The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-28
EXPLOSION IN SUBWAY
Six Persons Are Killed, One Hundred Injured and Much Property Dam
 aged in New York.
DYNAMITE CREATES HAVOC
THE AREA EFFECTED EXTENDED
 FOR SEVERAL BLOCKS.

FOR SEVERAL BLOCKS.
 Murray HiiI Hotel, Grand Union Hotel
 the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospita
 and the Grand Central Station sus
 tained the Greatest Damage-Murra,
 FEtII Abandoned as Unsafe-Enginee
 and Two Foremem Arrested.
 New York, Jan 27.-The reserve sup ply of high explosives stored at tn Park avenue shaft of the Rapid Transi Tunnel blew Up shortly after noon to- day and carried death to six persons injury to a hundred others and seriou: damage to much property, which sui fered from a huge volley of debris anc the vibration of the detonation.
 The irregular square formed by the Murray Hill hotel on the west, the Man haitian Eye and Ear hospital and the Grand Union hotel on the east and the Grand Central station on the north was the scene of the explosion, The pullo- ings named sustained the greatest dam age, but the area affected extended for several blocks in the four directions from the center. The list of dead fol- lows:
 Cyrus Adams, cigar man at the Mur- ray Hill hotel.
 James Carr thirty-two years old, a waiter employed at the Murray Hill hotel.
 - Hefn, twenty eight years old, of Ansonia, Conn.
 J. Roderfck Robinson, of Nelson, E. C., a guest at the Murray Hill hotel.
 John H. Thompson, assistant engineer Gall outside reports seem to agree as to his death, but the finding of his body is not reported by the police or by the hospitals).
 William Cor Charles) Tubbs, master mechanic for Contractor Ira A. Shaler.
 J. Roderick Roberson, of Nelson, B. C.. was killed by debris hurled into the room in the Murray Hill hotel which he occupied. He was the general manager in Canada for the British Columbia Gold Fields company, Limited, and a prominent citizen in the community where he lived He was Scotchman and left a widow and four children. He is said to have been quite wealthy.
 The sunken approach to the street railway tunnel used by the Madison avenue line cuts through Park avenue, and the shaft for the Rapid Transit subway wa.s run down beside it at the intersection of East Forty-first street. The street railway approach was hous- ed over with a superstructure that was used for the operating plant of the
 .4,.p,,, ,tn,.c ryr buildings for storage purposes were thrown up against the superstructure at the mouth of the shaft, and there the explosion occurred It tore a great gorge in the street, demolishtng the temporary buildings and part of the su- perstructure and sent mass of earth, splintered timber and twisted iron high in the air. Muct of it went crashing against the front of the Murray Hill hotel. and although the walls and main structure of that building stood the shock. nearly every room in the front of the house was wrecked.
 The Manhattan Eye and Ear hospital, on the east side of the avenue, fared nearly as badly and had to be abandon ed by the management.
 The Grand Union hotel lost all of it's windows and glass partitions, and prac- ticalIy every front window in the Grand Central station was shattered. The great clocks on it's front towers were blown from their cases. Thousands of windows some of them seven blocks from the tunnel shaft, fell in fragments, It was the showers of broken glass and falling debris which injured so many persons.
 General alarms brought firemen. po- lice reserves and ambulances, and the injured were speedily cared for. Tor rents of water from broken mains rorred into the tunnel shaft while the wreckage was being cleared from the street railway subway, and it was fear ed that the street might cave in.
 The cause of the explosion and the quantity of explosives which blew up are not definitely known. Several causes have been advanced, but an official in o,1irv will probably be required to re- veal the reason. District Attorney Jerome visited the scene and made an investiga tion to guide him in the official inquiry and the possible criminal prosecution which may follow. Ira A. Shaler, engineer in charge of he work at Park avenue; John Brack- en. foreman. and Martin McGrath an ' assistant foreman, were all placed un- der arrest. the charge being homicide. ! William Barclay Parsons, chief engi- neer of the Rapid Transit commission, said that Shaier was one of the most competent and careful engineers he . ever knew.
 The damage may exceed $1,000000. | The first estimate on the Murray Hill 1 hotel placed the loss at $1OO O00 but af- | forwards the hotel was abandoned as l unsafe. If the building is condemned | the loss on it alone will approach $1,- D00.0 GOO The damage to the Grand Union hotel is estimated at $4o,O00 and that to the Eye and Ear hospital at s25, ,0O0 The loss at the Grand Central station is entirely in glass, as is that of the one hundred or more other build ings affected by the explosion. No es-
 Continued on Third Pagel