Smith, Delmar

Baxter Springs Kansas, April 27 Delmer Smith of Joplin Missouri, a bruno man, was killed at 9:45 this morning when he came in contact with an electric current at the Lucky O. K. Mine, a hard rock lead and zinc mine, near the state line north of Hockerville Oklahoma. Smith began work at the mine this morning.

At the bottom of the shaft an electric line leads to pumps in a drift. The line is insulated, but according to mine officials, Smith was warned not to touch it. He pushed a can of dirt to the shaft and was waiting for the tub hooker, J. Taylor of Hockerville, to hook it to the cable. He leaned against the line, which usually carried only 220 volts of electricity. The line, however, was damp and Smith's clothing and shoes were wet, a combination which made an almost perfect conductor for the full force of the current. When he touched the line he screamed twice and fell. Taylor grasped him and he, too, was knocked down. Wrenching himself free, Taylor ascended to the mouth of the shaft and turned off the current. Fellow miners brought Smith's body to the surface and efforts were made to revived him.

An ambulance of the Parter Clark undertaking company was called and the body was brought to Baxter Springs, where Dr. J. H. Boswell administered a drug called adrenalin and used a Pulmotor, but all efforts to resuscitate Smith were unavailing. Smith resided at Twenty-second and Murphy Ave., Joplin Missouri.