ANOTHER FEARFUL COLLIERY ACCIDENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 139, 26 April 1862, Page 3

ANOTHER FEARFUL COLLIERY ACCIDENT.

LOSS OF FIFTY LIVES. An awful explosion occurred on Wednesday, the 19th, at about 12 o'clock, at the Cethin Coal-pit, Merthyr-l'ydvil, by which fifty lives have been sacrificed. ■ Cethin, or Grethin pit, the property of Sir. Crawshay, the extensive iron-master of Cyfartha, is the ergest in the district, employing upwards of 200 men, and is about equidistant between Mertbyr-Tyd-vil and Troedyrhiw. At noon on Wednesday, the overlooker at the pit's mouth had noticed that something unusual had occurred in the pit, which was soon followed by information that an explosion of gas had taken' place. Means were at once adopted to render assistance and to ascertain the extent of the calamity, which, unfortunately, has proved to be the most direful that ever happened in that valley. Up to Thursday morning forty-four persons were brought up dead, and three alive,butso severely burnt that one had since expired, aad the other two are not expected to survive. About half of the number were severely burnt, but the rest had not a hair singed, having been suffocated by the choke-damp. ■ The explosion must have been most sudden, for five men were found as if at their dinner, and one of the number had actually a piece of bread in his mouth when brought up to the upper earth. Some had evidently received warning of the coming storm of fire, for one was found with his little dog under his arm—both dead—and he was no doubt endeavoring to escape. , ■ The recognition scene was most agonising. The young wife kneeling in ; speechless anguish beside the corpse of him she so fondly loved ; the daughter, on beholding all that was mortal of a beloved father, setting up a \rail that would arouse the sympathy of a misanthrope. '■■■', . At Troedyrhiw was seen, as if in placid sleep, the body of a young man who was the sole support of his aged mother. We witnessed her agony, and heard her mournful cry as she uttered in the sonorous vernacular of the country, "My son, my son, would to God I had died for thee." This poor, bereaved, woman was called upon to play the part of chief 'mourner —but not for the first time—she had acted that part before, for she was a widow. As to the origin of the accident it is as yet &.- mystery,' none have lived to tell the awful tale, and two more have to >be brought out who are known to have perished, and for whom active search is being made. The explosion took place in the four, foot seam, and those engaged in the three-foot vejn escaped unhurt, that seam branching off in a contrary direction to the one in which the casualty occurred. The scene of the catrastrophe has been visited by thousands, and all day on Thursday there were hundreds, at the pit's mouth awaiting the recovery of the last two bodies. The gloom pervading the place is of the deepest; the countenances of the men, women, and even children, wear an aspect of woe. Mbkihtu Ttdvil, Thursday evening,l^6th Feb.— Forty-nine bodies have already been brought up. One is still missing. The cause of the accident is still a mystery. Intense excitement prevails. The healthy mak. - Of all the know-nothings in this world, commend us to the man who has "never known a day's illness." He is a moral dunces-one who has lost the greatest lesson in life, who has skipped the finest lecture in that great school of humanity, the sick-chamber Let him be versed in mathematics, profound in mataphysics, a ripe scholar the classics, bachelor of arts, or even a doctor of divinity, vet he is one'of those gentlemen whose education has been neglected. For all his college acquirements, how inferior is he in useful knowledge to a mortal who has had but a quarter's gout, or half a year's aguehow infinitely below the fellow-creature who has been soundly taught his tic-douloureux, thoroughly grounded in the rheumatics, and deeply red in scarlet fever I And yet what is more common' than to hear a great hulking,- florid fellow bragging of an ignorance—a brutal ignorance—that he shares in common with the pig and bullock, the generality of whom die, probably, without ever baying experienced, a day's indisposition |— ffwd,