Earnest Pearce Elliot

ERNEST ELLIOTT BADLY MANGLED

Young Miner Meets Instant Death Drilling Missed Hole

Ernest Pearce Elliott, single, a miner, aged 25, of Swedetown, drilled into a missed hole last night at the 62nd level, No. 6 shaft, Hecla branch of the C. & H. mine, meeting instant death from the explosion that followed, and George Duncan, his partner, is lying badly hurt, at the C. & H. hospital, sustained wounds about the head. It is feared that one of his eyes may be permanently injured. Duncan had a very narrow escape from death.

Coroner William Fisher conducted an inquest this morning, the verdict being to the effect that death was accidental, the result of drilling into powder that had not previously exploded. The accident happened at 9 o'clock last evening, Elliott was pouring water into the drill hole, while Duncan was operating the machine. Elliott received the full charge about the upper part of his body, and was badly mangled. A pathetic incident in connection with the affair is that the deceased's brother John James Elliott was killed in the C. & H. mine on May 23, through a fall of rock, while two weeks later his father died. One brother, Alfred, his mother, and a sister, survive. The deceased was the only support of his widowed mother. Arrangements for the funeral have not yet been made.