The sun., 1894-01-12
AN AVE. D GUNPOWDER PLOT
sOHEBoDF TRIED TO FIRE PJNCUs
CAMS SWEAT sHOP.

Arrrnsed Boxc. of Gunpowdcr 80 y. q.
BLOW on the cas- Meters and give th.
Explosion the Appearances or Accident
One Box Failed to Expiods-A Lost Key.
An explosion that blew out the windows Ia
the store at "a Avenue u. corner OF Filth
street. at 1918 O'Clock on Wednesday night,
has been found 10y Fire Marshal Mitchell and
his assistant. Thomas i. Freel to have been
deliberately contrived. Gunpowder appears
to have been the explosive used. and the ap-
parent purpose was to blow of the gas meters
in the cellar and on the first floor and to set
fire that would be attributed TO an accidental
explosion Of gas.
Around the corner In Fifth street Is the
house OF IL Truck. Capt. Sullivan and his
men. aroused by tho explosion. ran around Ia
n minute. Through the broken show windows
OF the store on the ground floor. they saw
little flre playing around the iloor and the SUR
base in the front OF the room. near n gas meter
that had been blown loose from It's conn ectons.
There was also a Jet Of fire from the broken
supply pipe OF the meter. Thcy put out the
Gre and they plugged tho pipe with soap.
battalion Chief Ahenrn arrived. and he and
Capt. sullivan began to explore the promises.
The gas meter had originally rested on the
floor. against the partition which separated
the store from tho hallway IL had been re-
lead connections had been broken. but there
was no break in either the wall or the floor.
All OF tho larger glasses Of the store front were
broken out. but the smaller glasses were In
tact. At the back. where there are two win
dows guarded by iron bars and iron -sheathed
shutters. the shutters, which had not been
fastened. were blown open and all the glass
was broken. The two front doors had been
locked from the inside and the keys were still
tlara d, L.. I,at, olk -.
floor. The only other way OF getting into the
room was through an iron door from the back
hallway, and this door was open.
cendiarisnI. The col lar is entered Il ON an
outside stairway that loads from tho street IL
has been unoccupied for somo time. aud It is
said that the door has had no lock on II for
several days. The floor was wet with kero-
gas meter stood in the store was another in
the cellar. This meter was about feet y
met or and reaching from the door was a strip
OF planking an inch widc.
wrapped piece OF gray cotton batting. such
as Is used by tail9rs for padding coats. AT the
or PGd G ptashns Ts% q,
that toward the rear Of the room. three or four
more pieces Of batting. and the whole was
soaked with kerosene or turpentne.
A pGsteboaId box, the shape Of music roll.
and about - inches long by INCHES across.
One end touched the oil. soaked batting. The
box was closed at both ends and ont Of q hole
two inches long, which had been chaTred at
'S At This this discovery % Mr.. Freel was sent for. uo
took the box to tho truck house and shook out
from tho fuse hole little gunpowder. The
conta ned two or two and half pounds OF il.
Later he turned the box oyer to Mr.. Mitchell
taloT SnSR and is several ss%ihs machnes and
cutters table are its furniture. Pincuss
sE9es sEass IS the SaS.s PnsSs s:
I a9sslasyes on the fourth floor. His fam
live Henry Ganz Pincnss brother. and Henry
Davies. with his wife Flora twho Is sister Of
GanZL and their two children. and on the floor
between. Raphael Sllverstein. his wife. three
chlidrsn, and servant: p,
WENT w@ pSs to the GS TSSatre @ 'n he vent
hallway. and found it locked. It was secured
bya big paddock on tho outside. When the
become mother. was in bed and asleep. and
their servant was asleep, dressed, on a soia;
asleep The Davis family were all up They
hsd Family nsTty that nisht; ,tb ana % Herman
fT nsas aRa osnda The p to hs.
months ago whom he sold It to simon. who
at hSTs tTSs Tss ThS greG f Il nsn mag
gagged for Sl3. 100. and both simon and pincus
CAM say It is insured only for Sl3, $50 tor the
GAM had any enem les who might hrve tried
to blow np the place Is a question He thinks
Il can't think ofany one In particular who
might have done this, he said last night. hut
have had trouble Mt times with people who
did work for me, and a good many of those
As an explanation OF how the iron side door
Of the store came to be found open he sa id
that the lock ho used on il was one that hs
had used on a shop which he occupied before
he moved into this one six months ago. Tho
lock originally had two Keys, but eight months
ago. he said. one key was lost, llis vito had
tho other one on "Wednesday night Heem-
ployed usually hfteen or twenty work
men, but no business had been done IN
the shop for three weeks. The five sewing
machines were not insured. CAM says pinens
SAYS that his brother Simon's store nj ~ Cam
non street was robbed of $500 worth OF goods
last Tuesday. and that Simon has suffered
other losses by theft recently
The present theory OF the Fire Marshal s
that tha wreck IN the shop was caussd by tho
explosion Of package o. gnnpowder similar
Ia the one found in the cellar, and that both
had been lighted at tho time. but that the
conrussiOn up stairs put out tho light OF tho
fuse down stairs. IN ease both had gone Or
the whole trouble would have hoen put down
rs gas explosion. the police had put 10
down.