Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1869-04-15
1A THURSDAY MORNING. APRIL 15 1862
Terrible Explosion in Paris
Four Men Blown to, Pieces
and Many IDjured-N Nitro
Glycerine OutdOne.

'IerrIDlo EXPLOSION III FaflS-
Four Men Blown to, Pieces
and Many Injured Nitro
Glycerine OutdOne.
Herald. M
Paris has become q city Of such
magnificent distances that news
takes about as long to travel from
one part of it to another as q tele
gram from Calcutta to reach Lon
don. Thus it is that only this
Morning the inhabitants of the
right bank of the Seine were made
acquainted with the fact that yester-
day afternoon, at 4 O'Clock, a fear
full accident had taken place in the
Quarter casualties, but nothing like
as many as from its nature might
have been expected. Some of your
readers know the narrow square on
which the Sorbonne stands. At
one of the angles is a house, tie
ground floor and basement of which
are, or rather were, occupied by NJ.
Fontaine, manufacturer of chem
ical products. NJ Fontaine is,
moreover, an inventor, and has been
rewarded with the Legion of Honor
for having discovered q new eXplo-
siye substance wherewitll to load
submarine torpedoes.
The substance is salt Of potas-
|sium, (picrdte de potasse, the pa
pers call it,) and its popularity
seems to be, that even in state OF
moisture the slightest shock will eX-
plode it as readily as if it we're dry
Illuminating powder. NJ. Fontaine
had been ordered to pack upa small
parcel Of twenty five kiios fifty
pounds), Of this explosive com
pound, and dispatched it to Toulon
by rail. According to the most CO.
herent account have seen, the bag
containing it stood on the counter
of his shop, and being rather in the
way, one of the men in his employ
took it up and flung it into q corner.
The shock ignited the picrate, and
a fearful explosion Immediately took
place, reducing the shop and every
man in it to fragments. Human
limbs were flung over the houses
adjoining. A policeman standing
over the way had his head knocked
clean off. One man was hurled
bodily over the Ssrbonne, and was
dashed against a house in the
Boulevard ST. Jacques, the CORY
pulp which his body was reduced
to sticking to the walls. In al
adjoining house human cheek was
picked up. Every window within 6
mile was blown in, and a good many
people were wounded by the frag
ments of glass. All this took place
in considerably less than a minute
then the chemicals in the shop, SET
on fire by the explosion, threw III
a jet Of flame, and regular panic
set in among the inmates of all the
houses in the square.
One woman, in a state Of blinC
terror, leaped out a window, and
fractured her thighs; NJ. Taillade
the well known actor of the Odeon
also jur3ped out Of his window
three stories high, hut escaped Will
only few bruises. The firemen
police and military soon arrived
and the house being built of sub
stantial stone the fire was soon got
under, but the staircase. having beer
demolished by the explosion, tht
| terror-Stricken inmates were rescued
from danger--though the DANCE
was then over, and fancied rathe
than real-through the window:
by means Of ladders. 1t is certain
that four persons are killed, ant
seriously wounded; F.; but the genera
belief is that the casualties are ia
more numerous, and that the au
thorities withhold them. At tn
Morgue few fragments Of charre(
flesh, which have no appearance o
ever having belonged to human be
ings, have been conveyed. The sol
Of NJ. Fontaine, who was in the base
ment, was killed, and not a singl
vestage of him left. The tremen
dous power of this new COMPOUND
is thus but too we'll proved, but it il
evidently very dangerous to handle
and it makes one slludder to thinl
of such a compound being carelessl.
pitched to tue ground by the por
ters in crowded railway station.
think it likely that the French rail
way companies will in future declin
to convey NJ. Fontaine's small par
GELS of "picrate of potassium" t.
Toulon or elsewhere.
Veteran Kentucky Republican
A Boone county (Ky.) CORES
pondent of the Cincinnati Chronicl
has the following:
John j. Casteel, who still lives
was on the Sd day of July last 10
years old. He resides seven mile
from Boone, with his seventh wife