Show THE FATAL FIREDAMP A Party of Tourists Killed in a Coal Mine POTTSVILLE Pa April 12A shocking accident occurred in the mine at Chamberlain Chamber-lain colliery St Clair yesterday afternoon Miss Bertista Shaul of Sharon Springs N Y a student of Vassar College was visiting Miss Minnie Kerter a St Clair fellow student stu-dent The two young ladies in company with young men named Harry Short and Edwin Thompson one of the operators of the colliery entered the mine for the purpose pur-pose of giving Miss Shaul an opportunity to inspect the operation of mining coal The mine had not been working for a week and none but the explorers were inside at the time In an adjacent working were Albert Al-bert Thompson another of the firm and several others who were making examinations examina-tions of the works They were startled by a heavy explosion and knowing that a party had entered the other slope they hastened there to investigate About 150 yards from the foot of the slope they came upon Messrs Short and Thompson and the two ladies lying on the ground some of them unconscious un-conscious and all frightfully burned and mangled They were taken out as speedily as possible and medical attendance obtained Miss Kerter was burned beyond recognition Her skull and thigh were fractured and her ankle crushed She died this evening Miss Shaul had her leg badly fractured and was terribly bruised and burned but may survive Shorts head is a mass of cuts and contusions and he is badly burned He remained unconscious and his recovery is doubtful Thompson is painfully but not fatally bruised The precise cause of the explosion is unknown but the supposition is that the party carried a naked lamp and encountered a body of firedamp which igniting from the lamp exploded ex-ploded with tremendous force |