Morning journal and courier., 1885-01-24
News by Telegraph FROM ALL QUARTERS. DYNAMITE IN CHICAGO. A Sensation in the City
 Hall. VICTIMS OF THE AVALANCHE The Boomers Resolved to
 Fight. TAmmAhY TO HELP INACCURATE, Heavy Frauds on the Gov
 ernment.
A DYNAMITE SCARE IN CHIC

I A DYNAMITE SCARE IN CHICAGO. | Enough of the Internal StuT Found l in City Hall to Blow the Great Build | ing to AtOms-Arrest of the Man Who ! Placed 1t There.
 l CHICAGO, Jan. 23.-There was a great
 sensation in the detective department of the | new City Hall this afternoon when it was
 discovered that among the books that had 1 been stolen from the Chicago public library
 and recaptured there was enough dynamite | to blow up the whole of the immense build
 ing. The widest confusion prevailed among ] the officers when it was first discovered and
 Lieutenants Shea and Ripley and their sub l ordinates vacated their quarters. Twelve | boxes, each foot and eight inches wide by l six deep, were found to be filled with dyna- | mite. Among them was a thirty-two cali ] bre revolver placed inside with crank to explode it. The report that large quantity of dynamite was in the City Hall spread like wildfire through the building and the neigh borhood, and as fast as they could the occu- pants left the structure and the vicinity They could not be prevailed to enter again
 until Detective Bonfeld ventured to take the
 box with the crank attached from the build
 oOA
 ty building and City Hall and all retired
 to consult to what should next be done.
 A crowd collected in the hall safe distance
 from the remaining eleven boxes which
 were in Shea's office. Bonfield volunteered
 to open the box containing the revolver
 This was received with much agitation and
 the crowd retired three blocks distant and
 watched. Slowly he went to work and in
 half an hour the box was opened and the
 md o%T1c found to contain glycerine and saw dust which if ignited by turning the crank would have caused the dy- namite to explode. The prisoner who stole the books from the library, and whose
 name is Otto Brink, said he was only expert menting with the stuff and had it for no evil purpose. He being a student had prepared it himself. He admitted that the prepara- tion in the boxes was genuine dynamite. He refused to say much in regard to himself, but it was learned that his father, living on the west side, is a shoemaker. The prisoner also has three married sisters in the city. He is about twenty-seven years of age five feet five inches tall, full beard and is of German descent. The books consisted most ly of works on science and on chemistry to the number of three thousand. Brink has been fifteen months removing them from the library one by one concealed under his coat. He had them stored in a barn.
 Several theories are advanced to what use Brink intended to make of the dyna- mite. One is that he was in league with the Socialists and another that he intended to blow himself mp if it was discovered that he had stolen the books He admits that if anybody had turned the crank in the internal machine containing the revolver while it was near the other boxes the whole City Hall and many other buildings would now be iii ruins and hundreds of lives lost That catastrophe averted is considered marvellous. The dynamite with the books was removed yesterday from the barn to the City Hall in patrol wagon which drove through the crowded streets at the usual headlong speed.