MINERS BURIED (continuation) The foundations of nearly every house in Pittson was shaken and windows and doors Rattled as in a tornado. In houses nearer the mine persons were thrown from their beds. The first thought was that a great earthquake had occurred. . . (two sentences cut off,) . . .by daybreak. (Ditto) Stalwart men stood appalled, and frantic woman, who had husbands and sons in the doomed mine, waited in despair. One mother cried out that she had two sons below. Another was the wife or widow, of some unfortunate and had nine helpless children at home. Many knelt on the ground and in voices broken with sobbing, implored Divine Providence to restore their loved ones alive. When it was given out that there was little or no hope of rescuing the men alive, women and girls fainted and were borne away senseless. The work of rescue was prompt and efficient. The best miners, who remained on the surface, joined voluntarily in the hazardous task - for hazardous it certainly was. There was the constant menace of another fall or an explosion of firedamp. Special efforts were made to keep the air fan in good order, so that if by any chance the men were alive they should have fresh air. The blocked slope and gangways held out little hope of the air reaching them. The rescuers were divided into three relays of 40 men each, under the direction of Mine Foreman, Alex McMILLEN. The men worked as thought they never worked, clearing away the debris in the slope with the energy that springs out of the knowledge of dear lives behind it. They made good headway, considering the difficulties they had to contend with, and at 3 o'clock in the afternoon had cleared the slope to a distance of 600 feet. Activity brought encouragement, but when the first clearance it revealed a sight that dispelled all hope. Under the mass of rock lay the bodies of LANGAN and LYNOTT. A damper fell upon the work of the rescuers. They had been working for life and found death. Still the hope remained that others of the men might be penned in somewhere and they would yet have the satisfaction of finding them alive. At 9 o'clock it became necessary to swear in extra policeman to control the crowd around the mouth of the shaft. It had increased to fully 7,000. Ropes were stretched around the shaft and only mine official's were allowed to enter the enclosure. Young SHERIDAN, the water boy, who had such a narrow escape, tells a thrilling tale of the disaster. He thinks there was an explosion of gas which blew down the newly erected timbers and caused the cave-in. When he left the mine to go out the slope to get water those inside had no apprehension of a fall or "squeeze." Everything was working nicely and the men expected to be out of the mine within and hour. "The report of the fall," says the boy, 'was like a hundred cannon, and the force of it blew me fully 25 feet. I was hurled against the side of the slope. A piece of rock hit me back of the head, the wound commenced to bleed and then I fainted. RICHARDS and GILL, who were on their way out after timber, concur with SHERIDAN that the concussion was terrific. The cannot conceive the possibility of anybody being in the wreck and escaping with his life. Superintendent LAW says: Nobody regrets this dreadful occurrence more than I do. It is too early yet to give any reason as to the cause, but I can assure you, that had I thought there was any danger in the work undertaken to the men, not a single one of them would have been allowed to enter the mine with my permission. I do not care for the damage to the mine. It is the great loss of life that gives me the most sorrow. The breaker of the Twin shaft burned down three years ago. There were over 100 men in the mine at the time, but all escaped through a second opening. The first disaster in the anthracite region was in September, 1869, when 120 men perished in the Avondale mine, this county. The breaker over the mine caught fire, and all the men in the mine were suffocated. This great catastrophe caused the legislature to pass a law compelling mines to have two openings. Later - The report that two bodies had been found in the mine proves to have been premature. Up to 9 o'clock no bodies had been found. At that hour all hope of finding any of them alive had been abandoned. Superintendent LATHROP of the Lehigh Valley Coal company, who is an authority, says it will be ten days before the bodies are reached. He says they are under a heavy fall. During the late hours of the afternoon the searchers made but little progress, because the part of the slope upon which their energies were bent was "working." The heaviest timbers were like matches under the heavy pressure from above.. At 11 o'clock the situation at the ill-fated mine was unchanged. The rescuers were hard at work, but making little progress. Superintendent McMILLEN has given orders that the rescuers must proceed with great caution now, as the rock they are laboring under is "working" more or less. There is danger that in hurrying the work others may be lost. A conference of prominent mine superintendents from all over the Wyoming valley was held, and the situation in the mine was discussed. The conclusion was reached that to prevent further loss of life the work of rescue must proceed with care. It is also the unanimous belief of the superintendents that the mine is now a tomb, and it will be some days before the rescuers reach the bodies. At 12:25 o'clock this morning there was another fall in the slope. It drove the rescuers back. The twenty feet of ground they had gained since 8 o'clock was therefore lost. At midnight the crowd around the mouth of the shaft had dwindled to about 800. FIREDAMP EXPLOSION. Two Miners Killed and Three Others Missing at Monongahela. Monongahela, PA, July 1, - An explosion of gas in the Washington coal mine at Lafayette City killed Mike BARBARAS and Louie DERISTE, two Italians. Three others who went into the mine at the same time are missing and are believed be buried under the debris. There names are not known. The mine has been closed for some time and the men were given permission to enter for their tools. It is supposed their lamps ignited the gas. Bill Grummons [email protected]