Hellraisers Journal: Little Girls, Orphans of Monongah, Beg for Work: “Please letta me work lady; gotta getta money.”

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“Oh, damn it, dagos are cheaper than props.”
-Mother Jones quoting a mine manager.

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday December 11, 1907
Monongah, West Virginia – Little Orphan Girls Beg for Work

Journalist Dorothy Dale reports from the devastated town:

Please letta me work, lady; gotta getta money…Please you get something for me, I can do.

A little hand touched my arm. The curl-framed face of a girl of 10 years looked into mine.

[She said pitifully:]

You know mans all dead. Boys all dead. Only girls left to work.

From The Pittsburgh Press of Dec 10, 1907:

Monongah MnDs, Tots Beg for Work, Ptt Prs, Dec 10, 1907

Fairmont, W. Va., December 10.-“Please letta me work, lady; gotta getta money.”

It was the appeal on every side in Monongah on Tuesday and it came from little girls, many of them not 10 years old. It is the newest development in the mine horror. Girls-mind you-not boys!

The boys of Monongah lie sleeping under the coal-weighted hills. Early Tuesday the corpse of a slender child form was brought out of No. 6. It was identified as Johnny Yaconis, and taken to the tumble down shack up in Red Row, over the mine, where a stony faced little woman kissed it until her face was black from the charred flesh. Another body, that of the boy’s father, Franco Yaconis, is still concealed in one of those underground rooms.

Dominic, her boy of 15, lies in the company hospital, where his crushed leg was amputated. Only her Johnny had been brought to her. “Devil Johnny,” they called him, but there was nothing devilish about him. At the age of 12 years the stunted little overalled figure trudged every morning to the mines, where he was a trapper. At 13 years of age he died in those mines.

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Hellraisers Journal: Orphans and Widows Wait and Weep as Monongah Mine Gives Up Its Dead

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Pray for the dead
And fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday December 10, 1907
Monongah, West Virginia – No Hope Remains as Rescue Work Continues

Monongah Mine Disaster Waiting for News 3, Dec 6, 1907

From The Fairmont West Virginian of December 9, 1907:

Monongah Mine Disaster, Fairmont West Virginian, Dec 9, 1907

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Hellraisers Journal: Rescue at Monongah Mine Disaster Hampered by Another Fire; Agonizing Scenes of Grief as Hope Fades

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How can God forgive you, you do know what you’ve done.
You’ve killed my husband, now you want my son.
-Hazel Dickens

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday December 9, 1917
Monongah, West Virginia – Agonizing Scenes of Grief and Despair

From The Pittsburgh Press of December 7, 1907:

Monongah Mine Disaster, Ptt Prs, Dec 7, 1907

James Cain, an inspector, was overcome while working in the mine this afternoon and is in a precarious condition.

Many women are rallying to aid in giving temporary relief wherever possible. Across the street from the mine quarters have been arranged where the distracted widows of the dead miners are cared for…..

AGONIZING SCENES.

With the early dawn of day and rising of the sun, the beautiful little mining village of Monongah was found to be one of sorrow and despair. Throughout the night widows and orphans hovered close together at the mine entrance, despite the coldness of the night, hoping against hope that their loved ones would still be found alive who were entombed.

The concussion was felt all over the country, houses were wrecked, windows broken and many persons near the mines knocked down and injured.

Thousands of people have assembled at the mine entrances.

The scenes about the mine openings throughout the night were agonizing in the extreme. The anguish of wives and mothers who wrung their hands and cried hysterically out of their solicitude for bread winners who were locked up in their underground sepulchre, were painful in the extreme. Women fainted. Strong men gave way. Little children, only faintly realizing what happened, cried pitifully, not for absent fathers and brothers, but because of the distress round about them and their intuitive knowledge that it was an occasion that called for tears…

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Hellraisers Journal: Not One Miner Brought Out Alive after Explosion at Old Ben Mine, Christopher, Illinois

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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday December 8, 1917
Christopher, Illinois – All Bodies Recovered from Old Ben Mine

From the United Mine Workers Journal of December 6, 1917:

Old Ben Mine Disaster, Christopher IL, Nov 29, 1917

Eighteen Men Die in Illinois Explosion

Christopher, Ill.—On the afternoon of Thanksgiving Day an explosion occurred at the Old Ben Mine, four miles north of this town, that wrecked both shifts and all the approaches to the workings.

Eighteen day hands were in the mine at the time of the explosion, and all of them were killed.

Rescue teams worked day and night in the hope that some of the trapped men might be found alive. Timbers had been blown out and all the entries were blocked with rock. It was necessary to establish a ventilating system as the rescuers advanced into the wrecked workings. The bodies of all the victims were recovered.

The immediate cause of the explosion is not determined. It is believed that a fall of rock drove a body of gas that had accumulated on the open lamps of some of the men; coal dust and gas together made for the terrible explosion that ensued. The first party of rescuers that entered the mine were driven back by afterdamp. Some members of this rescue party were overcome; pulmotors were used to revive them.

Some 700 men are employed in this mine. Had the explosion occurred on a working day, the loss of life would have been far greater.

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Hellraisers Journal: Heartrending Cries of Grief and Horror at Scene of Monongah Mine Explosion; 400 Miners Feared Lost

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Monongah MnDs, Raging Sea of Fire, Ptt Prs, Dec 6, 1907

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday December 7, 1907
Monongah, West Virginia – Explosion Followed by Fire at Nos. 6 & 8

From The Pittsburg Press of December 6, 1907:

Monongah MnDs, HdLn, Ptt Prs, Dec 6, 1907

The Grim News from Monongah:

Monongah MnDs, Tipple Blown Across River, Ptt Prs, Dec 6, 1907

Monongah MnDs, Foreigners, Ptt Prs, Dec 6, 1907

By United Press.

Monongah, W. Va., December 6.-An explosion of dust in the Nos. 6 and 8 mines of the Fairmont Coal Co. here at half past ten o’clock this morning, resulted in the death of probably four hundred men.

At 2 o’clock this afternoon eight dead bodies were found near the entrance of No. 6 and had been taken out, but at that time dense volumes of smoke from a fire in the heart of the mine drove the rescuers to the open air and they have not since been able to return, although every effort is being made to get in.

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Hellraisers Journal: Women and Children Gather at Scene of Naomi Mine Explosion at Fayette City, Pennsylvania

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The women and children are crying continually,
and stare with hope at the
seemingly fruitless work of rescue.
The Pittsburg Press
December 2, 1907

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday December 5, 1907
Fayette City, Pennsylvania – Many Dead in Naomi Mine Explosion

An explosion Sunday night at the Naomi Coal Mine, followed by fumes of poisonous gas which soon filled the mine, led to the death of at least 27 miners, with some saying that the death toll could reach as high as 68.

From The Pittsburg Press of December 2, 1907:

Naomi Mine Disaster, Fayette Cty PA, Ptt Prs, Dec 2, 1907

The death list will be at least 46. Their chance of ever getting out alive is hopelessly slim.

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