The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1896-02-27
TORN UP FOR ACRES
Scene Of DesoIation and Ruin at
johannesburg.
HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE KILLED
Few Whites Among the Victims. but
Scores OF Blacks, Maiays and
Chinese Persisted.

johannesburg, Feb. 20.-Details are
reaching this city today OF what Is
probably the most disastrous dynamite
explosion on record in any part of the
world.
Thousands of people have been rem
dered homeless by the terrible calamity.
About one hundred are believed to have
been killed, two or three hundred mon,
women and children severely wounded,
and many others more or less injured.
Viedendorp the scene of the calamity,
is a suburb of Johannesburg. In 1t are
huddled the members of the poorer
classes, whites 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 mining districts. Among the freight
cars standing on the shunt to the mines
at Viedendorp yesterday were eight
trucks loaded with dynamite, hidden
under canvass covering to protect It
from the rain and sun. AS evening was
approaching there was an explosion
near the freight depot 50 awful in in
tensity, that the ground for miles
around was convulsed as If by an
earthquake, houses rocked and fell,
masses of iron, earth, stone, wood and
human remains were hurled skyward,
the windows in almost every house in
johannesburg were broken and people
blown through the air like straws be-
fore gust of wind. The explosion had
torn hole 200 feet long and eight feet
wide over the spot where eight trucks
Of dynamite stood few moments be-
fore. All that quarter of johannesburg
was literally blown TO pieces. The eff
fects OF the explosion could be seen
over radius of more than a mile and
almost everything within half n mile
OF where the trucks had been shunted
for the night was RACED to the ground
and crushed by the dynamite beyond
redemption. Iron work was twisted and
torn, stones destroyed, and brick work
pulverized. On the ground were black
ened shapes OF human remains, limbs,
heads, trunks, scorched and torn.
The victims were mostly Malays,
Kaffirs and Chinese, the whites being
In minority at Viedendorp, but quite a
number of white people, including six
girls, were killed. In 15 minutes after
the explosion the bodies OF 40 dead per-
sons, horribly mutIlated were picked
up and carried away, while the search
ing OF the ruins continued without in
Permission. over 200 of the most Sc
verely Injured persons were also car
ried away. and hundreds of others ia
ken to places where they might be
cared for.
Around the scene OF yesterdays ex-
plosion the most narrowing scenes are
witnessed by fathers looking for their
children, wives staring blankly at what
seemed to be the remains of husbands.
the living many of them badly hurt
themselves. hunting for traces of their
dead.
1t Is definitely known that over 100
persons have been killed and about 200
wounded severely. In addition 1t Is es-
timated that 100 more have been less
severely injured.
A popular subscription has been
opened for the relief of the wounded and
homeless. Already over 100000 has
been raised. The amount of dynamite
which caused the terrific disaster is as
certained to have been 20 tons.