Oakes weekly Republican. (Oakes, Dickey County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1898, 1891-05-22
DEADLY DYNAMITE.
About Twenty Persons Killed by
Dynamite Explosion on q
Freight Car.
There We're Twelve Hundred Pounds
Of Dynamite and Forty Ital-
ianS on the Car.
The Manglcd Bodies of the Victims
We're Hurled i'll Every
Direction.
Tho Number Killed Not Known,

1AhhlIoWN. IN. L., May .u.-ln6Te
was horrible accident near here to-day
by which the loss of life is estimated at
between sixteen and twenty and the ill.,
Jured as many more. An engine and one
flat car were conveying load of Italians
and twenty-four cases of dynamite, each
containing fifty pounds. The Italians
were being taken to section of road
where 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
rytown and lrvington, a spark from the
locomotive ignited the coil of rope. The
moving train famed the flames and be-
fore the Italians realized their danger
one of the packages of dynamite ex-
ploded.
William l5rannlgan, engineer of the
derrick tram, 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 of dynamite,
one of the men, seeing it on fire, sprang
Off the flat car. He fell under the wheels
and was killed. The next moment there
was rumbling noise, dense cloud of
smoke and 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 stop. Brannigan saw
one 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 sh;fpened. The gang was
then working at Mount st. Vincent.
While he was away in Tarrytown the
gang was moved. When Niskern was
wreck made by 1.-THE explosion. He
says he counted sixteen dead men on the
track and 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
LONE at Tivoli. Jimmie Morrison, boy
employed IN carrying powder, was also
killed: John Mccarthy, time keeper,
was killed. The others killed we're ali
Italians. It is now said that eighteen in
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 were 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 temporary hos
pital, where ali the surgeons who could
be gathered up operated or 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. Dss-
ton, the boss, thinks there were over forty
u.AA, "7 - AAupeCl VI ldCp, lue uuulDeT Ol
those blown either to atoms or into the
river is to certain extent 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 on the
railway for many hours. Up in Tarry-
town, over across the river in Nyack and
all up and down the stream, it was ter
rife, the ground trembled as though in
an earthquake, the walls of several Tar
rytown houses were shaken and cracked,
and in the Tarrytown streets window
glass fell in showers to the sidewalk.
Even over in Nyack heavy panes of glass
were smashed. The beautiful houses
which line the bank for 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
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. 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 five are in the
river. Gangs of men in boats are now
dragging the river for these, but the tide
is running so strong there is little chance
OF recovering them to-day at least.