The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-01-27
TRUTH AS 10 POWDER.
Tho Tuttle Company's Manager Gives
the Plain Facts

The Iuttle Companys Manager Gives
the Plain Facts
BUTTE, Jan. 26-For moro than q week
past the story has been actively circulated
in this city that it has been the custom of
the Tuitle Manufacturing d Supply COM
pany to keep enormous quantities of
powder on hand al its store in this city,
and it has even been indirectly charged in
print that 100 boxes of powder we're stored
in the building the night of the Irish
American club reception, and that a
number of wagon loads of giant powder
we're removed from the Tuttle building
the night of the explosion. Whether
there really was foundation In fact for
any of these stories. or whether the stories
were made out of whole cloth, and malici-
ously circulated, the general public has
had no means of knowing.
A. c. Holmes, manager of the Butte
store of the Tuttle company, was on the
stand at the inquest to-day. but the county
attorney did not consider the powder that
might be stored IN tue Tuttle building to
have anything 10 do with the question of
the death of the men killed at the ware
house, and consequently Mr.. Holmes bad
no opportunity to make any statement
relative to the charges that have been in
directly made.
As the company has been unjustly
placed in false light before the people
| by the rumors that have been circulated,
| STANDARD reporter called on Mr..
| Holmes this evening and requested a
| statement as To the amount OF powder
! usually carried at the store.
| Il have nothing whatever TO conceal"
| said Mr.. Holmes, land / have been ready
| to make a statement whenever | might be
called on Tor H. was prepared TO make
| a complete statement at the inquest to-
| day, but evidently the authorities did not
| consider this material TO the question in
| hand. / don't know, however, that the
| statements that have indirectly been
made should be allowed TO so uncontra-
dicted any longer"
| "WIll you inform the STANDARD and
the public how much powder you usually
| keep at the store?"
Certainly, and can state with CON-
plete accuracy the amount of powder on
| hand at any specified time. Whatever
other dealers may do, keep all powder
| transactions on my books and can USal
| how much powder j have on hand and
| how much | own. The Tuttle company
never shipped a car load of powder during
| its existence. We represent no powder
company and have no powder magazine.
| What powder We need j. purchased each
day from one of the three dealers in
| town."
"Have you ever had more powder at the
| store than is allowed by law?n
| I'VE have. On several occasions We
| have had more than three boxes on hand
| over night. / have not changed my books
| and they are open to the inspection of ali.
| In most cases we have no powder at all
| on hand over night. Sometimes we have
| little, and IN a few cases we have had
several boxes on hand, more in fact than
| the law PERMITS
"How much powder did you have on
hand on Jan. 8, the night of the reception
of the Irsh-American club?'
| "When the indirect accusation appeared
| in print that there were 100 boxes of pow
| der in our store the night of that recep-
tion, | Immediately looked up my books.
/ find that we did not have a single box or
a single stick of powder in the building
that night"
"How much powder did you have in
stock the night of Jan. 1872"
II had 400 pounds, possibly $40, but
| most certainly not more than that. That
was an unusual quantity for us TO have
| on hand and II has been seldom that we
have carried as much as that. After the
explosion met Mr.. Sands. of the Giant
Powder company. lie asked if we had
any powder in the store and / told him we
had. He said he was going to move his
out of town and we could put ours IN the
same load. There was also some put on
the load from the Kenyon store. The
powder from the three stores did not
/ a
attempt at concealment. The load was
driven the most direct way out TO the
powder magazine. In this part of load
was included all the powder in the Tuttle
building and no other load of powder was
moved from our store that night. | be-
leve our team used to draw a load of
powder from the powder magaz ne on the
| hill below the Mountain View mine. This
magazine IS outside the city limits but IL
was considered safest to take il further
away from town and our team was used
TO do this. There was abou; 2,2)0 pounds
in that load.'
~ might say here continued Mr..
Holmes, "that we have heretofore only
handled powder for the accommodation
OF our customers and whatever brand
they have wanted we have sent for If we
did not have il on hand, as has usually
been the case. We got powder from Har-
RS, the Butte Hardware company and
! KENYON. but most that we used was from
the Giant Powder company. of which NJ.
{. Harris 4 Co. are the Butte representa-
tives. When We chanced 10 have powder
on hand over night 1t was always kept
right at the doorway ready for immediate
removal. and watchman sleeps in the
building at night. Ii has been our Gus
tom TO fill small orders the same day by
having the powder delivered TO Us but
orders in quantities OF 10 boxes or more
We have delivered from the companies we
ordered from direct TO the parties who or
der from US. We shall in the future
handle no powder whatever"