The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-11-20
SUNDAYS EXPLOSION
Large Crowds View the Wreck.
Some Reckless Chance Takers.
Funeral of Mr.. Wilson.

The scene Of the fatal boiler explosion
on Sunday morning at Van Bergen &
Co.'S foundry, near Dundaff street, con-
tinued to be mecca for many curious
pilgrims yesterday. There were not as
large crowds pressing around the heaps
of bricks and wreckage as there were
on Sunday, but that was only because
most of the city's laborers had to work
yesterday. There were many ladies
who came to the spot to have pointed
out to them the place where Wilson Is
supposed to have been standing when
the disaster occurred, and then walked
up the canal bed, 200 feet away, where
his burned and scalded body struck.
There is a spot about a foot square
broken from the bank here, and these
onlookers gazed with fascinated eyes
and with shudders at the indentation
in the black loan.
The debris that lay scattered over
wide area on Sunday morning was be-
ing accumulated slowly into heaps all
day by force Of laborers yesterday,
and the tedious work will occupy all of
the week. The wall that adjoined the
engine room, or what is left standing
of it. is in a very unstable condition
and is extremely liable to come down
at any moment. This part of the wreck
should be Stunned by the people who
come to look at the scene, but with
careless disregard for their own safety
and the nervous apprehensions of
others they press heedlessly on, rum
ming chances that most of them would
condemn in Others They are warned
back by watchmen and others, but
with shrug of the shoulders they pass
these human obstacles, who tamely let
them go on. This rear wall will have
to come down. any way. and the COM
pany should demolish it at once and
avoid all chances of a possible damage
suit from passerby hit by brick or
crippled or worse.
Workmen We're busy all day vester-
day digging a ditch from the electric
plant to the machine shop of the
foundry and erecting wooden conduit.
The company will install an electric
motor in the foundry today and expect
to resume casting tomorrow.
Opinions and theories still continue to
be put forth by every man who visits
the ruins. 1t makes no difference
whether the talker has ever seen a
boiler before or not. He expounds his
ideas to a little knot of onlookers and
is sincere in his belief that he knows
just how it happened. Among the en-
gineers and other technical men the
impression prevails very strongly that
the boiler had been allowed to become
dry and that Wilson discovered this
and let the water run in. Some men
virtually took their life in their hands
on Sunday and yesterday by Chamber
ing over the piles Of wreckage and
at 4
peering in. The boiler still rests on
one corner, with the furnace end down
and the arch is loosely held by por-
tion of wall. The slightest disturb
ance would not only probably bring
hundreds Of pounds of brick down on
these adventurous men, but it might
result in the boiler falling over and
crushing them. 1t was a perilous
undertaking and the police should be
used to restrain such foolhardy eX-
ploits, if common sonse will not suf-
fice.
Camera fiends were in evidence all
day and on a little culm bank thirty
feet away tripods We're set up with
out number and rubber bulbs squeezed
to take an exposure of the greatest ex-
plosion that has ever been witnessed in
Carbondale.
Coroner Roberts has picked a body
of representative citizens to serve on
his jury, but in the interests of the
people he will not make public the
names as yet. The jury were at the
scene of the wreck yesterday morning
and surveyed the ruins.
The brass shop and core shops i'm
mediately adjoining the wrecked boiler
room We're badly stirred up, the walls
being blown down and hundreds of
bricks raining in the apertures. Had
the accident happened on a weekday
it would have been a miracle If large
number of men had not been hurt. Be-
sides this, large number of persons
pass the foundry as u short cut over
the bridge leads from Main to Dundaff
streets and it is made quite a thor
oughfare.
The man who was seen talking to
Wilson just before the explosion is be-
lieved to be man named Padden. A