Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 February 1905 — EIGHT SCORE ARE DEAD IN THE MINE [ARTICLE]

EIGHT SCORE ARE DEAD IN THE MINE

That Is the Grim Harvest of the Reaper in the Alabama Horror.

THIRTY-NINE BODIES RECOVERED But One of Them All Shows the Least Sign of Life. Pitiable Scene* at the Pit Month—One Hundred Families Left Deeti ■ tuie Corpses Terribly Mangled. i __________________ Birmingham, Ala., Feb. 23. At this writing seventy-five bruised, blackened and disfigured bodies have been recovered from the ill-fated Virginia mines.

i Birmingham, Ala., Feb. 22. The scene nt # Virginia mines, where a terrific afterdamp explosion imprisoned 160 men 700 feet below the surface, Is the most gruesome and harrojving that has even been witnessed in this mining section of Alabama. Of the miners who entered the mines Tuesday afternoon so far only fifty bodies hgve been recovered. As time grows, notwithstanding the titanic efforts on the part of the rescuers to reach the entombed men, the recovery already of so many dead bodies precludes nny idea that any living men remainamong the unfortunates still in the mine.

Hard Work to Get the News.

Practically Isolated from tbe outside world by communication tbe Associated Press correspondent found It necessary to employ couriers to assist Its wires eight miles distant The corpses recovered are frightfully mangled and disfigured, and identification Is almost impossible. Many of them are so badly bruised and twisted and discolored that negroes cannot be told from white men.

Walling of Women and Children.

At the mouth of the mine the wailing and moaning of the women and children whose unfortunate relatives were in the mine is the most heartrending feature of the disaster. One hundred families and 300 children are left destitute and without means of ropport by the calamity. As the bodies of the victims, which in many cases have been gathered together a piece at a time, are brought to the surface they are placed in rows on a rough Improvised platform, and ambulances are removing those so far recovered to Bessemer.

Death Roll Will Reach IGO.

Since the list of dead will probably go to 160 the local undertakers have wired to adjoining cities for coffins, as it as found there are not enough suitable coffins In the district to bury the victims. The excavation of the debris has been handicapped from the start. The foul gases which had col lected in the slope made necessary the use of safety lamps, and it was found that less than a score of safety lamps was available in the district