N&W in 1912--Jed mine disaster

[NW Mailing List]

A, sadly, very poetic piece of writing, well illustrating the attitude 
that worker deaths are just "a cost of doing business."

Ed


On Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 10:29 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:


> Bluefield Daily Telegraph

> Fri., March 29, 1912

>

> BROKEN BODIES PINNED UNDER TONS OF SLATE

> ------

> [The following N&W-related item has been excerpted from this lengthy 

> article about the Jed mine explosion, which claimed a reported eighty 

> lives.]

>

> Coffins Await Trains.

>     Down at the little waiting station, for there is no railroad 

> station at Jed, a number of coffins await the arrival of trains. 

> Nearly every passenger train which stops, and all stop there now 

> because of  the crowds which get on and off, takes some of the bodies 

> toward Welch, from which point they are sent out into the great 

> beyond, where, only the men who direct the shipping and the relatives 

> know. At Welch an extra force of men has been put on to handle the 

> coffins which go out on every train. Trains cannot stop long, as a 

> schedule must be maintained and these men have to hurry. As soon as a 

> train pulls in from Jed a truck is pushed up to the baggage car door 

> and the boxes are unloaded.  The trucks containing eastbound coffins 

> are pushed to one side, while the trucks with bodies consigned to 

> westbound points are placed at another convenient point, so time can 

> be saved when the through trains pull in. No matter how many people 

> die, train schedules must be maintained and that means hurry. In 

> distant railroad stations people are waiting for trains and if a delay 

> of a moment occurs complaints are made. These people are only 

> satisfied with reading the harrowing details of an explosion. They do 

> not want to suffer a moment's inconvenience. To them a mine explosion 

> is but an incident of their day's work. It means but little more. How 

> many of them will respond to the appeal for aid for the widows and 

> orphans remains to be seen.

> ------

> Gordon Hamilton

>

>

>

>      ------------------------------

>

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