Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-03-19
A GILLIAN TORPEDO.
President Santa MariaReceives Box
that VIII Not Explode.
New York Herald.

New York Herald
On Jan. % the cable dispatches from
the South Pacific reported very briefly
an attempt to Kill President Domingo
Santa Maria, of Chill, with an infer
nal machine. Letters that arrive
yesterday by the South American
mails contain the details. We are
permitted to translate the following
/ account of the matter, written to q
friend In New York by a gentleman
IN Santiago, whose high position and
| perfect means Of intelliffence are q
guarantee of the correctness of his
narrative:
Our president. Santa Maria, has
just had a narrow escape from death
by a torpedo sent to him, as is sup
posed, by some rampant fanatic OF
the church party, who fanciod he wa;
assisting the Almighty by the attempt
to remove the president. The torpedo
was very simple one-a tin box CON
tanning about three pounds of gun
powder, with a small hammer ad-
Justed within it, so that, being struck,
The design was that 1t should fall upon
four or five heads Of red phosphorus,
and thus explode the powder. There
was cork, one end of which was
| fastened to the handle of the hammer
and the other end to the paper which
en-elOped the box, SO that when this
should be pulled upon in opening the
package it would tighten and raise
| the hammer, and then relax and ex-
plode the powder.
The box was sent through the post
Office to tne presidents house, and de-
livered there by the postal carrier to
servant WHO handed it to the prssi-
dents married married daughter.
She took 1t into the drawing-room,
and with feminine inquisitlveness
tried to find out what was inside by
shaking the box aad listening to the
sounds it made. Then she struck it
several times on the marble Stub of a
| table, around which several members
OF the family were gathered, and
hnally she tired to tear off the paper
wrappings, but they were sealed so
tightly that she gave up the attempt.
After these experiments the dilapi-
dated package was taken to the presi-
dents bedroom with the rest of his
evening mail, which was nabitually
put there to await his coming. But
in knocking the box so violently In
the drawing room the hammer had
been displaced, ana by that good for
tuae the presidents life was saved.
Hereafter let not the geese which saved
Rome be solitary in history.
When the president went to his
bedroom about midnight he found
the package there and took his turn
at trying 10 open it. He cut the paper
wrappings with scissors and then
pulled the cord, and it it bad not been
for the displacement of she hammer,
caused by the previous exercise of
feminine curiosity, he would have
followed to the happy hunting ground
that traditional Indian who lassoed a
locomotive engine on railroad track.
Some powder was spilled from the
box at this stage of the presidents
manlpulatiOns, and suspicion was
excited and the box was put away
without further experiments that
night. The next day it was carefully
opened after being submerged in
water, and the machinery was dis
closed.
| Ine excitement mas been intense.
Your diplomatic representative, DIR.
G. A. Logan, was the first to call upon
the president and his family and CON
gratulate them upon their escape, in
the name of your government. The
rest OF the diplomatic corps rapidly
followed.
Certain things have came to light
| IN the police inyestigatiOns-th
they are for the moment kept pro-
foundly secret from the public which
tend to show that there was a plot to
kill both the president and the Com
mandante General de Armas stimuli
taneously and this is the main support
of the inference of an attempt at
revolution in Santiago, of which you
may hear wild reports. Religious
fanaticism is at the bottom of the
| whole business.