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£8 THE OSHAWA TIMES, Wednesday, November 26, 1950 Springhill Disaster - 'Was Not The Greatest Many doctors came from Am- miners also came from Joggins, By DAL WARRINGTON Canadian Press Staff Writer SPRINGHILL, N.S. (CP) Calamity is no stranger to the people of this town, but few re-| member the first and greatest satastrophe 67 years ago. News- papers of the day headlined it: The Springhill Horror. On Feb, 21, 1891, only 21 years after coal mining began here, an explosion in No, 1 and No. mines of the Cumbe way and Coal Company killed 125 men and boys. The story of that tr like a preview of more ones -- the 1956 explosion that took 39 lives and last month's porter cave-in that killed 74. 600 AT WORK On a cold, rainy Saturday in the late winter of 1891 about 300 were working in No. 1 and an other 300 in No. 2, year's disaster occurr mine, No. 3, normally employe 400 but was idle at the time In those days boys 12 to years old helped move the cog after the miners cut it. Hors were used in the mine for haul ing coal. 2 rland Rail-|clal train, a |" The first rescuers who tried to disaster, agedy reads smoke and gas. A 8 y reads fer. risking their li where this| °* or : ed. A third|mine portal, Fire still burned in d/the deeps. Fearing another ex- 14/1 herst, Oxford and Parrsboro but Ithey had little to do. Most of the [victims were dead. NO CARS, FEW PHONES and few S. | The volunteers worked on day and night for five days--some worked three days without rest, In 1891 there were no auto- Finally on Feb. 26, the last body bi Pp Most {was brought up. The number of of th colliery officials were en!dead then stood at 121, Four of route to a meeting at Maccan, the injured'died later. 15 miles away. A telegram to Mine inspectors and a coron- Springhill Junction caught them er's jury investigated the disas- and they rushed back on a spe- ter, Manager Conway said ex- perts, oly two days before the had found the mines enter No. 1 were forced back by among the safest in Nova Scotia, "dead men directions," half-hour la-| ves, they got/because a miner used too much inear the explosion area. A re- powder setting off a charge to wrote that they found loosen coal at the working face. and boys lying in all Gas felled some of the rescuers Ipit unconscious. Smoke issued from the No plosion, William Conway, the No underground manager, sus |and they were carried out of the ||pended the search until the mine could be better ventilated. In No 2 the rescuers stopped work for two hours, in No. 1 for five hours At noon on Feb. 21 the workers FROM NEARBY TOWNS in Nos. 1 and 2. stopped half an hour for lunch, At 12:43 p.m, k minutes after they resumed wor an explosion roared through the tunnels 3 Miners from Stellarton Westville, N.S, 'lon an overnight train to and In his view the blast occurred The inquest jury decided no one could be blamed, They said |itor a defect in the rock might have caused a larger flame than usual to flash from the charge, ignit- ing coal gas and dust. The Springhill Relief Fund was set up to aid the 58 widows and for 169 children left fatherless. Telegrams were sent to the chief cities of Canada, Britain and the United States. Give Russ University Life Picture | VANCOUVER (CP)~Conform- ity and curriculum regimentation are features of Soviet university life, says Dr. Cyril Bryner, a Russian - born professor at the University of British Columbia here. Returned from a conference of demic} in Mi yD |Bryner said: "Since my last visit in 1935 I found the people more prosperous and happier, but es- sentially nothing else changed. The characteristics of the Soviet state are still there." To a visitor, he said, the land of the USSR. "is a most re- pressive bureaucracy." Red tape around a myriad of small activ- ities was frustrating for the vis- secondary language need not be |taught at all. It comes naturally Ito the child." "One hears of unrest in the universities, and that may be true, but it seemed to me there was more pressure to conform to |guage to the other spontaneously to Ft. Ostenberg. A few Royal(to handle fuel supplies for the wher addressing them. Navy men are still posted there East Indies fleet. "There is no conflict. And the SRR Dr. Pemiled, 67, said he fa- vored 2 "direct method' of con- ditioning, where the parents talk to the child in the secondary lan- guage and watch for signs of un- derstanding. "When the child says the first words, it should be given a de- lighted audience as encourage- ment." Dr. Penfield's own children picked up the German and French languages while learning English. They had a German governess and attended a French-lasguage nursery school, Tame Deer Mourn 'British TRINCOMALEE, Ceylon (AP)-- Of all creatures who mourn the _ Christmas Suggestions BEAUTIFUL LAMPS Many new styles in chine and crystal, metal and gloss . . each one a treasured piece of skilled artistry. party discipline there than else- where. "I feel Soviet students are handicapped by the regimenta- tion of courses--no electives in the first three years of university in two months, donations from cities and various| organizations reached a total of governments, nearly $100,000, In 1891 coal was king and a arrived Sunday few days after the last body was give brought up the miners who were what help they could. A crew of left went back to work, The blast centred in a section of No. 1 off the 1,900-foot level, | then the deepest area worked It| killed everyone in that part of the| mine. After the explosion deadly gas and flame spread to other levels of No. 1 and through a connecting tunnel to No. 2. More than 50 persons were felled by the gas, known to miners as af terdamp., As in Western Ski Club Licks Problems By CHARLES MORROW bought Canadian Press Staff Writer EDMONTON (CP) On a own nozzles. After misfires that last | wooded ridge near the centre of left the hill coated with ice in- | compressor, 1956 and again month, mothers, wives, hearts and miners off work|has licked skiers' two flocked to the two pitheads. All[propjems--the distance to ski de- they could learn was that nearly |yvelopments and high lift costs. [city incinerator has become an 150 men were missing. All were! A five-minute bus ride from asset too, » beginner's slope has feared dead. downtown, the 12-acre layout pro- been laid out oh a giant pile of LEFT IN DARKNESS vides unlimited use of rope tows, old tin cans Underground, men and boys free instruction twice a week and RAPID GROWTH who survived felt their way free ski storage, all for an adult' The Edmonton Ski Club was or- through tunnels filled with debris, membership of $10 a year ganized in 1911 by a group of The blast had blown out thelr' Members say the cost is the Norwegian ski jumpers and has lamps and they could not relight lowest all-in fee of any ski club developed rapidly in recent years them. in North America and boast that|in line with the post-war boom Many men caught in No. 1 es- no other ski development is lo-/in skiing. caped through the tunnel into cated so near the heart of a' When snow conditions are fa- No. 2, where damage was less major Canadian city vorable, members can ski from severe. This mine was to serve FIVE HILLS 9 am. until 10:30 p.m. Many again as an escape route in 1956,] On land leased from the city, beginners become adroit in a whe.. an explosion wrecked No.[the club has laid out five 400- | single season 4 pit. It was connected to No. 2!foot floodlit hills served by two For the more advanced, week- by another tunnel. electric rope tows. A modern end ski trains go to the Banff There were many stories of club house - overlooks the main |and Jasper ski areas four to six heroism, of a man or a boy risk- hill and facilities include 20-'times a year and excursions by ing death to help a companion metre and 60-metre ski jumps. car are organized to the Red to safety, The club has cut costs by mak- Deer and Lacombe ski areas. About 15 minutes after the blast ing every improvement a do-it The coming of spring doesn't two men went down No. 2 slope yourself project. Volunteers this halt activities. A year-round so- and brought out the first of the summer increased the cleared cial program is maintained and injured. With others they organ- hill area by biggest | machine worked fine, The layout's proximity to the 50 per cent, in- the Edmonton grounds are used ized a volunteer relief party and stalled a new 400-foot ski tow and hy the archery division of the brought up 16 injured, But after|erected a ski storage hut with 500 club. In summer members of an 2 p.m, no more came out alive.'individual lockers aquatic division enjoy water ski- Some volunteers travelled back| Ingenious members, finding the ing, on uaearby Sandy Lake, and forth for hours carrying out cost of a snow-making machine where the club owns six acres of the dead on their backs. | prohibitive, purchased an air waterfront land. lengths of plastic hose and designed their sweel- the city, the Edmonton 8ki Club stead of snow, the home - made and very few in the last two. "Intellectualism is on parade-- |always on exhibit. There is tre- mendous prestige attached to |education and emphasis on get- ting a degree, | "Soviet educationists them- ~~ |gelves are concerned about the brought fodder from outside and heavy lecture and assignment program with classes six days a week and 10 months a year. There are 36 hours of lectures a week compared with 15 to 19 at UBC. ' Two Tongues | Seen Aid For Children | MONTREAL (CP)--Dr, Wilder Penfield says bilingual parents {ean give their children comman of more than one language at an |early age without fear of confu- sion, The renowned Montreal brain surgeon told the Women's Cana. dian Club his experience has shown nothing psychologically wrong for children to begin a sec- |ond language before the first is well-fixed. "A child who hears three lan- guages in the home instead of lone, picks up the units of all | three without added effort or con- fusion," he said. "Hardly aware of the fact he has taken on another language, it does not form his primary con- scious goal, It is learned by nor- mal physiological process and comes as a byproduct of other | pursuits." He sald if one parent speak only French to the child while the other speaks only English, the child will switch from one lan- SHOP TOPCOATS 209% OFF! SLACKS Reg. to 12.95. SPECIAL FREE DRAW On a Bond Tailored--To Measure SUIT REG. VALUE 0.7 5 "NO OBLIGATION . .. LAST 3 DAYS THUR. FRI. SAT. TAILORED TO MEASURE SUITS Reg. to 79.50 "CHOICE OF THE HOUSE" 48.00 DELIVERY IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS OND CLOTHES READY MADE DRAPES Luxurious textured fabrics in 0 wonderful range of colors, plain prints ond fortisan -available in 2 widths up to 6 widths departed British fleet in this for-| mer Royal Navy bastion the sad- dest by far are the tame deer: |of Ft, Frederick. { Ft. Frederick is a 10 - acre| |stronghold within the former na-| va base. 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