Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 November 1909 — PROTESTS FORCE SEARCH OF MINE [ARTICLE]

PROTESTS FORCE SEARCH OF MINE

Explosion and Fires Still GaikIng Rescoers at Cherry. FIND 25 DODIES IN A POCKET Men Evidently Had Walled Themselves In, Hoping to Be Found Before Supply of Oxygen Became Exhausted—Belief That the Knowledge es Scotchmen Will Yet Be the Means of Saving Lives. Cherry, 111., Nov. 23.—Angry protestations by the United Miners at delay s in exploring the wrecked mine at Cherry where more living men are believed to be imprisoned, led to the dispatch of a volunteer force of rescuers into the subterranean charnel house below., Rescues were prevented by an explosion. The bodies of twenty-five dead were found in a walled-in pocket off the east drift after some fire fighters had been delayed by Injury to several men by the blast. The dead were found 150 feet from the main shaft. The air In the chamber was exhausted and the end seemed to have come from suffocation. The men found dead were not identl fled. It is even in doubt whether their bodies can be gotten out for many hours. The fire is raging in the vicinity and the pocket was reached by two miners who crawled through fire damp over masses of burning debris. ~ Persistent Reports of Voices Heard. Rumors of the hearing of voices or signals of living miners from the east gallery spread about the town, wero promptly discredited by mine officials. No indication, save the absence of the dead, is found that any of the entombed men survive. James McCann of Morris, 111., representing tne Western Casket company, said he had obtained information from miners and men who have explored the mine that probably 161 men are alive in the pit. If men still live imprisoned In the depths of the mine they are probably In too weakened a condition to aid in their own escape. A woman, wife of one of the men brought out alive Saturday evening and whose brother still is one of the missing, placed her arms about one of the pathetic, shawl-draped women whose watch about the pit mouth has begun each day hours before the rising of the sun and ended after midnight. “Cheer up,” she whispered. “Didn’t I tell you John would come up? There are Scotchmen down there. They’ll take care of th am. When the men get to the end they’ll find them walled in and ready far another week of it.”

Fears an Explosion. Faith in the Scotch miners and their ability to care not only for themselves, but for their companions, is now held by the mine officials as well as the relatives of those still “down there.” The traditions and stories of the Scots, which once had caused derisive smiles and comments from their fellows of other races, now are the inspiration and hope of the watchers. Their often-told tales of how their ancestors or prototypes in Scotland had fought death in the mines by walling themselves in and providing for the long, dreary wait for succor, now are repeated scores of times daily as messages of hope for the watchers in Cherry. W. W. Taylor, superintendent of the mine, says work toward the east end of the mine must be slow. “It may appear that the progress is slow, but we are working as we have never worked before in our lives,” said Taylor. “It is all purely technical, tut we are working on the advice of the most eminent experts of the country and the families of those unfortunate men in the mine may rest assured that we shall do all in our power to get out the bodies of the dead and save any that may be alive. Miners Push Investigation. “Much work in the improvement in the atmospheric conditions and general clearing away of materials that tended to create poisonous air substance in the west end of the mine has been done, and there is much more to be done. If we give this up on the spur of the moment and start right in working toward the feast there is likely to be an explosion in which the lives of many or all of the expert firemen and inspectors in the mine would be sacrificed.”

The investigation of the disaster by the Mine Workers of America, has received impetus. At a closed conference of the state and local officers of the miners’ organization reports were received from union men who have been doing rescue work in the mine. "Our inquiries have had such results that we are preparing to push this investigation to the limit,” said President McDonald. "We believed we had good basis for action when we started, and we are sure of it now. Of course we cannot go as fast as we would like to until the mine is fully opened up. But the coming out of live men from the mine will be a great help.” More than 100 miners are expected to be found alive in the lower vein. While it is known that water has stood* several feet deep in the third vein since the disaster, it is said there is a shelf where hundreds could live high and dry. Fresh qjr has been freely circulating through this vein.