Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 February 1891 — THE DEADLY MIN. [ARTICLE]

THE DEADLY MIN.

Om Hundred and Seventeen Misers Perteh- J . Am explosion took place at the Spring Hill coal mines, Nova Scotia, in the west side of the e&st slope, lats S&turd&y after* coon. The total number of dead is placed Mll7. To several families the affliction is very great. Reid Carter and his two sons, William and Clarence, are all dead. Three sons of the Carmichael family are dead— John, Andrew and William. Jeeee Armishaw went down No. 2 slope yesterday and found his two sons, Jesse and Herbert, and John Bainbridge, an adopted son, all lying together. The sight sickened and unnerved him so that he had to return to the surface without them. He was frantic with grief. Two sons of Robert MoVey» under fourteen, are laid out side by side* Hugh Bunt loses two boys, Andrew and Alexander. These sorrowful households are only a few of the large number from which the bread winners have been snatched. Some of the bodies taken out werefeaxfully mutJated. Those of the dead who were beyond recognition were identified by their clothes, or marks on their bodies, A carpenter shop has been temporarily converted into a dead house, to which all the corpses are taken, and then washed and prepared for their cofflns.ltisamost gruesome sight. The shop is continually crowded with sorrowing relatives looking for their dead. Clergymen of different denominations are doing what they can for the gnef stricken. The appalling enormity of the accident has stunned the people, and they are just beginning to realize the extent of the dreadful calamity. The injured are progressing most favorably, and are being tenderly cared for. When the explosion took place, doctors were telegraphed for to other places, and appeared on the scene as soon as they _cquld reach town by rail. Eleven miners were serlou slyi nJu red. The explosion, Gilpin says, did very little damage to property in No. 2 slope, having extended but a short distance beyond the tunnel, and all the deaths in that slope were from suffocation by after damp* Manager Swift was at the bottom of No. 1 slope about fifteen minutes before the explosion occurred and intijaated to one of the road men that he was going into the place where the explosion occurred. He has not been seen since. It is probable that his body will be recovered when some of the debris is cleared up. A boy named Beaton heard the explosion and rushed off to the place where he knew his brother was at work and succeeded in carrying b m out badly injured. His heroism is one of the chief topics of conversation. Theie wore plenty of volunteers to search for all bodies. Men who came to the pit as spec' tators divested themselves of their coats and unhesitatingly went to the rescue of their fellow workingmen. Many ghastly scenes were to be seen both on the surface and under ground. Several of the bodies were so fearfully mutilated that they were placed in bags and brought up to the surface. The explosion is more disastrous to life than any other in the history of coal mining on this continent. It is a singular co' incidence that the loss of life equals that of both Ford Pit and Drummond codiery jxplosiona.