Smyrna times., 1878-08-21
TerrihIe Disaster.
100 KEGS OF GIANT POWDER EXPLODE IN POTTS
WILLIE.

100 KEGS OF GIANT POWDER EXPLODE IN POTTS-
VILE.
PoTTsvILLE, Pa, Aug. Is.
At halfpast four yesterday afternoon
mass of black clouds swept up N majestic
grandeur from the West, and in few
moments the entire heavens over Potts
vile were crashing and blazing with electric
discharges. A shaft of forked lightning
had descended with frightful roar into
the very foundations of a powder maga-
zine. The arsenal belonged to Weldie
Co. About eleven hundred kegs of blasting
powder were stored away in the recesses OF
the massive building.
THE MAGAZINE EXPLoDEs.
But with the indescrible brightness Of
the lightning, the magazine and all the
buildings around it, were literally blown to
atoms. Words can give no loea OF the
shock.
THE SCENE IN POTTsYILLE.
Inmates of houses were hurled from
chairs as if they were in the path OF an
avalanche. Large and deeply rooted trees
which had withstood the elemental fury OF
a hundred storms were torn asunder: snap
ned off like twigs, while their fragments
were scattered to the winds. All this was
but the work of an instant, yet the destruc-
ton was terrible and complete. Twenty
five houses were crushed as if they were eggs
under locomotive. Solid and substantial
houses were literally torn to kindling
wood.
A MOMENT OF DESOLATIoN.
Cheerful hearthstones and pianos were
hurled into cutters mile away. The trag
ments of all these houses and business
structures went flying through the air like
bursting shells. The life of no one was safe
Slate roofs, masses of flooring, huge sec
tiOns of timbers, chimney towers and
foundation stones were all mingled together
and in the twinkling of an eye they were
flung into the blazing clouds only to come
laundering down and crush the terrified
citizens of Pottsville to mutilation anc
EARTH
PICNIC DESTROYED.
At the very moment when the appalling
catastrophy was about to occur, party
young people were holding picnic IN
pleasant grove about half mile away
Girls were chatting with their partners
children were filling the woods with thei
happy voices. when suddenly the storm
burst upon them, and vivid lightnings mad
the sky seem to their young eyes as if
were filed with 10000 burning, blazin
ribbons In the midst of this scene G
wild and awful splendor a long zigza
meteor of light shot into the bowels OF tn
powder magazine, and before the astonishe
company could catch their lost breath,
swarth fifty feet wide was mown throug
the forest. The picnic grounds lay directl
in its dreadful path.
MISSILES OF DEATH.
The thousands Of cubic yards Of stone
the foundations of the magazine were rer
into square cannon balls as large as dI
goods boxes and propelled with the swift
ness of birds shot through the swayir
trees 50 that venerable trunks were cut G
level with the ground, and the bodi
thrown with remorseless fury among II
helpless children. There was no time
pray, no time to call mother, no time
seek shelter behind the adjoining rock
All nature was in combat; all nature W
seeking the innocent pleasure seekers
destroy them. Trees, boulders, roofs
houses, blocks of stone, foundations, ir'
girders, branches of trees all came thund'
ing down amid darkness, rain and fyi
desolation. Several persons were killed
the spot and ten or twelve were badly or
pied, some Of whom will most probably d
Gratz Brown, the Democratic candids