A fearful mine holocaust occurred November 12 in Illinois, in which several hundred miners were entombed and perhaps burned, the mine having caught fire from a smoldering bale of hay. It was thought that perhaps many of these might be rescued, but later despatches state that 300 or more in the St. Paul mine are dead, some of the bodies buried beneath thousands of tons of earth which have caved in upon them. It is doubtful if many ever can be recovered. Rescue work, which had been carried on night and day for forty-eight hours, was abandoned, because renewed fires in the mine made further attempts impossible. Efforts were put forth to drive fresh air into the mine through great fans, but these only served to increase the fires that were there burning, so that it became necessary to seal up the mouth of the mine in order to extinguish the flames. It is said that there are not less than 1,000 orphans and 200 widows as the result of this awful disaster. There were, as usual at such times, examples of wonderful bravery and daring. The sad thing is that they have been so little successful in connection with the awful catastrophe.