Los Angeles herald., 1892-10-25

of the mortar that Cammert fred. If
so, the one that he fred exploded, and
he very narrowly escaped, II be only
stepped back step or two and turned
his back to the mortar. There were
certainly two explosions, but whether
Wilson's mortar burst seems to be a
matter Of doubt.
The witness, Wilson. held in his hand
a diagram of the ecene, which he fire.
quently referred to, by way of explana-
tion, showing the distance that he was
from the box of powder, shells, ETC., at
the time that the crowd broke down the
rope and took possession of the grounds.
Wilson's testimony was as follows:
"The enclosure reserved was about 500
feet long on the line of Sixth street;
wire rope was stretched across the front,
and in the rear was zanja. took the
few boards away so as to keep the
crowds from crossing. About o'clock
that evening Mr.. Christian, one of the
committee, told me to begin firing the
salutes. / told him that was ordered
to wait for Mr.. Guasti, another member
of the committee. He replied he
wanted no further delay, and then I
began, and told Cammert to put
the sticks in the rockets. When
we had nearly finished the crowd be-
came unruly, there were about 300 very
disorderly people, mostly boys, and l
tried to keep them out; about the mid
die of the display while was firing a
salute at the set piece, / saw crowd
firing off my rockets, roman candles and
bombs, when I ran back. took To-
inch mortar and fred it off safely saw
boy looking in box of powder, there
were three or four pounds of powder in
cigar box; Christian said my fire.
works we're not noisy enough for French
and Italians, they liked great deal.of
noise, so l said all right, and then
l prepared to fire the two mortars; !;
we loaded the mortars Just
as we fred them; we never leave a
bomb in a mortar, because it is danger
GUS, and person is liable to put one
bomb in on top of another. loaded one
and my assistant, Cammert, loaded the
other. The charge was ten times less
than it would bear. As touched a
bomb, / turned my back so as not to get
burned; heard no explosion, never do
because there is no danger if the mortar
is not overloaded. The mortars
we're about 80 feet apart: at
the explosion, I felt ringing in my
ears and was dazed, and, from the terrific
report, l thought something had hap
psned; it was foggy and the air was
heavy with powder, and the first knew
OF the bursting OF the mortar, was when
l heard Cammert crying for help. l
picked him up, and nobody seemed to
want to help me take care of him.
II used no threats, and did not say
that would not be responsible for the
bombs that was about to fire. The
mortars are supposed to be made of
lap-welded steel pipe; they were
made by Mann & johnson, on Los
Angeles street; bombs are made
of sulphur, saltpeter and charcoal,
very slow-burning composition,
hardly powerful enough to burst the
shell. We usually look into the mortar
and turn it upside down to see if there
is anything in it; it was not more than
10 minutes between the time primed
the powder, and the explosion; il a
bomb were dropped upside down into
mortar 1t would burst the mortar; was
not much over-excited, though the boys
hooted and yelled at me and annoyed me
greatly If loose powder were poured in
upon the bomb it would burst the NOR
tar :; l think pound of powder, with
nothing on top of it, would burst the
mortar, because the powder would be
about two feet from the mouth
Of the mortar; bomb is simply
paper case with wooden bottom and
top; the shell is put into the mortar by
means of string; the man stands near
and lowers it down, standing near. 80 as
not to be compelled to put his head over
to see that it goes over.
II was not at the explosion at San
Juan. furnished material for the fire.
works. and gave instructions for their
use. Never had mortar to burst dur
ing my 20 years experience, and never
in my life heard of but one exploding
had three and one-half or four ounces
in the mortar that fired; eight ounces
more would have caused the explosion.
About 100 charges of powder were taken
by the crowd. These charges are pre-.
pared for use by being rolled in paper.
Some of these may have been poured
into the mortar"
The cigar box which contained the
powder was identified by the witness.
He stated that it was about three
fourths full of powder when he left it to
fire the set piece, and when he returned
about half of it had been taken out.
This was when the crowd was firing off
the rockets, Roman candles, etc.
He said continuing: 81 was employed
by the committee to fire the salutes.
Mr.. Guasti made the contract with me.
on the part of the committee. It was
not my duty to keep the crowd back,
yet took the precaution to take away
few planks that were over the zanja to
the rear of the fireworks, so that the
crowd could not Cross"
At the conclusion Of Wilson's testi-
mony he was taken back to the police
station.
CHIEF GLASS ON THE STAND, sl
Chief of Police J. M. Glass was the
next witness. He testified that no COM
mittee or representative of committee
of the Columbus celebration asked him
for squad of police. "Had the demand
been made, would have sent guard
to the place. have never furnished
police except on request for such occa-
sions; I am usually notified when q
guard is wanted for celebrations OF this
kind"
Chief Glass submitted to the court
the remaining portions of the two ex-
ploded mortars, bomb, and complete
mortar, for the information of the jury.
JOHN R. HUNTER.
John r. Hunter testified that he had
had experience in fire displays, and on
one occasion helped Wilson when the
hoodlnms crowded in and destroyed
some of the fire works. Wilson is very
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