The St. Paul Mine Disaster.
One of the most terrible accidents, as also one of the most pathetic, which ever occurred, was the awful fire in the St. Paul mine at Cherry, Ill., in which more than 300 men were imprisoned in its depths. At this present writing nearly one hundred bodies have been taken from the mine. Twenty men were found alive after being imprisoned for a week, having placed a barrier between themselves and the burning mine until the air of their prison became worse than that of the mine. It is hoped that a hundred more can be reached before death overtakes them. When they erected the barrier to shut away the noxious gases and the fire, they had provision for one or two men for a meal. They had no water. Their lights soon went out, so that they were in total darkness, without any means whatever of measuring the lapse of time. Their food was soon gone; then they ate their gloves, bark from the timbers of the mine, leather from their boots, the paraffin drippings from the candles, and drank the kerosene; all of which of course tended to increase their thirst. A few drops of water, a swallow a day perhaps for an individual, oozed out through the coal in the mine; but even this stopped. Fortunately there seemed to be two or three stalwart Christians among them; and one man named Cleland prayed for the men and exhorted them to become Christians if they were not before; and another, Lorimer, an old man, when despair seemed to reign blacker than the darkness of the pit, lifted his voice in singing the grand old hymn: “Abide with me; fast falls the eventide,
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide;
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O, abide with me.” These two or three stalwart spirits seemed to keep up the hope of the company; others became almost animals in their despair. One of the most pathetic scenes was the multitude of women, many with children, who had lost husbands, watching at the mouth of the mine, hoping against hope, each of them that her husband or her sons might be among the saved. Of course when many of the dead bodies came up this hope was dispelled; but it left still others to hope; and others are still hoping that some of the buried miners are not yet beyond rescue. Surely the hearts of all sympathizing people ought to go out to the wives and children of those who were buried. Most of the twenty men who were rescued had made their wills and had also written a document exonerating any and every one from blame in the catastrophe. Later: None others rescued; hope gone.