Morning journal and courier., 1891-04-24
GREAT EXPLOSION AT ROME.

aAo 1zV 1nluIC0-E&nAC A0MVn8 tAAS Inhabitants !. Serious Damage to Buildings.
 ROME, April 23.-At about 7 o'clock thif morning 8 tremendous explosion shook this city to its foundation, spreading ter TOT and dismay on all sides. The people rushed afrighted from their homes into the streets, houses rocked, pictures fell from the walls, thousands of panes of glass were broken everywhere, crockery was shattered, furniture was overturned, chimneys crashed down on the roofs, and, in some instances, toppled over into the streets below. The cupola of the house of parliament, immediately after the ex plosion, shook violently and then col lapsed with crash, which added still further to the general fear.
 The scenes in the streets and in the houses after the explosion have possibly never before been equalled in the history of modern Rome. All the thoroughfares were strewn with bricks, stones, splinters and other debris. People of all ages and conditions were rushing, pale with fear, about the streets. In the houses, doors, windows and cupboards were burst open, and the tables, chairs and other pieces of furniture were thrown crashing to the floor. Rents and cracks appeared in the walls, the plaster fell from the ceilings, and general desolation prevailed. In many instances people were thrown from their beds by the shock, and cries filled the air as thousands of families rushed out into the streets, many of them in their night dresses.
 The general opinion was that Rome had been visited by an earthquake shock and that second shock might reduce the city to ruins. Many fell on their knees and prayed aloud.
 Finally, when something like order had been restored, the real cause of the explo- sion became known. It was discovered that the immense powder magazine at Poz- 20 Pantaleo, four Kilometres (one kilometre is five-eighths of mile) from here had ex- ploded, and that it had caused enormous damage to the neighboring fort, which was filled with soldiers. The reports of the affair which have reached officer in command of the fort heard a rumbling sound previous to the final ex. plosion, and hastily ordering the soldiers to leave the fort, he succeeding in avert ing terrible disaster As it was, several peasants who were in the vicinity of the scene of the explosion were killed outright and number of others received more ol less serious injuries.
 As this dispatch is sent, King Humberi and his military staff, accompanied by the Italian premier, the Marquis di Rudini and by all the members of the Italian cabi net, have left this city for the scene of the disaster.
 Around the ruins of the powder-maga zine and of the fort cordon of troops hal been drawn, in order to keep back tn. crowds of people who, now that the cause of the explosion is known, have focked tt Pozzo Pantaleo, eager to see the powder blackened ruins. The troops, however have instructions not to allow any civ ilians to pass through the cordon until tht official investigation now being made hal been completed.
 All the houses within radius of kilo metre of the scene of the explosion ar l seriously damaged. Two officers wer' | dangerously wounded and fully 12' | civilians have been taken to the differen | hospitals suffering from wounds O bruises. King Humbert, who was hearth. cheered whenever his presence becam known to the populace and soldiery, use' his own carriage to convey wounded pee l pie to the hospital.
 l The races, including the Italian Derby
 which were to have been run this after
 noon, have been postponed on account c | the explosion.
 | The shock did not spare the vatican
 That venerated pile shook with the rest c
 the Roman buildings, and several of tn
 famous historical stained glass windows C
 the old buildings were shattered. Tn
 windows Athe ancient Raphael chamber
 and the stained glass in the royal stai,
 case, presented to Pope Plus TX by tn
 king of Bavaria, were seriously injured.
 The full amount of the damage done
 not known at present, but all account
 agree that the loss is very severe. the il
 teriors of many of the old palaces an
 churches having suffered to 8 greater (
 less extent. The exact number of kille
 and wounded is also unknown. Another report says that five peep
 have been killed in addition to the larf
 number of wounded already mentioned
 and that forty small houses were reduce r to heaps of ruins.
 It has been ascertaiued that the mag
 zine contained two hundred and fifty tol of powder.
 Signor Nicotea, minister of the interio stated in the chamber of deputies this a
 ternoon that forty eight persons were ii jured at the scene of the explosion, ar that about 200 persons were slightly hu1 The minister of war said that there W : 365 tons of powder in the magazine, b that none of the new explosive, Balestit , was stored there. It is surmised that t
 explosion resulted from slow combusti' = of the powder.