The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-12-19
DYNAMITE IN LONDON.

A Terrific Explosion at London Bridge
Alarms the City and Mystifles Detect
ives-The Famous Structure Unframed
No Lives Lost and No One Seriously
Hurt.
evening an attempt was made to blow up
London bridge. Fortunately, however, the
affair resulted in an absurd fasco. The only
damage done, as far as can be ascertained,
is the destruction of perhaps ESQ worth
of window-glass in the warehouses
ON both banks Of the river, a
number Of lamp-posts twisted into
fantastic shapes, and few travellers
knocked over. One pedestrian, who was
probably nearest to the explosion, is said to
have been Slightly bruised by being violent-
" thrown against the stone parapet of the
bridge. Had the outrage been carefully
planned, and had the perpetrators in
tended serious mischief, which is doubted
by the Police officials, the result
must have been appalling. London
bridge is known to be the most thronged
thoroughfare in the world 1t is estimated
that fifty thousand people from the London,
Chatham & Dover Railway Station alone
pass to and fro on the bridge daily. Four
lines Of vehicle traffic are with difficulty
kept moving by policemen stationed within
few yards of each other, and the side
walks are proportionately crowded for
eighteen hours out of the twenty-four.
A policeman, who at the time of the exc
plosion was standing on top of the steps
leading to the steamboat pier on the Sur
y-ifJ To-
stream, says he saw binding glare like
sheet lightning, which was followed by a
terrific report. He was almost stunned
and his helmet was blown some yards away
by the conclusion. He ran to the police
station and gave the alarm. Soon afterward
the river police were making as minute
an examination as possible of the
buttresses of the bridge and wharves on
each bank of the river. Their search, how
ever was fruitless. Daylight showed that
not single stone had been displaced by the
shock. Taking this fact into consideration,
experts are unanimous of opinion that the
explosive agent used was thrown over 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 a boat
containing three men under the arch ON the
Surrey side. He took no particular notice
Of them, thinking they were river police,
and he did not see the boat afterward. He
supposed that they proceeded down the
river. The police have learned that piece
of charred sacking about foot and half
square has been found on one of the but
tresses, and are now OF the opinion that the
explosive was placed there. They attrib4
ute the smallness Of the damage to the eX.
traordinary air currents beneath the span
No arrests have been made.
1t appears the explosion occurred nearer
the Surrey end of the bridge than at first
supposed, and yet most Of the houses dam
aged were on the Middlesex side where the
windows were smashed as far as Billings
gate Market. Several paneS of glass were
broken in Fishmungers' Hall, but otherwise
the building received no damage. Several
squares of lofty glass screen in the Can
non Street Railway station fell to the plat
form with crash, greatly terrifying tho
passengers in the building, although nobody
was injured.
1t is a noteworthy fact that Saturday was
the seventeenth anniversary of the Clerken-
well explosion. The windows Of the build
ings occupied by Rollins & 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 a boat, precau-
ton which has been adopted nightly for the
past two years. They saw nothing before
the explosion to arouse their suspicious, and
made minute search afterward, but could
discover nothing of a suspicious character
Some witnesses saw three distinct flashes.
Several horses drawing heavy loads were
thrown to the ground. The engine
drivers sitting in their shed in Cannon street
railway station were hurled from their
seats. Persons passing over the bridge at
the time OF the explosion say that col
umn of water was thrown to great height
drenching people The detectives recently
withdrawn from special duty have been or
dered to return to London. Precautions
have been resumed at the railway stations
in regard to the receipt of parcels.
One account of the explosion says that
after it happened there was peculiar sui
phuric smell noticed, quite unlike gun
powder. A large steamer, unloading with
in hundred yards Of the place, was not
damapad