Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1905 — DIE IN ZEIGLER MINE. [ARTICLE]

DIE IN ZEIGLER MINE.

THIRTY-FOUR MINERS KILLED IN M.NE EXPLOSIONS. Men Entombed in Joseph Letter's Coal Shaft—Work of Rescue Is Delayed by Debris Accumulated Gas Bald to Have Caused Trouble. K - - Two explosions, one following tKmost instantly upon the other, so that they appeared to have been simultaneous, killed thirty-four men and Injured eight In Joseph Lelter’s mine In Zeigler, 111., Monday morning. The first explosion was in the air shaft, followed by the greater upheaval in the main shaft. Forty men of the day shift, ten on each of four cages, had gone to the bottom. They were there when the explosion took place. Supt Hurd declared the dead numbered thirty-four and may number thirty-nine. The majority of the dead are Greeks and Lithuanians who went by numbers. Besides the thirty-four dead, three taken out have fatal injuries and may swell the death list. Among the dead is a workman who had been employed in the tipple, fortyfeet above ground. Three near him received probably fatal injuries. In the effort to recover the entombed men five rescuers were overcome by afterdamp. All the searchers were let down by hand. In two Instances the men above were nearly overcome by gaa. The explosion was heard twelve miles away uud crowds rushed to the mine mouth, but rescue work was prevented then by the flames, smoke, and suffocating gases arising from the mine. Women and children, relatives of the entombed men, crowded about the mine, crying to know of their loved ones, but not until night were the rescuers able to secure any of the bodies. Explosion Caused by Accumulated Gas. The belief is that the gas which accumulated over Sunday, owing, it is alleged by W. D. Ryan, secretary of the United Mine Workers of America, to the fact that the miners did not know how to deal with fire damp, and that the mine was full of it A cage was resting at the mouth of the shaft to allow a force of mechanics to enter the mine. J. L. Wood of Cleveland, Ohio, was stepping on the cage when the explosion occurred. He was killed outright. The flames, leaping oiit of the shaft, burned several others, all of whom may recover. An overcoat worn by one of these workmen was tom from his back and carried to the top of the tipple, 100 feet away. A six-ton cage was blown 300 feet from the bottom of the shaft to the tipple. A miraculous escape from death was experienced by a workman on the air shaft The concussion hurled him sixty feet into the air, and he fell outside the stockade, seventy-flve yards away. Besides a few slight bruises he was not injured. The rescue party found it difficult to work owing to the absence of a proper fan to purify the mine nir. All the bodies found, except two, showed no marks of injury, indicating death by asphyxiation. Both the main and air shafts are badly wrecked. It is impossible to learn to what extent the mine is wrecked below. Employes at Zeigler say that the larger fan, upon which the circulation of air mainly depends, had not been in operation since Friday, and tills permitted the accumulation of gases.