Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1868-10-29
Terrible Catastrophe Mt the Brooklyn

~
A sad catastrophe occurred ut the
Brooklyn Hotel, on Bush street, below
Montgomery, last Sunday night, which
resulted in the death Of Mrs. Margaret
Bowan, and the finding Of her husband,
Mr.. Bowan, in n state Of asphyxia, from
which he has not yet recovered. This
terrible accident was caused by the gas
being turned on after the light was ex-
tinguished. The circumstances, as near
as we could learn them, are as follows I:
Mr.. Bowan and his wife arrived in this
city last Sunday from Panama on the
steamer Golden Age. They registered
themselves as coming from Queenstown,
New Zealand. From those who came
with them from Panama, we learn that
they were recently married, and that
they we're probably on their wedding
tour, with the intention Of making their
homo in this State. The clerk Of the hotel
asked them If they understood the gas
burner, and knew howto urn it off; they
replied smilingly that they believed they
did. Yesterday morning Mrs. Wood,
the wife Of one of the proprietors, dis
covered that there was 3 leakage of gas
in some portion of the house, and went
into every room on the upper floors OK.
cept the one occupied by Mr.. Bowan n
his wife. She tried this door everaltime
with her pass key, each time finding
the key of the lock on the inside of the
door. This led her to suppose that the
room was occupied, and that the leak
could not be In there. There were
some plasterers engaged on that floor in
replacing plastering that had been
shaken off in several places by the re-
cent earthquake. They were ordered to
look In every room and find out il there
were any repairs to BIO made, and when
they arrived at this room they were
told by Il chsmbermaid that it was &C.
cupied. Getting no respone to their
raps on the door, Mr.. McCluskey, the
chief plasterer, remarked that if
there were any person in that room
they must be dead, and calling for II
table and chair, he looked into the room
by forcing open the transom over the
door. He saw Mr.. Bowan and his wife
lying on the bed, the former breathing
stertorously, and the latter apparently
dead. An alarm was given, and Atkins
Massey, a fellow passenger of Mr.. Bow
an and bis wife, and Mr.. McCluskey, by
a vigorous application of their boots,
kicked panel out Of tho door and rush.
ing into the room carried Bowan and
wife into an adjoining room. It was
found by DR.. Bates, who was summoned,
that Mrs Bowan was dead, but her hus-
band still breathed. 1t was about 90
minutes to IL when they were taken out
Of the room. The gas was found to
have been partly turned on, and the
window was closed, leaving no place for
the gas to escape except through the
cracks around the door and the window.
II is supposed that the gas was turned
off properly, but that In taking the hand
from the burner, it 70 partially turned
on again. Mr.. Bowan lay in q state of
insensibility during the whole Of yester-
day. His breathing was stertorious,
accompanied BY spasms and rigidity of
the muscles. Last evening the symp-
toms were much better, and some hopes
were entertained of his ultimate recoy-
cry. The body of Mrs Bownn was taken
in charge by the Coroner and carried to
the dead house. Her under clothing
are marked Margaret Burke.-S. r. Bul-
letin, 27M.