Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1897 — FATAL MINE EXPLOSION. [ARTICLE]

FATAL MINE EXPLOSION.

Five Men Killed and Many Injured at Johnson City, 111. By an explosion of black damp in the Williamson County coal mines, located at Johnston City, 111., Friday morning, five men were killed and several others suffered painful burns and bruises. The machinery of the shaft was badly wrecked. A quantity of gas had accumulated in an entry 200 yards Bouth of the big shaft during the night, and upon the arrival of the men who were at work at that particular place it was ignited from tie limps worn by the miners upon their caps. Shortly after the descent of fortyfive men into the pit a terrible explosion occurred, blowing the cage that was resting at the bottom of the shaft fifty feet upward and sending a volume of smoke and gaseous vapor whirling and hurling out of the mouth of the shaft. In an instant all of the machinery vyas stopped. A signal from those at the bottom told the engineer that there were some below who were uninjured. The work of rescuing the imprisoned men began at once. Nearly all the Americans employed in the mine did not go to work at morning, having detlded to attend a picnic. But for this fact the death list would have been much greater.