Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-06-05
DYNAMITE DISASTER.
Frightful Explosion of Blasting
Powder Oh the Hudson.
A Car Containing Thirty Laborers
Blown to Atoms.

n udL CtlL 4CdIStI IL ny t-diulLc anu
drawn by construction engine was blown
TO atoms shortly bafore noon a few Gays ago,
at place about one and a quarter miles
south of Tarrytown, Y. V.,on the New YORK
Central and Hudson River Railroad. A
gang of workmen, chiefly Italians. were Oh
the car. and OF the number thirteen vera
killed, ten were injured and five, on the day
after the tragedy, were missing. l. was
thought that the bodies Of the latter we G
thrown into the river. Efforts were male
to recover them. The bodies of several of
the dead Italians have neither been claimed
nor identified. Some of the injured OF the
same nativity have been recoynized. Three
of the wounded We're taken to local hos
pital at IarryJOwn; thu rest were brought to
Bellevue Hospital in New YORK City. where
they are being properly cared for
Had the explosion occurred while heavily
loaded passenger train was passing the work
train the loss OF life might have been still
more appalling. No trustworthy informa-
ton was Obtainable the day following the &C
cident as to the direct cause OF the explosion.
The most intelligent theory advanced. how
ever, is to the effect that Illuminating caps
were carelessly loaded with the dynamite
cartridges, and that in some ineXpiicable way
one or more OF these caps was lgnIted, cauS'
ing the explosion.
A portion OF the track was torn up and
traffic on the read was temporarily sus-
pended. No damage resulted to surrounding
property DeSOnQ Inc breaking o. a lew D3neS
of glass, though the report of the explosion
was heard many miles from the scene
both sides of the river.
Following is list or the dead: joan Nc
earthly, timekeeper. twenty-five years old,
North TarrytOvp Frank Morris wateI-boy
eighteen, Tarrytown, blown into the river.
John Smith, brakeman, thirty-two, Sing
Sing, blown into the river. LucinO Rain
iere Iaborer Raffalle Taniccarle, laborer.
Hito Scaceite, iaborer. Seven Italians,
badly burned, but not much mutllated.
The train consisted merely of an engine,
driven by George Herrick, and a fiat car, in
charge of John COnnOrs, conductor. On the
car T~ere twenty-fOur cases Of A JAZZ powder,
loaded at Ludlow's and intended for use in
blasting away the rock for a third track just
below the station at TarryUown. About
thirty men were abOard, mostly Italians who
were to do the WORK. Besides Connors and the
1talls IS there were y. Smith, Uhe brakeman;
Edward Finnegan, the foreman Of the gang,
and Frank Morris. the water-boy. At
Hoge's Point the road males a sharp bend
and flagman is stationed there where he
can watch the track i'll both directions.
Gus Deerman on duty and was
watching the train it approached him,
when he saw an Italian jump off. The man
struck his head and was thrown some
distance on the rebound.
The train kept its way and passed
Deerman who ran toward the Italian. Be
fore he could reach him and while the train
was scarcely 100 feet away he heard ter
rife explosion. Looking back, he saw the
air filled with smoke, dust and tylng debrls
of all kinds. The powder had in some way
ignited, and the car, engine, tender, pasSen-
gers and even the roadbed, were blown sew
eral hundred feet in all directions.
The flash of the explosion was plainly seen
from the station at Tarry Gown, about one
mile distant and Officer Smith, who was on
duty there, John A. Liant, editor; David
Whalen a brakeman, and hundreds OF 9TH
rushed to the spot. They found the
roadbed blown out for distance of twenty
or twenty-five feet, rails twisted into all
sorts OF shapes, the car almost completely
annihjlated, and the bodies OF the victims
Strewn all about.
Five minutes after the explosion the smoke
cleared away. At least it had all blown out
over the river. A few minutes later the work
men who had been cutting stone by the track
three-quarters of a mile north came running
up. They had recovered from the shock. Peo-
pie from the Tarrytown station came too,
headed by Chief of Police Charles NOsslter.
They saw dead or wounded men lying
everywhere. Fifty feet south of the spot
where the explosion had occurred was a
pile of human bodies tangled together,
legs and arms and heads sticking out of the
pile here and there. Near by was another
pile but not SO large the other.
Two bodies fioated in the river 100 feet from
the shore. The steam escape valve on the
top of the engine held one body impaled the
arms and head hanging on one side and the
legs on the other. The ground was covered
with bits of clothing and pieces of flesh.
Some of the wounded were lying on
top of another. shrieking for mercy
and grooming and begging to
be put out of their misery. The ground for
200 feet up and down the track wet
with blood. The car had disappeared.
Only bit of it hung over the stone en-
bankment along the shore. The brake head
which Brakeman Cullen had been sitting
was there and uuinjured. 1t was not even
bent, while the heavy steel rails were twisted
into indescribable shapes and broken
The ties for the length of two rails were
missing. There was hole fifteen feet across
in the ground where they had been. The ell
CINE stood dismantled. A piece of sheet ron
was all that was left of the tender The
whEeIs even had disappeared. One steel axle
four inches in diameter, which had been
snapped in two, lying on the ground
near The hole
A piece of wheel was fast to the end Of it.
The cab of the engine had been torn off and
had disappeared entirely. The smoke stack
and pilot were gone. About all of the ex-
terror machinery that remained intact was |
the safety valve with the impaled man.
Two telegraph poles had been knocked
over into Hoes Pond. and the wires dangIed |
IN the water. The fence which had sepa- |
rated the companys property from the
pond was missing for 200 feet, The river |
and the pond were full of floating debris |
MISS ALICE PARKER, attorney al law, or |
MaSSa chuSetts is endea ori0r to amend tba |