The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-09-20
WAS II SEWER GAS?
Startling Contradictory Evi-
denCe in the Brunswick
Street Tragedy In
quest.

An inquest touching the death of
Antonio Valenti. Edward Kane aud
James McAnally, the three men VINO
were recently suffocated in the Mercer
street sewer, was begun at Roche's Hall
last evening by Coroner Faherty and a
jury of which Robert Case is foreman,
Several important witnesses were not
present. Daniel Sullivan, one of the men
who barely escaped with his life, was
knocked out while at work yesterday in
a sewer at First and Monmouth streets,
and was too ill to appear at the inquest.
John S. Daily, foreman of the sewer clean
ing gang. was also absent.
CONFLICT OF RECoLLEcTIoNs
The testimony was conflicting and a
question has arisen as to whether the
three men met their death through sutfo-
cation by sewer gas or from a poisonous
stench emanating from the sur
rounding filling, composed OF re-
fuse + use from the Colgate soap factory.
dumped there long while ago.
II is said that the gasses emanating from
the refuse when first dumped ate the
paint off the houses in the vicinity.
The testimony of Joseph Smith, q
plumber who happened to be present, and
of Joseph Sherry, stableman in the en-
ploy of the Street and Water Board. was
in the hole. that the high tide
at the time of the accident had
sealed the sewer at both ends water tight.
whereas Charles O'Brien, Street and
Water Board employe, swore that the
sewer was as dry as the table near which
he sat, and on which be slapped his hands
by way of emphasis. O'Brien had ''jag'
on. but he stuck to his story, and main
tained that the Italian was unable to
stick his shovel in the stuff at the bottom
of the sewer, and was obliged to call for a
pick, and that, as soon as the pick entered
below the cruSty foundation. the stencil
that killed him arose.
WATER IN THE HOLE.
Patrick Coudon, one of the jurymen,
made the point that if there was water in
the sewer the sewer gas could not have
made its way from the fifth at the bottom
through the water. Plumber Smith swore
that when he peered down the hole on his
arrival he saw the Italian sitting in the
water, and Stableman Sherry swors that
the bodies of the men when taken up out
of the hole were wet and muddy. But
Smith swore the water was hiaher
than the sewer and Sherry
swore it was not to the top of the sewer.
When Smith had removed several man
says he was not affected as though by
sewer gas, but when he reached home
that night he could hardly get up stairs
on account of weakness of the knees,
which he attributed to the effects of the
gas he had inhaled while down in the
manhole. He said the trouble with all
the sewers in the city was that they had
not proper outlets.
James P. Coleman, mason aud builder,
No. AT York street, who assisted in hoist
ing out the bodies by means of moose
tied OH to the end of a piece OF scantling,
said he was not sufficiently acquainted
with the smell of sewer gas to give an
opinion as to whether what he smelled
was that or something else, but he would
call it such in the absence of better
name.
The evidence was SO conflicting that
Coroner Faherty decided to continue the
investigation. The iurymen will meet
at Mercer and Brunswick streets next
Sunday afternoon at two o'clock and
make a close inspection of the death trap
in which the three men were killed.