Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-11-07
FORTY DEAD.
TContinued from page 81

were sawed away SO the rescuers couio
get hold OF him, but his legs were SO
pinioned that he could not be pulled out
1t was fully three quarters OF an houi
before he was extricated. The cries OF
the GIRL further in the ruins had dleo
away The man was James Ross. He
pleaded with the workers to dlg loi
another man whom he said was near MIN
He was practically dead when extrlcateu'
Arthur Lynch, who was working along
side Ross and Michael Ward, had won
derful escape. They were gettidg ma
trix ready ON the steam table, and Ross
told lynch TO get underneath and turn on
the steam for more heat. In minute
Lynch felt an awful crash and was car
ried down five floors under the table
When at the bottom, bricks ana 1alilne
floors were piled all around him ana nc
was protected by the great iron table
which weighed 800 or 400 pounds. Inc
escanins steam scalded him from the
moment the pipes burst, on the top floor,
Init he never lost consciousness
I'm to O'Clock l2 bodies had been re-
covered. They were carried to vacant
storeroom of Mayor PiDgrees. The city
authorities had electric lights strung
about the place SO that work might go on,
tonight, but hope of finding any one
alive was abandoned and the threatening
walls were pulled down.
At 7 o'clock, new gang of workmen
renewed the work, but up to $50, this
evening, no more bodies were recovered.
BY tomorrow noon, the whole mass Of
ruins will be explored and the p or 2S
bodies which still remain in them, re
covered
The conclusion caused by the explosion
was SO terrific as to shake every building
within several blocks of the journal
office. Windows were broken and many
persons were injured by flying glass.
The Calvert building, across Shelby
street from the Journal, shook like reed.
Nearly every window on the Shelby street
side was blown in, including two heavy
plate windows on the ground floor.
The building directly opposite the jour
nal building on Larned street, occupied by
the Free Press Printing Co., had scarcely
a whole light of glass left. The Arcade
building, adjoining the Free Press, has
the appearance of having gone through a
week of its own.
While the work of recovery was at its
height, two rival undertakes had quar-
rel over the possession of body. The
undertakes were pulling at body when
the police rushed up and separated them.
Another man put body In box and
commenced screwing down the lid. Fire
man Sullivan, who had assisted in drag
cling the body from the ruins, said the
victim was still alive. The man in charge
Of : ha boJ raf,cnl 70 no
Sullivan kicked the lid off and smashed in
one end of the coffin. The man in the box,
although terribly burned, was found alive,
but died while being taken to the hospital
The two buildings wrecked, today, were
part of a row of five-story business build
ings with a frontage of 500 feet, every
building in which has been burned out
with some fatality at least once in the
past 10 years, and some of them twice.
The death record of the whole block itself
from fire and elevator accidents, including
today's disaster, counts about 80 persons.
The cause of the explosion is mystery.
Thomas Thompson, the engineer came out
of the wreck painfully injured.
How did it happen" he was asked
Great God, l don't know was the
reply.
The furnace were oil -burning boilers,
and were inspected by the city insurance
inspector few days ago.
1t will require an acutal examination
of the boilers to determine the response
bility. OF the injured, Cornelius George
and Annie o Donoghue are the most seri-
ously hurt. but the physicians hope to pull
them through. The Rogers Typograph
ipply house was the only source of such
6 lpplies in the country for newspapers
using the Rogers typesetting machines
When the Merganthaler Co. purchased
the Rogers patent and factory at this
point, all the machinery for making the
parts was set up in the Journal building,
the right having been sold to Dunlap &
Co 1t is now all destroyed.
The latest theory of the cause of the dis
aster is that the oil tank instead of the
boilers exploded.
The body of Carrie Bauer was taken out
OF the ruins at II. The skull was frac
tured. The body of Hattie Hitler was re
covered shortly after midnight.
A. NJ, Nov, The 18th body was
recovered at 1880, this morning, that of
Minnie Liese. Tho body of the boy taken
out, yesterday afternoon, has been identi
fled as that of John BONNER.