The Somerset Herald

Chambersburg, July 15.—Sixty Italian workmen at the tunnel of the South Pennsylvania Railroad at Roxbury, fourteen miles from here, were overcome by foul air last evening, and two died, while several others are not expected to recover.

The contractor for whom the laborers were at work, finding that the gang did not return from the tunnel, sent a man to call them in. The messenger failed to return and a second man was sent. He, too, remained away until the contractor became uneasy, and two more men were dispatched to the scene, with like result.

The now thoroughly alarmed contractor, making up a posse, hastened to the tunnel. Cautiously entering, the rescuers found the four messengers and the whole gang of workmen, at least sixty in all, prostrated and helpless from the foul air and fumes of blasting material. The wretched workmen, in their begrimed garments, lay about the tunnel, singly or in groups, or crawled blindly toward the opening, while the stifling atmosphere did its deadly work.

The contractor and the rescuers, guarding themselves as best they could against the noisome air, dragged the dying laborers forth with all speed and laid them limp and speechless in the open air. Most of them rapidly regained full consciousness, but two were found dead outright and several others are likely to die, while others still are yet weak from the poisonous air.

Like accidents have several times been threatened in the tunnel, and on more than one occasion the workmen, overcome by foul air, have barely escaped by crawling to daylight on their hands and knees.