The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1891-05-23
DEADLY DYNAMITE.
About Twenty Persons Killed by q
Dynamite Explosion on q
Freight Car.
There Were Twelve Hundred Pounds
of Dynamite and Forty Ital-
ians on the Car.

The Mangled Bodies of the Victims
We're Hurled in Every
Direction.
The Number Killed Not Known.
TARRYTowN, N. Y, May 2O.-There
wat q horrible accident near here to-day
by which the loss of life is estimated al
between sixteen and twenty and the in.
jured as many more. An engine and one
fiat a were conveying q load of Italians
and twenty-four cases of dynamite, each
containing fifty pounds. The Italians
were being taken to a section of road
where a third track was being laid. A
coil of rope lay in front of the truck of
the engine. Just as the train was pass
ing Holmes Point, midway between Tar.
rytowl and Irvington, q spark from the
locomotive ignited the coil of rope. The
moving train famed the flames and be.
fore the Italians realized their danger
n OF the packages of dynamite ex-
ploded.
William Brannigan, engineer of the
derrick tram, happened to be $50 yards
following story: "When the coil of rope
set fire to the first package of dynamite,
one of the men, seeing it on fire, sprang
off the flat cal. He fell under the wheels
and was killed. The next moment there
was a rumbling noise, a dense cloud of
smoke and a flying mass shot up into the
air. Before the explosion some of the
Italians had tumbled off, and saved their
lives by so doing. The train had just
about come to a stop. Brannigan saw
n man blown fifty feet in the air. He
fell into the Hudson river. Another man
was blown over on the bluff. Others
were blown in various directions. Sew
eral are supposed to have been blown
into the river"
James Niskern of Yonkers was one
the gang and went'to Tarrytown to have
his tools sharpened. The gang was
then working at Mount st. Vincent.
While he wal away in Tarrytown the
gang was moved. When Niskern was
returning from Tarrytown he saw the
wreck made by kthe explosion. He
says he counted sixteen dead men on the
track aud sixteen wounded. He under
stood that twenty men had been blown
into the Hudson river. Most of them
were Italians. George Hecker, engineer
of the train, was cut on the head. So
was fireman Leonard Pam. Pam also
had three or four ribs broken and he was
badly shocked. John Smith, brakeman,
was killed. John Connors, conductor,
was badly injured and was sent to his
home at Tivoli. Jimmie Morrison, a boy
employed in carrying powder, was also
killed: John Mccarthy, time keeper,
was killed. The others killed we're all
Italians. It is now said that eighteen in
all were killed. The names of the Ital-
ians are not known. They are known
only by numbers. Twenty-Five men are
injured. Among them was Tom Finne-
gan, blacksmith and foreman, his leg be-
ing smashed. Two bodies have been
taken out Of the river. Nobody
knows how many more remain
there. Two. Italians who were not
killed by the explosion we're so
badly frightened they ran to the river
wall and jumped into the river. They
have not been seen since. The waiting
room of the beautiful new station in Tar
rytown was turned into a temporary hos
pital, where all the surgeons who could
be gathered up operated on the sufferers.
The wounded men were stretched upon
the waiting-room floor, and there one of
them, an Italian, died. The floor, after
their removal, looked like the floor of an
abbatior. Blood lay about in great
pools. As to the number of men on the
train, accounts differ. Some say there
were thirty-three. The lowest estimate
places the number at over thirty. Diss-
ton, the boss, thinks there were over forty
and, as q matter of fact, the number Of
those blown either to atoms or into the
river is to q certain extent q matter
of speculation. The train was torn to
atoms, the railway tracks ripped from
their beds and a great hole dug out Of
the earth, totally blocking traffic Oh the
railway for many hours. Up in larry
town, over across the river in Nyack and
all up and down the stream, it was ter
rifle, the ground trembled as though in
an earthquake, the walls Of several Tar
houses were shaken and cracked,
and in the Tarrytown streets window
glass fell in showers to the sidewalk.
Even over in Nysck heavy panes of glass
were smashed. The beautiful houses
which line the bank for q mile or more on
each side of the scene of the accident
suffered more or less. The hillside was
scorched and blackened, and here and
there huge limbs of trees were wrenched
of as though by q thunderbolt. In Tar
scores Of clocks stopped, and it is
in this way that almost the exact hour Of
the explosion, 11:20 o'clock, can be told.
At this hour the number of the dead is
eighteen. OF these, thirteen are account.
ed for, and the remaining iv, are in the
river. Gangs of men in boats are now
dragging the river for these, but the tide
is running 30 strong there is little chance
of recovering them to-day at least.
Interstate Commerce.
WASHINGTON, May 18.-Beginning
May, IS, 1891, Interstate Commerce
Commissioners Morrison, Veasey, Knapp
and Brang, will make a circuit to the
the Pacific coast and return and hear
cases and make Investigations at the
various points on the route. The COM
will be at the following places
and probably for the time set opposite to
each:
st. Paul, MIMI, Thursday, May 81,
and part Of Friday, May, %.
Fargo, N. d., Saturday, May "a.
The hearings have been arranged as
eo1lo-o. e. Do,,1 MINI Hroc1 Mood