Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-08-24
MANY KILLED.
Fearful Explosion in the Heart
of New York City.
Fire Follows and the Building Soon
Collapses,
Burylng Many OF the Inmates
In the Ruins.

l
prisoned UnfOrtunates Driven Back by
Falling Walls - Persons Who Know
Claim 1870 People worked In the Raced
Building-An Hour After the Explosion
None Had Been Taken nOut--Restaurant,
Type Foundry, Cigar Factory, Printing
Ohice and Several Other Concerns
| Burned.
New York, Aug. 94.-At 1890 o'clock
Saturday afternoon an explosion occurred
In the five-story building, SO Park Place,
occupied by John @. Eberle, manufac-
turer OF maps. The explosion was i'm
mediately followed by fire, and in
few minutes the building collapsed.
At the time the explosion occurred
many Of those who worked in the build
ing were at lunch. 1t was estimated that
more than 140 boys, girls, men and
women We're in the building at the time.
shrieks of Agony.
Those who saw the catastrophe say
that the earth trembled when the explo-
sion occurred and that the fire was in
| the street In couple of seconds The
dust from the wreck rose in such clouds
that for at least three minutes nothing
could be seen Of what was left standing.
but from the pail which hovered over
the wrecked building came clouds of
smoke and sheets of flame and yells and
shrieks of agony. Out of the clouds of
fire and smoke half a dozen persons
emerged, while from the six-story build
ing on the northeast corner of Green
witch and Park Place poured at least one
hVHYaA Ar.A1 ~ E.N1
and all ages, uttering cries of alarm.
When the firemen arrived the Taylor
building, 60 to 76 Park Place, was
ablaze and the Greenwich street extern
sion of the building ON fire. A general
alarm was sounded and the fremen
looked around to see If life could he
saved. Close to the entrance OF 10 Park
Place, and pinned under lot of ma
sonry was q man whose head and
shoulders were visible. While the fire.
men were endeavoring to unloosen him
crash was heard above, and down
came the wreck of part of the Taylor
building cornice The fremen jumped
for their lives and none were hurt.
When they dashed back again the man
had been entirely buried and the bricks
from the Greenwich street building be-
gan to fall 80 thickly that the attempt
to rescue him had to be abandoned
Shortly after this man who said he
was an engineer crawled out Of the cell
lar under the wreck and fell exhausted.
He was sent to the Chambers Street hos
pital. He was unable to give an account
of how he escaped.
Loss of Life.
As to the loss of life the more con-
servative estimate, that Of Fire Chief
Cushman, was that sixty persons per-
ished. Persons who know how many
worked In the building daily ran the
list up to 180. Nobody had been taken
out at 80, and it appeared impossible
to overhaul the ruins for several hours.
Fire Under Control.
At o'clock the fire was under control.
Half of the Greenwich Street building
had been burned, while the Taylor build
ing was complete wreck. The losses
were computed at $3.50, 900 for the Tay-
lor building and contents and $40, 900 for
the Greenwich Street building.
Concerns Destroyed.
Among the concerns destroyed were
Hudson's restaurant Lindsay's type
foundry, e. f. Heaghy' plumbing shops,
Liebler's glassware, Ellis q MacDonald's
blank book and binding concern, cigar
manufactory, Rosenfeld & Company,
metal leaf manufacturers, the Southern
Publishing company, art designers.
II is said by some that the explosion
occurred in Rosenfeld's place.
There were about twenty-five persons
In the restaurant. Mike Carroll, who
was employed at 90 Park Place, says
that there Is very little chance Of many
Of them escaping. There were seven
men employed In the kitchen, and Car
roll says they must have been killed. He
also saw four girls working In the baso-
ment mixing bronze, and he does not
think they could have gone out. Carroll
saw seven persons passing the building
at the time of the explosion and all were
knocked down by the shock. Before
they recovered the wall fell ON them and
he thinks they were Killed.
Only four persons are known to have
escaped from Hudson's restaurant.
There were at least twenty-five In the
place. At 1:20 p. m. the police esCi-
mated the loss of life at between sixty
and seventy. One of those who escaped
said the explosion was in boiler be-
meath the restaurant. Twenty-four in
iured have been taken to Chambers
street hospital.
The actual cause Of the explosion was
not, at 8 o'clock, known. For those who
saw 1t most agree that there was an ex-
plosion that took place on the first floor
of No. 70, and the front Of the store oc-
cupied by Rosenfeldt was blown into
the street. Then the entire building be-
gan to quiver and shake and then came
crashing into the street.