One man was found lying upon the outside, where he had been assisting to build the wall. The wall was completed, save a small aperture sufficient to admit a person. Apparently the man had just finished his work, and was crawling back to his companions, when death overtook him. The majority of the miners were found piled one upon another.
The first body brought out caused great excitement among those whose relatives and friends were below. The countenance wore a placid look, and was not much disfigured. The left eye was partly open, and the arms and legs were slightly burned.
The next body had both eyes open, and the head turned aside. The next was that of a boy, who had gone down the mine on the morning of the fire for the first time. Then came the body of a man who had evidently suffered extreme agony, judging from his countenance. His hands were firmly clinched, and in one he tightly grasped a pick. Another body appeared to have suffered great pain. Two boys had clasped their arms about this body, and the three proved to be father and sons. Another man was found in a kneeling posture, as if his dying moments were devoted to prayer.
Some of the men in the fresh gangs lost their way on several occasions, and so a barrel of lime was sent down to make a direct path to what may be called the dead-house.
About four hundred yards from where the most of the miners were discovered, a body was found by itself. It was resting upon the face, and had apparently been thrown upon the ground. At a little distance was another body in a similar position, and this, too, had been thrown to or had fallen upon the ground.
GRIEF OF THE SURVIVORS.
In less than two hours over sixty bodies had been taken out of the mine. As they were brought up the grief was intense and heart-rending. Almost to the last moment wives, children, and relatives hoped against hope; but as the bodies were one by one sent up the shaft, the hopes died away. All around the sobs and moans of mothers and wives broke at intervals into piercing shrieks and wails of agony as the bodies were recognized. Many of the men were overcome with grief as they saw the remains of their comrades, and tears trickled down their cheeks from eyes unused to tears. Children too young to know their bereavement clung in mute astonishment to the sides of their weeping mothers, and shrank from the blackened corpses in which they were unable to recognize the fathers who kissed them farewell on the morning of the fatal day.
REMOVING BODIES FROM THE MINE AT AVONDALE, PENNSYLVANIA, SEPTEMBER, 1869.