~6:00 pm, News Hour
In Fairmont:
C.W. Watson hosts “an informal dinner” at his home, Fairmont Farms, “…given in honor of President B.F. Bush of Western Maryland Railroad Company…” and “…the two French experts, M. Jaques Caffauel and M. Dumaine, who are there examining the Monongah mines. Covers were laid for about twelve and elegant menu was served.” (CDT 12.28.07 pg. 5 & 8) (FWV 12.28.08 pg. 5)
Newspapers
Fairmont West Virginian:
The Jewish Outlook in Colorado:
Washington Times in D.C.:
The Commoner in Nebraska:
Albuquerque Morning Journal in New Mexico:
The Spokane Press in Washington:
By Geo. R. Pulford
“Pray God that your footsteps may never, so long as you live, lead you to the pit mouth of an exploded mine.” (TSP 12.27.07 pg. 4)
“Death we all have with us from the cradle to the grave, but death as I saw it here had added to its terrors a frightful gruesomeness, a crushing nightmare of grief on grief, and a repulsive atmosphere of indifference to the sorrowing ones that told you plainly of the cheapness in which human life is held where men go below the surface to labor.” (TSP 12.27.07 pg. 4)
“I need not describe the awful effect of the explosion on those bodies. The news dispatches have told how these 200 men were torn limb from limb, their flesh lacerated and blackened and charred.” (TSP 12.27.07 pg. 4)
“Only those who have been through such a catastrophe can begin to appreciate the gigantic, irresistible force generated by the explosion of gas or dust in the narrow confines of a mine.” (TSP 12.27.07 pg. 4)
“First there is the tiny spark which in a bewilderingly short time is an explosion. The gas lying close to the roof of the tunnel breaks into a flame. It is blue but almost instantly turns white, like the flame that leaps from ovens of giant steel mills.” (TSP 12.27.07 pg. 4)
“It rushes along the leads, sweeping everything in its path with the fury which only it possesses. In the wake of the constantly increasing tongue of fire sweeps the vacuum known as black death and firedamp.” (TSP 12.27.07 pg. 4)
“Occasionally a man is left alive by the flame in its lightning like passage. But he never escapes the crushing power of the vacuum which rends him and crushed his heart until it bursts.” (TSP 12.27.07 pg. 4)
“The Monongah mines relief committee…has issued a circular setting forth the horrors imposed by the recent mine disaster and appealing for aid to take care of the widows and orphans left penniless.” (TSP 12.27.07 pg. 4)
“The proposition is too big for the state to handle, and hasty action is needed as the company in whose service the miners met death is impatient to secure the houses that now shelter the stricken families for other families that can furnish and resume production. “(TSP 12.27.07 pg. 4)
“The company owns all the houses and is apparently suffering for the surfeit of widows and orphans it has created. The idea of building more houses seems to be outside consideration.” (TSP 12.27.07 pg. 4)
“The circular says:
Cumberland Evening Times in Maryland:
The Boston Globe in Massachusetts:
Wilkes-Barre Record in Pennsylvania:
More on How Death Gloated!
The Monongah Disaster 