The farmers' union. (Memphis, Mo.) 1891-1895, 1893-05-25
Blown to Atoms.


There was an explosion in the Charles
Pope Glucose Works at Geneva. H.,
Wednesday afternoon, costing the lives
Of seven men and a loss of $l5O,0tO to
the owners of the plant. 1t will never
be known how the accident happened.
The only man who could tell the tale
was buried beneath mass of wort less
machinery and tim. ers. His name was
August Jansen. He ha | an assistant in
the perso: Of Victor Andersen, l.ut SIM
ultancously with the powerful explosion
Andersen was blown out Of thirJ-sto =
window, and when picked up was a
corpse. The complete list Of the dead is
as follows:
ALFRED ANDERSON, married. and had
four children.
FRtD STROM. married. and had two chill
dren.
LARS scnurz. mnrrici. but left no
family.
VICTOR ANDERSEN. unmarried
CHRISTIAN EnMTND. unmarried
ANDR W kELBrR:i married, hut left no
children.
AUGrsr JANSEN. body not yet taken out:
was married: had ! cen in iii, ct untry hut
u short time; wife and children still living
i'll Sweden.
In the face of this death list but one
employee of the works suffered any in
jury OF consequence. He was Andr, W
Pierson, and was struck on the side by
piece of wood and fraG rents of flying
brick as he tried to escape through a
window. His right arm was lrokcn an
his body badly bru sed.
Tie C.u~" :, Mystery.
1t was about go DEL elk in the af-
ternoon when the explos;ol happened.
The report was heard all over the town,
and when 1t became known that the
Charles Pore Glucose Works. the main
industry of Geneva. had blown to pieces,
the population gathered. in short order.
to render Il pcss hle aid That portion
of the building hich suffered was the
southeast end. in which was all the
machinery The huilling was three
| and a half stories high. and the entire
S de was blown out on to a line Of
freight ears that stood en- side track
The VII fire department was got
| out, but was not needed. The remain
| ing seventy five or eighty employees OF
the works were armed with picks and
| shovels, and the work Of re overing tho
bodies begun without delay. These
| were all found near each other and
| taken across the narrow little street to
the Office of the local lumber company
| uarleS rope, lne owner .. pant,
| said that the V orks had been in active
operation for twelve years and hal
| never before met any accident of even
the most trivial nature. He sad 1t was
almost impo sSiblc 10 place any estimate
on Ii loss. He carried a heavy fire
insurance policy, tut moth ny on acct
| dents.
| RrScUn.: the Victims.
| The work of rescuing was very dam
| gerous, owing to the falling timbers
and walls. The sight which met the
| gaze directly after the explosion was
| appalling. The mangled forms of the
workmen We're pinned to the walls and
| pieces Of machinery n various portions
of the wrecked bu lding, presenting a
most CHASTITY spectacle. The fact that
go many workmcn esca;ed is attributed
to the lucky circumstance that nearly
all We're employed on the lower floor at
| the time. The ex,losi. II took place in
the big copper boiler or reservoir known
as The con, ertcr." locate in the CEN
trial portion of tie fourth floor. In this
copper boiler the first stages of CONVEX
sion Of the starch in the sugar of Z u
cose into glucose takes place. A solu-
ton of muriatic acid and water is forced
| into the starch under pressure OF
twenty-five pounds of steam. The
boiler had been been in use for -four
years and was regarded as safe.