the cage' was sent up tor more men and tools. J This morning the excitement at the I shaft was greater than ever. Up to : eight o'clock twenty-four men had been brought up to the top, of which number six were dead. They were all insensible when brought out; one or two have so far recovered as to be able to give an account of themselves. Exploring parties were compelled to proceed with the utmost caution, frequently fre-quently being brought out asphixiated 1 with foul gases. i At 11 a m. thirty men had been j brought out, ten of whom were t dead; and at twelve not more than one : or two remained in the mine. Every j one of the men brought up for the past, two hours were found stoae dead. The ! excitement is almost indescribable. ! Thousands of people are crowded j around the mouth of the pit, and in their eagerness to see and hear they are with difficulty kept outside of the rope which is stretched around the shaft. At the time of the ignition of the upper pait of the shaft, the shifts of the miners were being made and the alarm being given to engineer iUcDer-mot, iUcDer-mot, he at once communicated the warning of danger to the bottom of the mine and began to hoist the carriage, car-riage, briuging in its first four trips several men; in three succeeding trips no arrivals were made and while the eighth trip was being made the rope slipped oil" the pulley and all further means of escape was beyond a possibility. possibil-ity. At one time a young lad at the bottom of shaft two, eighty feet down, saw a nervous twitching of the bell wire, which the bell refused to respond to, and suspicious of some disastrous disas-trous accident, he immediately ran into the east gangway, several hundred feet, and warned his brother of the circumstance; these two, with Mr. Evans, were the last to ascent from the pit. In an hour and a quarter the breaker had burned to the ground, and men of all vocations in life began removing the half-consumed timbers that obstructed the passage pas-sage to the mouth of the shaft. INo water except from a small well being available, it was drawn in wagons and barrels from the river, a mile distant. The Serar.ton and Xayang steamer arrived ar-rived at a quarter-past three o'ebek, and about the same time came the hose company of Pittston, and the Whkesbarre steamer followed soon after. By five o'clock the water had cao'ed the iron and wood gear to the shaft and preoaratiocs were made tc clear the mouth; in the meantime hon-dreis hon-dreis of. women and children had congregated con-gregated near the scene of disaster, and their heart-reading cries pierced the The fire originated from spontaneous eonabustka of the wood-work of the breaker. |
