The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-06
DEAD NOW NUMBERSEV
THOS. MITCHELL, ONE OF THE BROAD
RIPPLE INJURED, LAST VICTIM.
Immense Crowds at Scene of ExplO-
sion Yesterday-Albcrt HaywOrth
Also Was Killed.


one years Of age, of New Augusta, who
was fatally injured by falling timbers at
Watts's drug store, died an hour after be-
ing taken home Saturday night. The body
at Whitsetts morgue has been identified as
that of Albert Hayworth, a huckster, of
Westfield, Ind. Friends called at Whitsetts
morgue yesterday morning and identified
the body by a piece of corduroy cloth, out
of which his trousers were made A bit of
the cloth still chung to one of the stumpy
legs. Aside from this there was absolutely
no clew to the identity of the body. 1t is
known, however, that Hayworth was in
the building. A few moments before the
fire he hitched his horses in front of Samuel
Kelsoe's boarding house and ran to the
burning grocery to assist in the work of
salvage. Thomas Delaney saw him carry
ing a sack of coffee over his shoulder at
the time the crash came and says that
Hayworth called to him for assistance aft
er they were buried in the ruins.
The only body not yet positively identi-
fled is the one that was numbered four
by the coroner and is described as that of
a large. powerful man. This is now believed
to be that of Henry Earnest, an old SOL
der. Friends have been notified in Penn
sylvania and it is understood that his SIS
ter is en- route to the city. This body has
not yet been released by the coroner, who
has given permission for the burial of all
others. Coroner Brayton was anxious to
have the identity of each body absolutely
established so that friends and relatives
would not be worried in future with the
idea that the wrong body had been given
them.
Yesterday morning the Journal called at
tention to the fact that there was some
confusion about the identification of the
bodies The one numbered was identified
Earnest by witnesses that the coroner
regarded as reliable. No. was identified
as Charles Yountz by wire sleeve holders,
instead of being John Porter whose father
and Dickie Cruise said that he wore such
holders. AS the body that was first identified
as YountZ turns out to be Porter, No. g.
first identified as Earnest, has now been
identified as YountZ, leaving only one, the
large, unnamed body, to be identified as
Earnest. The coroner says that all the
others have been satisfactorily identified by
friends and that the remaining body must
be that of Earnest, by exclusion at least.
PiouS Il. Gresh was taken to Broad Rip
pie from Flanner IL BuchananS morgue
yesterday morning and buried yesterday
morning. John Porter's body is still at the
morgue. His funeral will occur from
Chapel, Ind, this morning at 10
o'clock. He will be buried in the Chapel
Cemetery, a mile northeast of Broad Rip
pie. AT the same hour the funeral of Ja-
cob Darling will be held at New Augusta.
Earnest'S body will be held until his sister
arrives from Pennsylvania: Friends of
Charles Yountz called at Flanner & Blu
chanan'S morgue last night to arrange for
his funeral. Albert HayworthS body will
be shipped this morning at o'clock from
Whitsetts morgue to WeStfeld, where his
funeral will take place.
IMMENSE CROWDS THERE.
Never in the history of Broad Ripple, not
even at the time of the horrible railroad
wreck several years ago, have such crowds
invaded the quiet little village as yesterday.
News of the catastrophe spread by word
of mouth over the surrounding country for
a radius of thirty or forty miles, and peo-
pie two counties away took advantage of
the fine weather to drive to the scene of the
terrible happening. From the time the first
rosy streaks in the east proclaimed the
coming of a new day until the sun set and
the moon shed white weired light over
the blackened ruins, the crowds f1ocked
into the little town. Men who had seen the
explosion, listened to the shrieks of the
dying and afterwards assisted to recover
foundation walls CT the four buildings and
poured the tale into the ears of eager
smoldering rubbish during the day, and
after darkness hid the scene burning straw
in the ruins Of Whites livery
somber black, and sweethearts in
white waists strolled in the soft
moonlight listening to the story as it was
rehearsed by the -gray-whiskered villager
who had seen and heard everything that
occurred from q safe vantage point. He
declared that there was no explosion in
the grocery store, and that natural gas
had nothing TO do with the calamity. He
said that he fastened down to North street
AT the time he arrived the walls were
still falling. Already the building was in
flames. Inside Of it natural gas pipes that
supplied the Illuminating burners were
snapped off and the gas poured into the
building. He says the flames whirled
round and round in rings, the lnf1amma-
BILE stock of drugs being supplemented by
the gas. In the rear room of the drug
store, he says, there was shelf upon shelf
lined with cans of turpentine, gasoline, lin
seed oil and other combustible fluids al
ways found in stock of paints. 1t is his
theory that when the partition between the
front and back rooms was burned through
the fire attacked the combuSt1ble stock and
caused a second explosion. The side wall
of the drug store was within eight feet of
the rear end of the grocery. which was
already in flames. When the second ex-
plosion occurred in the drug store, he says,
the conclusion blew in the west end of the
grocery and the shock was so great that
the north and south walls were blown out
of place, letting the second story, contain
ing Odd Fellows Hall, down upon the
men who were trying to save the stock.
His story of what happened afterWard did
not differ materially from that Of other
Broad Ripple rejected the natural-gas idea
of the explosion yesterday, but others
declared that that was what caused 1t and
nothing else. One man said he had often
detected the oder of gas, both in the drug
store and the grocery. He declared that
there not cellar in the place that
was not being flooded with the deadly
fluid at all hours, and expressed wonder
that casualties were not OF more frequent
occurrence.
THEORY OF FIRST EXPLOSION.
Now that the excitement has somewhat
subsidized, James M. Watts, at whose drug
store the first explosion occurred recalls
an overlooked circumstance that may ac-
count for the first explosion. Under the
stairway that led to the second story his
son. Edgar E Watts, an amateur pho
tographer has fixed up the dark room for
the development of photographs. In the
floor of the dark room was a little trap
door over the valve that supplied the pipes
Mr. Watts'S theory is that gas mad eS-
caped through a leak in the valve, which,
in the summer time is closed, and that the
gas had accumulated under the floor. He
such a point that it had begun to crawl
through the trap and that enough had
come into the dark room to cause the eX
ploSiOn just at the moment his sons COM
panion struck the match 1t Will be re-
membered that the lamp had grown faint
er and fainter, although it was turned up
twice and finally the blaze expired entirely.
Some who heard of the trap in the
dark room for the first time were inclined
70 believe that natural gas was the cause
of the explosion in the drug store instead
of chemicals, and that if there was not
a similar accumulation under the grocery
neither building had ceIlar-that one Of
the gas mines under the latter building
Il he ion Fe6 in