The New York herald., 1871-12-24
The Primitive TallOW Candle
i'm Great Demand.
Christmas Purchasers Cropping Through The
Streets and in the Stores.
Grumbling Among the People and Guess
ing at the Blame.
nirty-fourth Street to Seventy. ninth. from
River to River, in Total Darkness or
Pickering Twilight.


and more un healthful and degrading to all sens-
WORK in the great gas works IN great cities-no5
over volcano but IN the midst OF one. whose sub
stance aerial and unseen, and breathing the vile
fumes that, while they may at any moment be the
cause OF treacherous death, are sure at all
events, to bring the victims to = slow one before
their time. Most OF these men die young. Do The
gods love themS II doth not appear. They DO not
% look. Weak,
To1TERIN0 FIGURES,
clothes hanging loosely greasy and threadbare;
faces sallo W, naggard smutty and thin, with eyes
that lie sunken and inert In their socketsthese are
the creatures who iDper their lives In the task OF
manufacturing light for our CITY, Such men grow
dull to the OF therlhardships-a duness which
prevents them from complaining often OF It's con-
stant presence. But 1t still remains. and haunts
every moment in which they are at WORK.
the gas houses In the city are wholly unsafe as now
conducted, and living death that Is ever gong
on within them Is made less horrible In seeming
compared with the death that only waits the beck
Of chance, ever hanging over them.
Yesterday afternoon
TERRIFIC EXPLOSION
terrified everybody In the ne.ghborhood OF Eleventh
avenue and Forty second street. 1t is here that Is
situated the gas works Of the Metropolitan Gasght
Company, whose of1ce is at the corner OF Broadway
and Forty-second street. In the Immediate vicinity
the habitations are almost all tenement houses,
many stories in height and crowded with human
beings Ranged Immediately opposite is q long row
Of these dwellings,, aud in a diagonal direction from
tho works, on Tenth avenue, are many more OF the
same class
At I'VE O'Clock yesterday afternoon the workmen
employed IN the purifying house' Of the gas WORKS
went home as usual There remained then in
~
men, who acted Is the watch, and in
me onnce-a part OF tho same buildlng-were seve-
ral OF the olcers Of the works. It usual to sus-
pend work In the purifying houss'' at i've O'Clock,
Tor the very natural reason that to lights would
bc dangerous. The place is lighted, perhaps for the
purpose Of guarding II, py lamps suspended out
side the windows with broad renectora which throw
she rays within 1t Is asserted that the windows
are made tight az It Is possible make ordinary
windows, 30 as
10 PREVENT TUE GAS PROM ESCAPING
and commu nicanng with tns nre. This weak pre-.
eanuon-Attempnng TO make air-ignt these ordi.
Dary' windows--was OF no real avail At SIX
O'Clock, . dull detonstion but violent enough 10
shake every building and every inch OF ground
Wirnin . circo OF half q mile, was heard the whole
middle portion OF the purifying house. when ex-
tends through the block was hurled into the sky
AMI fell down with loud crash. almost exactly
where II rose, with the exception OF some wayward
debris which reached the adjoining streets. There
was heap OF
r,. -, =, ., .HcOSGnUoUs cO,;G'us RUN SIS .,.
ceDt st the ends, where II hung from the tOttering
walls ike an autumn leaf and midway between
F0rty-nrst Forty second streets the brick work
slmbers aud iron work we're al crushed and shat
tered.
The report is described as ike tnas Of the west.
Geld explosion BY one who witnessed tho latter.
Along with the fragments great tongues OF name
shot up 70 the sky. and an immense volume Of
III a ln6 air Al haA
occurred than people ran from every direction to
the SCENE aud large crowd pressed up against the
was men twilight and the scene was strange one,
not without q touch OF wtldness The RAIN was
hung a. low as Ine crowns OF mems hsts aud
rHK CROWD WAS sURGISG ARoUT
e sn excited way splssh,ng sn sse medley Of snow
the reckless intensity Of the excitement In the
foremost RANKS were several women who had
nsures in Dante. These Women knew that the
workmen quit at nve O'Clock; but what cannot Q
"on, where's my husband ?" said one. wrinung
nor hands rough giant at her elbow turned
be wss In the aroe shop on the corner when left
,m.n "Here he IA" and begrlmed and bearded
shriek ana then Instantly recovered SO as TO clasp
her "man" and calculate
Patrick McGrath, VINO WAS In the yard near the
spur1fying housen when the accldent occurred
came out through the gate under the overhanging
white with fright and staggered until he almost
aud walked away bomeward. He was not
eurti but received shock that might
ins thought thai an earthquake was to swallow hla
haaes o 70 saps ana receive MIN Besides
man wss missed BY the crowd. and q debate arose o
e. 70 the probabilities OF mis- fate he suddenly
walked In among ,,as them and terminated
CONSCIOUS cause. The total darkness that had
envelopsd the crowd and the ruins was
mined oy blaze OF light s.artiug up back Of tho
wall winch remained standing on Forty second
sueet The shattered woodwork had caught nre.
The workmen. under the leadership OF Mr.. Lledric,
che engineer OF tho works, however. soon sue
then lit 70 AID 10 inspecting the ruins
After an hour or two. the excitement having some
tse peops rSS ts and NO
and foreman. The HERALD reporter asked Mr..
Aeidric the cause OF the explosion, and he SAID
VIII give you STATEMENT:
but TO the cause OF the explosion can only form
Just left tho ONCE and had gone into the yard IN
Which are the large gas TANKS. was talking 20 the
% ms a% e
sSa s!:s,msa, fn s.T I COY. COY sss ssss what :Ss
We turned on the gas so that It could no, now back
from me large TANKS opened the retors, ana raked
purifying house, to the tanks When the gas
pes from these II collects the cellar, where It
remains long tune before dispensing This ia q q
danger caused by our works being crowded TO-
gether; tue fires and lights are too near
TIKI RRsERvoIs or GAS.
We have done our best 10 guard against accidents
resulting from this. but the furnaces are near and
abe street lamps are not very far distaDt.n
..How many cubic ieet OF gas expodedW
'aOh don't KNOW; the box containing the gas
the PURIFYING box-measures 2Ux2o and 4. IL Will
mold 500 cubic feet but the oxide OF IRON and other
purifying material 6hs over two.thirds OF
IL. 90 that there could not have been over
800 feet OF gas exploded. Tbiuk what an immense
disaster " would have been had Que OF the tanks.
winch bold veral thousand cuJc feet been reached
by the nre- II would swept the cty blocks.
TIE GREAT TROUBLE
with our gas works II the laCk OF ROOM The reser-
N~oirs and pur ying buildings should be at greater
sspce from The furnaces and 50 axed as 10 be en-
a2rded nom fire.
tDe woIkmen who remained near the
accident taking IN groups on the
'rerIeo ireeS aaainst the manage.