The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-02-14
DANGEROUS FLUID.
4 Liquid That Would Have Entirely De-
StrOyed a DiStillaFy.

PEORIA ml.l, Feb. 13-Although the
whisky-trust people still maintain that
George Gibson is entirely innocent of the
conspiracy to destroy the Shufeldt Distllery
the general public has come to the conclu-
sion that he Is guilty. There is great ex-
element at trust headquarters, and agents
are guing out on every train to cities where
the trust members reside. Viee-President
Woolner left this afternoon for Chicago,
where he will meet President Greenhut,
who is coming home from Washington. A
meeting of the trust Directors has been
called for next Monday, and interesting
action is expected then.
Gibson maintains dogged silence, but
says he is innocent. He says that the bot
tie in his valise contained an antiseptc fluid,
patented by chemist of the trust, and he
was on his way to sell the secret of the COM
pound to stock company.
CHICAGO, Feb. l3-This morning At
torney Barry of counsel for Gibson, Secre-
tary of the Whisky Trust, with District
Attorney Mlchrist, made an examination of
the package said to have been delivered by
Gibson to Dewar. When the package was
opened bottle full OF light blush fluid
was discovered A drop of this was put
upon piece of paper, and the instant it
came in contact with the paper there was
flash. Streaks of fire shot up, the room was
filled with suffocating, sulphurous flames.
So quickly did the paper burn that a
bucket of water had to be thrown upon it to
prevent the fire from communicating with
other materials. The strong smell emitted
by the fluid proves its principal ingredient
to be phosphorus. Milchrist said of the
result of the experiment:
Our purpose in making the experiment
was to find out if the fluid was the same as
that in the bottle which Gibson gave .Dewar.
Such it proved to be. 1t faStens the chain
Of avidpnPa SnnurplV arnun1 frihSnn
makes it possible to indict him for at
tempted arson"
The fact that anything was delivered to
Dewar besides the fluid has been denied by
some. but Attorney Milchrist says that in
the package delivered 10 Dewar was a sec
tion of gun-barrel charged with powder,
and steel projectile packed in tin can
with oakum and cotton, through which ran
q fuse. The fluid in the bottle was to be
poured on the fuse, which would ignite and
explode the powder in the gum barrel.
Inspector Stuart said tonight that during
a trip to Peoria last week he discovered
where the Gibson fluid was compounded
and obtained evidence as to who it was
that loaded the gun-barrel The work was
done in Peoria by one and the same man
Gibson himself Captain Stuart obtained
some of Gibson's handwriting at Peoria and
had it compared with the letters by an ex-
pert, who unhesitatingy declared that the
teil-tale penmanShip was Glbson's.
President Greenhut, accompanied by one
of his associates, DIR, Rush, arrived in Chi
cago tonight and took quarters at the Audi
t0rium. He left the Auditorium hastily,
almost immediately after entering the build
ing, and drove to the residence of wealthy
packer, Nelson Morris. who is member Of
the trust, and who signed the $4,000 bond
which secured Gibson's temporary release.
At O'Clock in the morning Greenhut had
not returned to the Auditorium. 1t was ru-
mored that at meeting OF the trust Monday
Gibson would be displaced from his post rs
Secretary, and that the trust would formal
ly disayow all responsibility for any crimi-
nal act