BRING BODIES TO SURFACE

Awful Scenes Are Enacted Today at the Mouth of the Hardwick Mine.

WORK OF RESCUE DIFFICULT

Ice and Water, Foul Air and After Damp Unite to Hinder the Workers.

REMAINS TERRIBLY MANGLED

Forms of the Loved Ones Waited for Are in Condition That Is Revolting.

CHESWICK, Pa., Jan. 27. -- “We have sighted fifty-seven bodies in the mine,” said inspector CUNNINGHAM, as he stepped from the cage at 7 o'clock this morning. “Of this number, we have succeeded in getting twenty-two bodies to the bottom of the shaft. Our men are pushing forward as rapidly as possible, locating the bodies and removing the debris obstructing their way.” Searchers coming from the mine this morning state that the conditions withing the mine are fast becoming unendurable. The air, poor at best, is now heavily laden with the odor of decomposing bodies. A car load of burial caskets arrived this morning and are being carted to the improvised morgue, where, after the bodies have been prepared for interment, the families will be admitted to identify them.

Hard to Enter the Shaft.
The bodies which are lying at the bottom of the shaft are ready to be brought to the surface, but the shaft has become so encrusted with ice that it is now impossible to drop the cage to the bottom. Until the accumulation is picked away the bodies must remain in the mine. The work of removing this obstruction is progressing as rapidly as possible. This is the information given by the tired workers who came from the pit at 7 o'clock this morning. The cheerless dawn had brought little news and no comfort to the band of thoroughly chilled and weary watchers that can not be persuaded to abandon their vigil at the top of the shaft. The workmen who came out this morning differ in their estimate of the number of bodies now at the bottom of the shaft. One stated that there were twenty-two, another eighteen. Three said they had counted twenty. Others tell of seeing more that a hundred bodies in various parts of the mine, and with few exceptions they agree that all of the bodies are horribly mutilated, scorched and torn.

Watchers Still Hope.
But it is the simple faith of the women and old men gathered around the mine mouth which is simply wonderful. With child-like simplicity, sympathy or blindness to the awful facts, they are yet trusting and hoping against hope that the living faces of their loved ones will be seen again. As the moment approaches when the mine must give up its secret and its dead, the scenes about the opening are so intensely tragic, so infinitely pitiful that none would dare describe in detail the horrors of it. Today the climax of the tragedy will be enacted – today the dead will be disclosed to the vision of the living and the heart-wearing grief, suppressed for a time, now breaks forth in the outbursts of agony and despair. An awful, indescribable pathos is swelling over the valley and its little village of Harwick, a throbbing grief seems to pervade the very air of the countryside. It is a situation to burst asunder the stoutest nerve cords.

Bodies Coming Out.
At 9 o'clock the words, although in whispered tones, “the bodies are coming out,” spread with the rapidity of an electric flash and in a incredible time a multitude surrounded the yawning chasm. The little pulley wheel, high in the air, over which slowly passed the heavy cable attached to the hoisting cage, moved fast, but, oh, how slowly did the cable seem to travel. Ages seemed to fly, but it was only a moment until the cage was in view. An unspeakagle horror was presented. A sight – it cannot be described – came from the earth into God's sunlight. It was a hellish trap, that Harwick mine, else how could creatures featured in God's own likeness become such hideous, revolting spectacles. The one body was quickly carried away from the cage to the morgue, and the hoist was fairly dropped again to the bottom of the shaft. These trips followed in rapid succession.

A Horrible Sight.
Eighteen bodies, blackened, bruised, torn, crushed, burned, some of them without a shred of clothing, are now out, and more are coming. The fragments of humanity, stiffened into all the horrors of contortion, are placed upon stretchers. These, two at a time, are placed on sleds and taken to the improvised morgue. The morgue is small and the bodies, fashioned by fire and gas beyond the most hideous, morbid apparation [sic] lie on the floor side by side and are fast filling the limited space. Identification under present conditions is an absolute impossibility, and no attempt at it is being made. Crowds are rushing to the scene from far and near.

To Inspect the Mine.
The following superintendents of coal mines throughout the country came from New York to Cheswick mine at 11 o'clock this morning: D'AFILITTO ARTURO, PELLGI OTTEROTWO, PETER FRANCESEO and MORETTO CANDE. They will inspect as to cause present conditions, etc., for the companies they represent.

Twenty-five bodies were taken out by 11 o'clock. Many coffins are arriving. After washing with embalming fluid, bodies are not greatly marred, but twisted. Work of identification in some cases will be easy.

Work of Rescue.
PITTSBURG, Pa., Jan. 27. -- In the face of the terrible weather conditions, the work of penetrating the wrecked Harwick mine has been pressed since daybreak yesterday. A biting wind has blown about the mouth of the shaft and into it until it has been a test of endurance to stay for more than a few minutes at a time away from shelter. Along the walls of the shaft ice has formed until it has been all but impossible to operate the wooden cage that has been built to take the place of the iron structure that was blown through the tipple when the explosion occurred. Despite strenuous efforts the adverse conditions have made progress slow. Many think that a full month must elapse before all the bodies have been recovered; some doubt if all the entombed men will ever be accounted for.

The Fort Wayne News Indiana 1904-01-27