Tragedy of Sand Cave
Chapter 6:
Moonshine - Muck - Madness

King Chaos ruled Sand Cave from the discovery of COLLINS until the evening of Wednesday, February 4. Have you ever witnessed a grade-crossing fatality? Have you ever been compelled to stand helpless while a locomotive bore down with relentless speed upon a pinioned victim? Then imagine how much greater your emotion would be if three or four groups of earnest workers, each striving for the honor of releasing the trapped victim, jockeyed for position and wasted precious moment in senseless argument when only the keen brains of experienced engineers could save the life of the doomed man. Such was the situation of Sand Cave on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and most of Wednesday. Isaac T WOODSON, Fred A KRATCH, monument builders of Louisville, accompanied by two of their most expert stone men and engineers, Henry MELL and Ralph GIBBS, arrived at the cave at six-thirty o'clock Monday night. They came prepared to make a survey of the tunnel, to view the situation from an engineering standpoint and to work out a definite plan to free COLLINS. Until their arrival, no scientific men had been on the scene. [Photo of Magistrate Clay TURNER].

Imagine our reaction when Mr. WOODSON upon returning to the hotel after spending two miserable nights in the downpour, made this report: "Although we were urged by Lee COLLINS, the father, and Marshall COLLINS, a brother, to take charge and try and effect a rescue, " Mr. WOODSON said, "John GERALD, a friend of Floyd COLLINS, who has taken charge of ther rescue work, refused to permit us to enter the cave, and there was nothing for us to do but return home. We found everything in confusion and several hundred men blocking the entrance to the cave. We had been told that the entrance to the cave was very narrow and for that reason, Harry MELL and Ralph GIBBS, our expert granite and stone cutters, were scantily dressed and ready to enter the cave immediately, and begin the work of rescue. However, the crowd was so dense it was impossible for the men to get even close to the entrance to the cave and they stood around in the cold rain for more than five hours waiting for the entrance to be cleared. We finally despaired of making any headway Monday night and returned to Cave City for a short rest, but were on the scene again Tuesday morning at five-thirty o'clock. We again found the same conditions confronting us, as the crowd had not dispersed dring the hours between midnight and morning. In fact, the number had increased instead of deceasing, and the entrance to the cave was more congested, if possible, than it was on our arrival and during our stay Monday night. [Photo - Dr. HAZLETT Leaves Louisville in Plant Piloted by Lieut. Bob GAST.] It was following our arrival on Monday morning that the father and one brother of the imprisoned man appealed to us to start the rescue work. We told them that while we were there as volunteers we felt sure that we would be able to effect a rescue if given the right to undertake the work and carry out our own plans without interference. As Mr. MELL and Mr. GIBBS are known experts in their line and were willing to risk their lives to save the life of a fellow human being, Mr. KRATCH and myself felt they should be unhampered in their work of rescue, or attempted rescue, and asked that the cave entrance be cleared and no one permitted to enter while our men were at work. It was at this juncture that John GERALD informed us he was in charge of the rescue work at the request of the imprisoned man, and that he would not permit our workmen to enter the cave with the tools necessary to carry on the work or even to make a survey to ascertain what, in their opinion, is necessary to effect a rescue. With that situation prevailing it was useless for us to remain longer on the scene, hence our return to Louisville." Mr. KRATCH said that while neither he nor either of the experts entered the cave and did not know the exact conditions prevailing in the immediate vicinity of the imprisoned man, he was convinced, from what was told him by men who had been inside, that the only method by which COLLINS could be safely rescued was to use a small drill and chip away a little at a time of the stone or boulder which had fallen across his left ankle or foot. It was our opinion, said Mr. KRATCH, that if a large drill was used or an effort made to raise the boulder it will result in the walls of the cave giving away and not only mean the death of COLLINS, but of those who are attempting the rescue. Our experts were ready on arrival at the cave at six-thirty o'clock Monday evening to make a survey and begin work immediately after they had determined the best method to pursue, but as the cave entrance was clustered with more than a hundred men who refused to make room for our workmen we had to withdraw until a more opportune time. However, conditions were even worse Tuesday morning, and finally GERALD assumed full charge and refused to eprmit the experts to enter the cave. [Photo: Capt. J L TOPMILLER, in Full Military Command of Military Detail at Sand Cave]. From the information we received from those who had been in the cave and been close enough to COLLINS to talk to him, Mr. KRATCH said, we know it will be necessary for the rescueers to enter the cave, or that parat of it where the man is imprisoned, head first. We also know that it is a hazardous undertaking and one that requires great skill if a rescue is to be made. With those conditions prevailing it was only fair, if Mr MELL and Mr. GIBBS were to undertake the work, that they should be permitted to use their own judgment in mapping out a plan of procedure. This suggestion was turned down by GERALD, who refused to make any effort to keep the crowd back or permit the experts to enter. In fact, we were pointedly told our services were not needed.

Until hearing these words from the Louisville monument men, it had been the impession that GERALD was doing excellent work and we still believe he did what he thought was best. But, while pondering over the delays and the nerve-wracking aimlessness of the rescue work up to that poiint, Marshall COLLINS and Edward ESTES came voluntarily to the writer [HARTLEY] and reported several matters extremely suspicious relative to GERALD. It seemed to be Marshall's opinion that GERALD deliberately blocked the effort of Louisville monument engineers, while ESTES' ideas were even more sensational than his companion's. By this time the Louisville engineers had left the cave utterly disgusted and Marshall seemed to anxious to have them return and make their survey that I advised ESTES to hurry to Cave City and bring the experts back with him. They did not come back, having left on the afternoon train before ESTES could reach the depot. [Photo: Telegraph office, Homer COLLINS [in Overalls, Standing Dictating a Message.] Meanwhile party after party went in and came out of the tunnel. Some of those, who started so bravely, faltered by the wayside. This was proved when Lieut. BURDON discovered bottles of milk and coffee and packets of lunch tucked in crevices far from COLLINS. One could not be sure that the reports he heard from the majority of the rescueers were true. Some would say that COLLINS was strong and brave, others would report the explorer in virtual collapse with death hovering near. But it seemed the concensus of opinion of those who really got to COLLINS that the strain was already breaking a brave spirit. Two valiant figures entered the drama late Monday night, distinctly contrasting to the gang of drunken roisters holding orgy in the valley. These were Lieut. Ben WELLS, a strapping six-footer, and a West Point graduate, and Charles E WHITTLE, a twenty-five-year-old president of Ogden College, Bowling Green. Lieut. WELLS is head of the mathematics department at the college. These men drove through a blinding rainstorm and went to work immediately upon arriving at the cave. They went in together with GERALD leading and these three did more real work from midnight Monday until dawn Tuesday, than had been accomplished by any previous parties. They removed so much rock from around COLLINS' body that practically the entire torso was free and it was possible to reach down as far as the knees. One rock was so large that GERALD, literally standing on his head, suffered a severe strain, passing it back to WHITTLE and WELLS. This party also fed Floyd quantities of grape juice, milk and hot coffee three times early Tuesday morning. COLLINS' hands were completely free and he was so revived by the nourishment that he was able to assist the rescuers. WHITTLE, a man of keen intellect, noticed however, that COLLINS was rapidly approaching the breaking point. He reported that the explorer would groan when very small rocks would fall upon his body and that there was other evidence that the anticipated collaspse of mind was imminent. [Photos: One of the Faithful Red Cross Nurses [unidentified}; The Ambulance That Waited in Vain to Take Collins to the Hospital; Floyd Collins - Citizen of kentucky and Soldier of Fortune]. GERALD was completely exhausted by the strain of seven hours' labor with WHITTLE and Lieut. WELLS and retired to Cave City, for the much-needed rest. So much rock had been removed from about COLLINS' body that it was hoped that a successful effort could be made by a small man to insert a jack beneath the rock resting on COLLINS' foot and lift the boulder from the limb. By this time engineering concerns from all parts of the United States, who had imagined that jacks could be used, had sent various types of apparatus of this character to the cave. These ranged from very small affairs to large types used in lifting houses, the impression apparantly having been fixed in the minds of the public at large that there was considerable room in which to work. MILLER and Lit. BURDON, while GERALD was resting, went into the tunnel for the purpose of operating a jack, MILLER in the lead. Several types were tested and found to be too large, but at last a very small jack was adjusted against a rock that was believed to be the pinioning boulder. MILLER could not be sure, but began lifting the jack by means of a small wrench. The rock began moving slowly and COLLINS seemed overjoyed, but the moment of triumph was short-lived, for the jack suddenly gave way and the ever-shifting gravel and rock rolled back in place. This marked the high tide of the effort to release COLLINS in the tunnel, and MILLER and BURDON were in a state of nervous collapse when they returned to the hotel following their daring but pitifully unsuccessful battle the boulder. It is significant to note that COLLINS' spirit seemed to snap when the jack failed to work. He began babbling incoherently and for the first time demanded that some one remain with him so that he might be able to hear constantly the sound of human voice. MARSHALL and Homer COLLINS were rushed to the hotel Monday night both semi-conscious from the strain of their labor, but Homer after physicians had dressed the lacerations of his limbs, literally broke away from his friends and returned to the cave. [Photo: John GERALD, Who Has Been Declared to Be Both Friend and Enemy of COLLINS]. It is important to note here that the continual passage through the tunnel of great numbers of men of various sizes, most of them inexperienced and all in states of terror had slowly but surely knocked away the important key rocks supporting sections of the ceiling between the squeeze and COLLINS' body. This could have been avoided if there had been a concerted head to operations, if the rescue parties had been selected rather than assembled haphazardly and if the spirit of factional strife had not been over-shadowed the better judgment of those who knew exactly the situation and could appreciate the need for coherent organization.

Index Prologue Ballad Chap1 Chap2 Chap3 Chap4 Chap5 Chap7 Chap8 Chap9 Chap10 Chap11 Chap12 Chap13 Chap14 Chap15 Epilogue