The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-02-20
RED RUIN.
Tons on Tons of Dynamite
Blow Up
At johannesburg, South Africa,
Killing 100 People,
Wounding 800 More, Many Unto
Death,
AND TEARING 4 HOLE
Half Mile Square Among the
Buildings.
The Dynamite Was Standing in
Freight Cars
On A SIDE TRACK
ON A SIDE TRACE
In a Residence Part Of the City
Called Viedendorp.
Wanderers Club is Turned Into
a Dead House."

copyrighted 1895 by the Associated Press.1
JOHANNESBURG, South African Re-
public, Feb. 20.-Details are reaching
this city today of what is probably one
of the most disastrous dynamite explo-
sions on record in any portion of the
world. Thousands of people have been
rendered homeless by the terrible calam-
ity, about 100 persons are believed to
have been killed, some two three
hundred men, women and children have
been severely wounded and many others
have been more or less injured.
ViedendOrp, the scene of the calamity,
is suburb of johannesburg. In it are
huddled members of the poorer classes of
whites of the Rand, Malays, Kaffirs and
Cinnamon, who subsist for the most part
by doing odd jobs about the place. which
is a railway transfer station for the min
ing districts of the section.
Among the freight cars standing on the
shunt tracks at Viedendorp yesterday
were eight trucks loaded with dynamite.
The deadly stuff was hidden under can
vas coverings to protect it from the rain
and sun.
Last evening there was an explosion
aGdE tu6 pvt 81 awful LAO
intensity of its force that the ground for
miles around was convulsed as if by az
earthquake. Houses rocked and fell,
masses of iron, earth. stone, wood and
human remains were hurled skywards,
the windows of almost every house in
Johannes burg were broken and people
were blown through the air like strawS
before gust of wind. The explosion
had torn hole 200 feet long and 80 feet
wide the spot where the eight
trucks of dynamite stood but a few min
utes before.
The whole of that quarter of Johannes
burg was literally blown TO pieces. The
effects of the explosion could be seen
over radius of more than u mile and
almost everything within half a mile
of where the trucks had been shunted
for the night was RACED to the ground
and crushed by the dynamite. Iron
work was twisted and torn, stones de-
stroyed and brick works pulverized.
On the ground were blackened shapes
of human rem aims, limbs, heads, trunks,
scorched and torn.
The victims were mostly Malays, KAT
frs and Cinnamon, the whites being in a
minority at Viedendorp, but in spite of
this quite number of white people, in
cluding six girls are among the many
victims
In fifteen minutes after the explosion
OCCuEE6Qs the DO0l65 Oh IOrLV Q0aQ per-
sons, all horribly mutilated, were picked
up and carried away from the scene,
while the searching of the ruins con-
tinued without intermission. Over 200
of the most severely injured persons
were also carried away, and hundreds of
other wounded persons were taken to
places where they might be cared for.
In addition 10 the wounded, thousands
of people were rendered homeless by
IA oYDl0si0n and are heinz cara6 fer nv
the charitable.
Pieces of ircn, stone and bricks are
scattered all over johannesburg. Every
building has felt the great shock more
or less. Every physician in or about
Johannesburg is assisting in the care of
the wounded.
The headquarters of the Wanderers
club is being used as a mortuary cham
Der. In tie gaily decorated club
room are horrible lines of mem
berless, blackened trunks of human
bodies. rows of charred arms and legs,
crushed and burned heads, hands, feet,
pieces of f1esh ETC., tied up in bags, the
whole presenting sight as blood curd-
ling as was ever witnessed. Around the
club and scene of the explosion the most
narrowing scenes are Witnessed by faith
ers looking for their children, wives
staring blankly at what seemed to be the
remains of husbands, the living, many of
them Danly nurt themselves, hunting Tor
traces of their dead.
Probably the best idea of the force of
the explosion can be gathered from the
fact that the iron axIes of the trucks
upon which the dynamite was loaded
have been driven 20 feet into the hard
ground.
How the explosion occurred is not
known, but belief prevails that thiev-
ing Kafir found his way to the shunted
trucks and that in trying to break open
one of the cases of the explosive, being
in ignorance of what it contained, he
brought about the disaster which has
caused SO great loss of life and which
has rendered so many people homeless
and penniless.
The extent of the disaster will never
be known. According to the estimates.
however, about 100 persons have been
killed and about 300 wounded severely.
In addition it is estimated that 100 more
have been less severely injured. Several