Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1884-12-18
DYNAMITE IN LONDON.

A qsrsias Explosion NJ London Bridge
Alarms tbs City and Mystines Detect
ives-The Famous Structure Unframed
mo Lives Lost and No One Seriously
duff:
LONDON, Dec. NAT $40 Saturday
evening an attempt was made 10 how up
london bridge. Fortunately, however, INC
affair resulted In am absurd hasco. The only
damage done, as far Is car be ascertained,
Is the destruction of perhaps fo9 worth
of wlndow-glass In the warehouses
NJ both banks Of the river,
number u lamp-posts twisted into
fantastic shapes, and ( few travellers
knocked over. One pedestrian, WHO was
probably nearest to the explosion, Is said t0
have been slightly bruised by being violent
Iy thrown against the stone parapet OF the
bridge. Had the outrage been carefully
planned, and had the perpetrators In
taiided serious mischief. which Is doubted
by the police officials, the result
must have been appalling; London
bridge is known TO be the most thr0liged
thoroughfare In the world. 1t Is estimated
that fifty thousand people from the London,
Chatham IL Dover Railway Station alone
pass TO and fro on the bridge daily. -Four
lines of vehicle traffic are with difficulty
kent moving by policemen stationed within
few Yards OF each other, and the side
walks are br8p0rtionately crowded for
eighteen hours out III ths twenty-four.
A policeman, who at the tire OF the ex-
plOsiOn was standing on top OF the steps
| leading to the steamboat pier on the sur
rev side of the river, with his back to the
stream, says he saw binding glare like
| sheet liFrtning, which was followed by
terrific report Es WIS almost stunned
and his helmet was blown SONS yards away
by the conclusion. He ran to the police
station and gave the alarm. Soon aIterwaio
the fifef belles were making as minute
an examination ~ possible OF the
buttresses of the bridge ana wharyes on
each bank of the river. Their search, how
| ever. was fruitless Daylight showed that
! rot single stone had been displaced by the
shock. Taking this fact into consideration,
| experts are unanim6iS OF opinion that the
explosive agent used was tliroTf ever the
bridge and exploded in the air on striking
the water. Toward, noon, however,
wharfer informed the police that few
minutes before the explosion he saw boat
| containing three men under the arch on the
| Surrey side. He took no particular notice
| 6f them, thinking they were river police,
and he did not Zee the boat afterward. He
supposed that they pfOcesded down the
| river. The police have learned tssss piece
of charred sacking about foot and lialt
square has been found on one OF the but
tresses. and are now Of tlre opinion that the
| explosive was placed there. They attrib-
ute the smallness of the damage to tie eS-
traordinary air currents beneath the span
No arrests have been made.
1t appears the explosion occurred nearer
the Surrey end of the bridge thai ~ first
supposed and yet most of the houses dam
aged were on the Middesex side where the
windows were smashed as far as Billings
| broken in Fishmungefs' Hall, but otherwise
the building received no damage: Several
squares of lofty glass screen in the Coif'
non Street Railway station fell To the plat
form with crash, greatly terrifying the
passengers in the building, although nobody
was injured.
It is noteworthy fact that Saturday was
the seventeenth anniversary OF the Clerken-
well explosion. The windows Of the build
ings occupied by Rollins a. Co., American
merchants, suffered severely. A customs
officer states that after the explosion he OBJ
served small steam launch carrying one
| mast forward pass at high rate OF
| speed down the river Strangely enough
at the time of the explosion an in
spector and two .constables were watch
ing the bridge from boat, precalt
ton which has been adopted nightly for the
past two years. They saw nothing before
the explosion to arouse their suspicious, ant
made minute search afterward, but could
discover nothing of suspicious character
Some witnesses saw three distinct flashes
Several horses drawing heavy loads were
drivers sitting N Their she'd in Cannon stree
railway station were hurled from theil
seats. Persons passing over the bridge al
the time of the explosion say that col
ulnn of water was thrown to great height
drenching people. The detectives recently
withdrawn from special duty have been OF
dered to return to London. Precaution:
have been resumed at the railway station:
in regard to the receipt of parcels.
One account of the explosion says tina
after it happened there was a peculiar sui
phuric smell noticed, quite unlike gun
powder. A large steamer, unloading with
in a hundred yards of the place, was no
| damaged