Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1902-10-03
n,rD LIKE A OU POINT.
How One Of the Powder MalStns
49, Family Met His Fate.

,,o,v One Of the Powder Making
Family Met His Fate.
vt-,stin,, an aDanger and Daring" in 81.
,s;.','oIos Cleveland MOffett tells how i
,,onber Of the great powder making firm
- Tn Points went to a hero's death when /
duty called him;
ct me conclude with the mention OF a /
remarkable family Of explosive makers, T
the Du Points Of Wilmington, Who for gen /
erations now have had practical manOp-
oIv in this country Of the powder making
business, including dynamite and nitro
pIvcerin. In this enterprise a great for
tnne has accumulated, so that the Du
Points Of today are very rich men, far be-
yond any need of working in the mills
themselves, and hay1 been for years.
4 Yet work in the mills they do-all Of
them practically-and direct In every de-
/ tail all the processes Of manufacture and
face continually, day by day, in their own
persons the same terrible dangers that
the humblest mixer faces In his tasks.
There has grown In their hearts through
the century great pride Of courage, Ike
that Of the officer who leads his meA into
battle-n pride Ear stronger than any long
ing for pleasure. And they cannot, il
they would. leave these slow, grinding
mills, where any day a spark may bring
catastrophe 10 make the whole land shud-
der
There came a day, for instance-this
was u long time ago-when a swift fame
swept through one OF the mixing rooms.
nearly empty Of powder at the time, yet
so permcated with the stuff in floor and
walls that the building was burning
fercely In a few seconds. No man can
say what started II, although Il was be-
lieved that a heavy box slid along the
\ floor brought a fash out Of the dry tim
bers
At any rate. the fash came. and tbs
= blaze followed on It so swiftly that tht
building was wrapped IN fire before thu
). men inside could reach the door, anC
/. they presently burst out blazing them
Is Solves for their clothing was siftes
3 through with explosive dust. Indeed
. * always true in fires az powder mill
y that the workmen are a serious menac
= 10 the buildings by reason Of their owl
y innummability
d SO the next thing was q plunge int
D the placid BrandFwine. which wind
n across the yards between willow hun
% banks In went the mcns IN went youn
"A Alexis Du pont and with a little his
A their flaming garments we're eKtinguisk
81 cd Then. ms they struck ont Into III
81 stream, they looked back and saw tina
20 the wind wns carrying a shower {
90 sparks from the burning building to Il
o. roof OF a cutting mill near by, wh,I
y y tons OF powder lay. For one Of Il
p sparks to reach the tiniest powder trai
3e would mean the blowing up OF this mi
y and It might be the blowing up Of al
81 other and another by conclusion.
05 All this young Du Pont realized in
= single glance Here would be an awf
4 disaster presently and many lives II
periled unless those falling aFebrnni
~. could somehow be kept of that roof.
know this was TO act. Millionaire
% not, peril or not, It was his plain du
81 Us Du Pont to fight those sparks, a!
O. without moments wavering he turn
5d hack aud scrambled up the bank.
8 "Come on, boysw he cried Start {
e bucket line" And a moment later
y was climbing to the roof Of the threate
o. ed mill And there he did al that
l. brave man can do. he stamped out
= falling embers, he dashed water agl
5 70 and again upon the kindling hre as
) = men passed up full buckets, and for
~ time he seemed to conquer, but presen
! * the FIRE famed hotter, the sparks ca
S9s enough. He saw-he must have seel
3 % that the struggle was hopeless; that
9 Is mill beneath him was doomed; that
2 q explosion must come soon. They cal
3 i on him to save himself He shon
8 back an order that they pass up m
: q water and keep passing wateg.
IS The men below did their best, but
8 g was a vain effort, for 10 those days
- roofs Of powder mills wero made Of pi
and cemont-nOt of iron, as today
rs by this time the ERE had eaten rs '
and nearly through Alexis Du Pont. work
$751; desperately, stood there with haI
an. spreading all around him. II was pl
run 10 every ono that the minutes q his
via were numbered. Again they shout
and
The explosion came like an eEecutl
H. and out OF the WRECK OF Il they
way away his crushed aud broken bedy.
cit1 last thing be knew, was that he
played the game out fairly to the
iyia He died like Du Pont, said the men.