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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 3, 1908
Marianna, Pennsylvania – Gertrude Gordon Interviews Lone Survivor
The heart-rending reporting of Gertrude Gordon continues from the scene of the Marianna Mine Disaster.
From the Pittsburg Press of November 30, 1908:
FEARFUL SCENES WERE ENACTED AT PIT MOUTH
[Continued.]
—–BY GERTRUDE GORDON.
Staff Corespondent of the Press
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SOLE SURVIVOR TELLS STORY OF CATASTROPHE
—–The first body taken out was that of Fred Elvarna who is in all probability, the only man living of all who were in the mine at the time of the explosion. He was badly burned and his leg was wrenched, but he was living. In a talk with him, which, with surprising vitality he was able to give within a few hours of his rescue, he described some of his sensations in the mine. He is a bricklayer and was repairing a wall when the explosion occurred.
[He told me:]
I had just put up a brick, and was putting some mortar on it when I felt the explosion coming. It was just like a cold breath from somewhere, not exactly cold, but there was something awful seemed to come and I knew that terrible danger of some kind was there. Of course the worst danger is fire damp, after any explosion that kills more than fire or the falling timbers, and I just threw myself on the ground and dug a hole with my hands to put my face in, and threw my coat over my head.
Of course I did all that in a second and I didn’t really dig a hole, but just scooped out a handful of earth to lay my face in, so that I could breathe.
After the crash I laid quiet for a little and then when I had to move to breathe I tried to look around. It was pitch dark, of course, and the air was pretty bad, but still I could get enough to keep me going.
COULD NOT MOVE.
I couldn’t move and didn’t know how bad I was hurt, but I started yelling right away so that the boys could tell where I was when they came to hunt us. I could hear the men moaning and crying all around me, but we couldn’t get to one another. The men didn’t seem able to talk, and I cannot tell how long they moaned. I guess it was hours, but one by one they stopped, and I guess they all died.
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