Worcester Daily Press

A HORRIBLE DEATH

A MAN DRAWN INTO A HEATED BONE-BLACK VAT.

UNAVAILING EFFORTS TO SAVE HIS LIFE.

New York, March 10.—A horribly awful death is thus described in this (Sunday) morning's Sun. John Willenbacher, employed in a sugar refinery in Brooklyn, yesterday afternoon stamped on the surface of a boneblack vat, through which sugar is refined, and which continually sinks through a conical bottom over a retort, the fires of which keep the mass to a heat of 180 degrees. He sank into the hot black mass. As he tried to lift his feet to get out, he probably found himself drawn down by the suction of the moving mass. His struggles probably only added to the downward motion, and, as a fireman entered to rake his fire, Willenbacher's terrible plight became known. He had then sunk to his throat. Men ran from every part of the refinery, and the endeavor to rescue Willenbacher was earnestly begun. Nothing could stop the ceaseless downward suction of the boneblack, because the hole at the bottom of the vat opened into a retort filled with fierce flames. Even the few seconds that were spared to the consideration of this gave confirmation to Willenbacher's doom, for he sunk until the lower part of his face was hidden. His comrades shouted cheering words to him, and threw planks across the surface of the boneblack, the bravest venturing out upon them. They scattered the boneblack from about Willenbacher's shoulders, and, grasping him, tugged to pull him out, but they could not stir him. He seemed to be unconscious from suffocation. A block was hastily rigged upon a beam over the vat, and eager men grasped the tackle in their strong hands, and pulled well together but they didn't move Willenbacher. The digging about the sinking man was resumed, and the boneblack was cleared away down to his thighs. Then those who hauled with all their strength upon the tackle raised Willenbacher from the boneblack. Kind hands laid him limp and unconscious upon the planks. He was breathing faintly, and a comrade ran to summon a physician, but, while his feet still sounded on the stairway, Willenbacher died. He leaves a wife and two children.