The sun., 1898-12-24
HOW EXPLOSION HAPPENED
Eye Witnesses Of the du Pont
Disaster Tell the Coroner's
jury.
MR.. FRlZZELL EXONERATED
The Five Men Were Killed by Acct
dent Was the Verdict Rem.
dered by the jury Last
Evening at the
Inquest. 81

\
Deputy Coroner Chandler on the victims
Of the recent disastrous and fatal explo.
sion Of 1900 pounds of black rifle pow
| der.
The victims Of the explosion were al
follows:
Thomas McCann, Robert Mcllhenny
John Moore, John Wright and Samuel
Stewart.
There seemed to be an effort made to
lay the blame of the accident on Samuel
Frizzel, groceryman, of Rising Sun, but
when all of the evidence was in the jury
rendered a verdict of accidental death,
| caused by the overturning and explod-
ing of a car loaded with powder.
The first witness called was John
Stewart, brother of one of the victims o1
the accident.
Mr.. Stewart said he saw the accident
and that it was caused by Samuel Friz-
zell driving recklessly In front Of the
horses attached to the powder car, caus-
ing them to fly off the track and over
throw the car loaded with powder,
which was followed by a flash of burn
ing powder, which in turn was followed
by the explosion in the press room.
The witness said he would not swear
that FrizzelPs wagon struck the horse
attached to the powder car.
John Murphy, the next witness called,
was sworn and testified that he had been
in the employ Of the du Points lfor
twenty-nine years, and said he saw the
explosion and events leading up to it.
He stated that he was going up to zee
Stewart and noticed five men on the car.
One of them was at the brake, another
was at the chains.
He saw Mr.. Frizzell coming down the
road and did not think he had room TO
get between the lead horse Of the DOW.
der wagon.
Mr.. Murphy said that Frizzell's wagon
did not strike the lead horse and that
the explosion did not occur until Frizzell
was rs feet past the car. In his opin-
ion the explosion was caused by care
lessness which might be termed an acci-
dent.
Samuel Frizzell was the next witness
and in straightforward manner told
his story Of the affair.
He said that he was driving through
the yard towards Rising Sun with his
horse attached to no top buggy.
"When l passed the powder car" said
Mr.. Frizzell, 'there was six feet between
my wagon and the lead horse OF the
powder car"
When about go feet past them he heard
the men in charge Of the car calling to
the horses to whoa" Looking over his
shoulder to see what the trouble was, he
saw fash which was followed by an
explosion that knocked his horse down.
From what he saw of the actions OF the
horses it looked as if the lead horse had
tried to follow his buggy.
He further stated that he was we'll
with the horses and nothing
that he did could have frightened them.
f'H my buggy had struck the horses and
caused them to upset the car would not
be here now to tell Of it, said Mr.. Friz-
zell.
Mr.. Frizzell said that among the many
reports of the affair there was one which
ALLEGED that he had struck his horse
with whip. This he branded as a |
fabrication and stated that he never
carried whip in his buggy.
The Coroner's jury were as follows:
Charles Whann, M. H. Moysten, W. H.
Murphy, w. G. Martin, Howard Garrett,
]. ]. Dougherty, E. E. Meyers and J. D.
Woodward.
The same jury sat in the inquest on the
body Of Sebastian Diverty, who was re-
Gently killed on the railroad, and rem
dered a verdict Of accidental death.