Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1884-10-17
DrNAMLTERs At WORK.
The Parliament Houses az Quebec
Shattered by the ENpIoston.


shattered by the Explosion.
The city Of Quebec was thrown into state
Of great excitement last Satur day afternoon
by an attempt which was made to blow up
the new parliament buildings in process Of
completion there. The buildings are in the
shape Of a hollow square, zach wing being
300 feet long. Three sides Of the square
cost S725 600 and were completed some
three years ago. They are occupied as de-
partmontal Offices The fourth side which
is to form the parliament house itself, was all
completed but the roof. It is four stories
high, and built Of cut stone with iron grid
ers.
At twenty minutes to one a terrific shock
was experienced all over the city, accompan-
led by a tremendous report People in all
directions rushed out Of doors. The first i'm
preston in many quarters was that the pow
der magazine at the citadel had exploded.
The news spread like wildire that an explo-
sion had occurred az the parliament build
ings, and thousands of people Aocked thith-
] er.
At the time of the explosion shower Of
stones and other debris rose in the air from
the south end of parliament house and huge
/ blocks of stone we're hurled for distance of
/ between two and three hundred feet. A gap
| in the front facade of the building 80 feet
square was the principal result of the e1plo-
sion. All the masonry above the gap was
| badly shattered, and portion has fallen
since Notwithstanding the tremendous force
with which the blocks of stone we're dashed
from the demolished portion of the building
| people hesitated in guessing the actual cause.
| The bursting Of boiler which supplied the
derrick engineer, an explosion of gas or Of
the new heating apparatus were the first
/ ideas which occurred to many. An investi-
CATION soon showed that no such accident
had taken place. Then it flashed upon all
that in an open building, without a roof and
Offering no resistance, nothing but dynamite
could have had the explosive power employ
/ ed. As the men were at dinner at the time
Of the explosion only one person was hurt
He was struck in the neck by a piece of
stone, receiving painful wound
About three o'clock the city was startled
again by another explosion. The thousands
of people surrounding the building were par
| ticularly alarmed. In this case the explosion
occurred in the extreme corner of the other
end of the structure, where the masonry is
twice as thick as elsewhere. large number
Of corner stones were displaced, and threat
en- to fall out The damage caused was much
more than by the first explosion, and will ne
cessitate the rebuilding OF the whole corner
Loss of life had been again prevented by the
refusal of the contractor to allow work 10
of third explosion in the centre OF the
building, Gordon Of police was disposed
around to keep the public at safe distance.
The attorney general refused to have the
buildings further searched for some time aft
er the second explosion, dreading the threat
ened danger to human life
Carpenters working on the building say
they noticed box lying all the morning close
to the wall where the first explosion tool
place. but they supposed it was placed there
by the plumbers After the explosion no
trace of the box could be found, and it i,
now believed that the box contained dynam
lite and an internal machine. After the frs
| explosion men were sent all through the
building to look !"r other suspicious boxes
but found nothing. Upon closer inspection
on Sunday of the damage done it was found
that the bole made by the first explosion wa
much larger than Was reported Saturday.
is now believed that the entire wall OF the
northeastern portion of the house will have
to be taken down. This will entail an e1
pense of S2j, COG.
Troops were placed around the building
Saturday night No person was allowed L
approach the L1:!ding or to pass in clos
proximity to 1t during the entire night Tn,
excitement was undated Sunday and upward
OF 10000 persons visited the scene Of tn
disaster All sorts Of rumors were in crcu
iation, one Of the theories being that foul
strangers, who have lately been employed il
the building rs workmen, have been acting
in a most suspicious manner, and that one o
them always remained behind in turn Will
the other three went to dinner.
The city offers a reward of $1,000 for tn,
detection CT the authors Of the outrage.
Several rumors are current regarding tn
cause of the explosion. The French em
ploy es state that the work was done by Irisl
dynamiters while some Irish citizens say
and the opinion is shared by great many
that French workmen committed the deed
with view to injure the contractor, but 70
what reason is not apparent, as il is said tn
contractor and the men are on the best o
terms.
A despatch on Monday says The Quebe
government has increased the reward ofFere,
for information which will lead to the ares
and conviction Of the perpetrators Of tn
crime to $4,000, to which Mr.. Charlebois, tn
contractor, has added $500. The police ar
vigorously at work upon the olew obtaiEe,
and an arrest may be looked for before long
1t is thought that the Internal machine wa
placed in the building Friday night Fou
men were seen hanging around in that vicin
ity on that night acting suspiciously.