Connecticut western news., 1886-08-04
AN EXCITED EXCURSION
Stories of a Fuse and Bomb in New York Bay-Dom Augusto, the Bra gillian Prince.

gillian Prince.
 Dom Aususto, the Brazilian Prince tm- perial, attended by Captain de Cana and other officers of the Brazilian corvette Almiranto Barrosa, Senior Mendonca, the Consul General of Brazil, and numerous party of friends, ladies and gentlemen, went to Coney Island from New York to see the sights there and to visit the Industrial Exposition. There were some fifty persons in all in the princes tlnue and about twenty-five citizens who had been invited to join tho party. A special steamer took them to the railway pier at Bay Ridge, leaving Whitehall slip at six o'clock P, m. The invitation was given to the Prince some days ago and had been announced in the newspapers. The party visited the Exposition and other objects of interest, but Dom Augusta declined to enter tho cyclorama, it is said, mainly hecause the auditorium has to be kept almost dark to show the cycloramic pictures with good effect. The party was well enter talned by the railway company, and embarked on special train for the return to New York City on the quarter past nine run.
 At the Bay Ridge terminus the steamboat Sylvan Stream lay waiting for the party, hay ing reached the pier only few minutes before the etrrival of the train. The few passengers on ta,e boat were quickly disembarked and Prince Auguste and his attendants as quickly boarded the vessel for the home journey, which ordinarily occupies about twenty min utes. The Prince, Captain de Cana, Captain de Alencar Senyor Mendonca and his three
 
 on the boat to the open promenade deck in the rear of the main saloon, and grouped them- selves on the chairs. All were chatting pleas- antly and many of the gentlemen were smok- ing cigarettes.
 When the Sylvan Stream was of the westcr- ly end of Governors Island and within five minutes run of her landing at Whitehall thero was lively commotion among the passengers on the forward part of the main saloon, and cries were heard of 'Look out it's bombI' n ar n,oy, ohn1 {hrp,, ,phf h0 starboard companionway to the open deck in front, where the Prince and his friends were sitting, and hurled overheard on tho port side dark object that was on the instant and: the guests rushed to and fro asking what was the matter. Within the saloon there was said to be a pungent odor as of a burning fulminant, and on the star board side, under the settees that range along by the engine room bulkhead, the carpet was burned and still smouldering.
 Several of the officials of the Sea Beach Com- pany were on the vessel among them Alrick H. Man, the managing director; MT. Balch, the superintendent, and Mir. George Brown, who is said to be in the service of the company. It was MT. Brown who had rushed to the front of the vessel and threw overheard the supposed bloom" and in moment he was asked hum dreds of questions by the excited guests.
 He said that in walking through the saloon he noticed the smell of burning powder and at almost the same instant heard a sputtering hiss and saw sparks flashing under the set tee. He stopped down and picked up what he describes a heavy bottle, with a brass or metallic cap and several inches of fuse burn- ing rapidly up to its neck Several persons saw it at the instant when he lifted it, and OK claimed, 'Look out, it's bomb! it's bomb!" In another instant he had dashed through the door and flung the "bottle" overheard. He said he fancied it might have weighed two or three pounds and was squat in form, of the capacity of perhaps pint Then he went back to the place where he had picked it up and found the carpet smouldering, with a hole burned in it and several concentric lines where the nap of the carpet had been scorched. The smouldering fire was stamped out and the ex- citement gained fresh headway.
 Coroner Messemer and Colonel John R. Eel lows, the Assistant District Attorney who late ly prosecuted some of the anarchists, were among the civic guests.
 Several days before. when the excursion was announced, the President of the O. received notice that the party might look out for bomb.
 The theory as to the placing of the supposed bomb, Is that it WAS left on the boat by per son who was passenger on the trip to Bay Ridge that he had long fuse attached to it and put it under the settee; that then ne lit the fuse just as the boat reached Bay Ridge and went ashore there himself and left the fuse and the bottle to do their work while the boat on it's return trip to the city. This theory is in some measure sus- .ained by the concentric circles scared in the carpet as though the fuse had been coiled around the bottle and, burning ill it's coils eft the track of fire behind it,