The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-05-27
ONLY FEW OF THEM LEFT.
A SCORE OF ITALIANS sLAUeH1 Erred.
Terrible Dynamite Explosion on a Work
Train Near Tarrytown, n. Y.-Twenty
Men Blown Into Eternity-De-
tails of the Disaster.


tween sixteen and twenty and the injured
as many more. An engine and one fiat
car were conveying load of Italians and
twenty-four cases of dynamite, each case
containing fifty pounds. The Italians
were being taken 10 a section of the road
where a third track was being laid. A
coil of rope Law in front of the truck Of
the engine. Just as the train was passing
Holmes Point, midway between Tarrytown
and lrvington, spark from the locomo-
tive ignited the coil OF rope. The moving
train famed the flames, and before the
Italians realized their danger one of the
packages OF dynamite exploded. William
Brannigan, the engineer of the derrick
train, happened to be $50 yards from the
train at the time. He tells the following
story:
when the coil of rope set fire TO the
first package one of the men seeing ii on
fire sprang off the fiat car. He fell under
the wheels and was killed. The next
moment there was a rumbling noise, a
dense cloud of smoke and flying mass
shot up into the air. Before the explosion
some of the Italians had tumbled off and
a few saved their lives by so doing The
train had just about come to a stop. Bran
nigap saw one man blown fifty feet into
the air. He fell into the Hudson river.
Another man was blown over into the
bluff The others were blown in various
directions. Several are supposed to have
been blown into the river"
James Niskern of YOnkers was one OF
the gang and went to Tarrytown TO have
all his tools sharpened. The gang was
then working at Mt St Vincent.
While he was away in Tarrytown the gang
was moved. When Niskern was return
ing from Tarrytown he saw the wreck
made by the explosion. He says he
counted sixteen dead men on the track
and sixteen wounded. He understood
that twenty men had been blown into
the Hudson river. Most OF them were
Italians.
George Hecker, the engineer of the
train, was cut on the head. So was Fire
man Leonard Pam. Pam also had three
or four ribs broken and he was badly
shocked. John Smith, brakeman, was
killed. John Connors the conductor, was
badly injured and was sent to his home at
Tivoi. Jim Morrison, boy employed
in carrying powder, was also killed. John
Mccarthy, the timekeeper, was killed.
The others killed were all Italians. 1t 10
now said that eighteen in all were killed.
The names of the Italians are not known.
They are known only by numbers.
Twenty-Five men are injured. Among
them was Thomas Finnegan, the black
smith and foreman, his leg being smashed.
Two bodies have been taken out OF the
river. Nobody knows how many more
remain there. The two Italians who
were not killed by the explosion were so
badly frightened that they ran to the
river wall and jumped into the river.
They have not been seen since. The
waiting-room of the beautiful new rail-
way station in Tarrytown was turned
into temporary hospital, 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 abattoir. The blood
lay all about in pools. AS to the number
of men on the train, accounts differ.
! Some say there were thirty-three. The
| lowest estimate placed the number at
over forty. Disston, the boss, thinks
| there were over forty and as a matter of
fact the number of those blown either TO
| atoms or in the river is to certain extent
a matter OF speculation.
The train was torn to atoms, the rail-
way tracks ripped from their bed and a
great hole, many feet deep, dug out of the
I earth, totally blocking the traffic on the
road for many hours.
Up in Tarrytown, over across the river
in Nyack and up and down the stream,
the shock was terrific. The ground trem-
bled as though an earthquake had oc-
Cured. The walls of several Tarrytown
| oh cd in
the Tarrytown streets the windowglass
fell in showers to the sidewalk. Even
over in Nyack heavy panes of glass were
smashed. The beautiful houses which
line the bank for a mile or more on each
side Of the scene of the accident all suf-
fered more or less.
The hillside with its heavy foliage was
scorched and blackened, and here and
there heavy limbs of trees were wrenched
off as though by thunderbolt. In Tar
rytown scores of clocks stopped and it is
in this way that almost the exact hour OF
the explosion, IL 30, is fixed.
The list OF dead is now eighteen. OF
these, thirteen are accounted for, and the
| remaining FIVE are in the river. Gangs OF
men in boats are now dragging the river
| for these, but the tide is running so strong
that there is little chance of recovering
them today, at least.
TARRYTowN, n. Y, May 20-Little re-
mains at HoespoDd, a mile from here on
the New York Central railroad, to tell the
tale of the explosion which yesterday
morning killed thirteen persons and hor-
ribly wounded twenty-five others.
In the hospitals the wounded are doing
as we'll as could be expected. The fu-
nerals of the dead will probably take
place tomorrow and the inquest next
Monday. Yesterday it was reported that
thirteen men were dead and five others
missing.
This morning, so far as can be ascer-
tanned, the number OF the dead that are
actually known is thirteen. This is off,
cial from Coroner Mitchell The coroner
reports that from the information that
he has be still believes that there are five
bodies in the river. The coroner says that
these mems names or numbers have not
been checked from the list Of those who
are supposed 10 have been on the car at
the time of the explosion and the men
are still missing. The river is being
dragged for their bodies. Two men who
were fishing on the banks of the river
near the scene of the explosion are re-
ported 70 have been blown into the river.
This report. however. cannot be verified
until the men who are dragging the river
have completed their labors.