Reports of the Inspectors of Mines of the anthracite coal regions of ...

Ex. Doc] Reports op the Inspectors of Mines 95
feeling, he said, was caused by the howling of his dog. Ilis wife, however,
was not so much alarmed as he was, and urged him to go to work, and verj^
reluctantly he went. He came in, and immediately went under a piece of
overhanging top coal to work out a blast he had fired the day before, and
he had only struck a few blows with his pick when the top coal fell upon
him, injuring liim so that he died in four hours afterwards. I often quar-
reled with him on account of his unwillingness to stand props to keep the
roof safe. He was always in too much of a hurry—hurry at his work, and
hurry to get home. Neither of us had examined tlie top coal to see whether
it was heavy or not."
Accident No. 4 David Edwards, a miner was killed, January 15th, at
the Brie shaft, Carbondale township, by a fall of roof. This unfortunate
man had had his cars stopped by the mine boss a few days before, for ne-
glecting and refusing to stand props. While idle, he had attended to the
propping to the satisfaction of the boss, and had been permitted to resume
his work ; but one of the first blasts which he fired after resuming, knocked
out two of the props which he had stood, and instead of immediately re-
standing them lie let them lay and went on with his work, and some time
after, the roof fell upon him. I have my doubts as to whether he wns
killed by the fall or by the parties who lifted the rock oflT from him. His
head was crushed, and it is more than probable that this was done by his
rescuers lifting on the wrong side of the rock in their undue haste and ex-
citement. I judge this to be the case from the fact, as stated by those
present, that he cried out fearfuU}- when the rock was being lifted off from
him and then suddenly ceased.
The chamber was badly propped, and on going through other parts of
the workings, I found great neglect in propping manifest in every direc-
tion ;
and on my taking Joseph Davies, the mine boss, to task for this ne-
glect, he informed me that he could not induce the men to stand props.
I found one chamber so fearfully dangerous that I ordered the laborers
out of it, telling them to go home while they were able to go without as-
sistance ; and I ordered Mr. Davies to discharge the miners and not to
allow them to work there any more without my consent. This was done,
and after that there has been no further trouble with propping in that shaft.
Accident No. 4.—William Durkin, a laborer, was injured fatally, Jan-
uary 15th, at the Hampton shaft, Hyde Park, by a fall of roof. His back
was broken, and he died February 13. This accident occurred through
the recklessness of the poor man himself and the neglect of his miner,
William Y. Edwards. From the statements of both men, it aj^pears that
they had tried to bar down the rock which fell, but they failed. Then Dur-
kin asked Edwards to get his wedge to force it down, but the latter thought
it would stand until Durkin had loaded some coal from under it ; Durkin
went at it loading the coal while the miner sat on one side watching the
rock, and seeing it brealving from the rib, he cried to Durkin, but before
he could get away he was caught. It is very evident that either one ol