The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-01-28
THE FORGE WAS TERRIFIC
Windows Broken Many Blocks
 from the Scene.
Park Avenue Shaft of the Transit Tunnel in New York is Wrecked-Property Loss
 $1,ooo, ,ooo.

of high explosives stored at the Park Avenue shaft of the Rapid Transit tun- mel. now in course of construction. blew up shortly after noon today. The giant blast killed eight persons, injured hun dred and seriously damaged all the prop erty reached by the flying debris and the vibration of the shock. The irregular square formed by the Murray Hill Ho- tel, on the west, the Manhattan Eye ana Ear Hospital and the Grand Union Hotel on the east, and the Grand Central Rail- road Station on the north, was the scene of the explosion. The buildings named sustained the greatest damage, but the area affected extended for several blocks in the four directions.
 The kiiled-Cyrus Adams, cigar man at the Murray Hill Hotel; James Carr, S2 years. waiter employed at the Murray Hill Hotel; ;-. Hein. 2S, of Ansonia, Conn; J. Roderick Robertson of Nelson. B. C.; John H. Thompson. assistant engineer Gall outside reports seem to agree as to his death, but his body is not reported by the police or by the hospitaD; Will liam Tubbs Cor Charles) master mechanic for contractor J. A. Shalcr
 The list of injured is an exceedingly large one, but most of those in it have only cuts caused by falling glass. Those more seriously hourt and those from places other than New York city are:
 Miss Best, IS, Newport, R. l., Murray Hill Hotel, face and head cut; Mrs. Best, 70, Newport. R. l., Murray Hill Hotel. face and head cut; William R. Bristol. s5, Mereden. Conn.,, Murray Hill Hotel. face and head cut; Walter P. Bristol! 50. Murray Hill Hotel. concussion of brain. St. vincents Hospital: Mrs. James F. Bunting, Boston, face and hands cut; Mir. Cummings sTrcy, N. +. hands. face and neck cut; Mrs. s. Cummings, Troy, 7 N. Y., face and hands cut; George Chapin, Stamford, Conn.,, cuts: Charles B. Gaines. New York city, shoulder dis located and many bruises; J. C. Gilchrist 45, Columbus, Ohio, Murray Hill Hotel. face and head cut; Edward Juhde, 7l9 South Third Street, Philadelphia. cut about head: E. M- Lewis, Lima, Ohio. head and face cut; w. J. Nok, S1, New York city, severe scalp wounds;~ Mrs. Benjamin Moore. 35. Madison, Ns J., Manhattan Hospital. face and hands cut; Rev. Father Ryan, New England, head face and arms cut; Mrs. H. c. Scott, 40 Kingston, N Y., face and head cut; Jefferson Stanton, Bridgeport, Conn.,, shock and slight cuts on face; John Weiss. New York city. scalp wounds. con CuSSlOu OL IilJuIIeS.
 J. Roderick Robertson of Nelson, B. C., was killed by debris hurled with the force of artillery into his room at the Murray Hill Hotel He was general manager in Canada for the British Columbia Gold fields Company, Limited, and promi- nent citizen. He Is said to have been quite wealthy.
 The sunken approach to the street rail- way tunnel used by the Madison Avenue line cuts through Park Avenue, and the shaft for the Rapid Transit subway was run down beside it at the intersection of East Forty-first Street. The street rail- way approaches were housed over with a superstructure used for the operating plant of the Rapid Transit contractors Temporary buildings for storage purposes were thrown up against the superstruc- ture at the mouth of the shaft, and there the explosion occurred. It tore a great gorge in the street. demolished the tenn porary buildings and part of the supe1- structure and sent a mass of earth splntered timbers and twisted iron high in the air
 Much of 1t went battering against the front of the Murray Hill Hotel, and aI- though 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 as badly, and had to be abandoned by the management
 The Grand Union Hotel lost all of it's windows and glass partitions and practi- cally 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 several blocks from the tunnel shaft, fell in fragments. It was the shower of broken glass and falling debris that injured the greatest num- ber
 Fortunately the explosion occurred at the noon hour. Not more than hundred persons were in the main waiting room of the Grand Central Station, though in the smoking room at the southwest cor ner a number of men were lounging. Some of these were slightly injured by bits of glass. Four ticket sellers were in jured. They stood in the pathway of this blast and were all cut about the heads and arms with the flying slivers.
 The clerical force in the executive of- fees of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. which occupy the floors above the first In the eastern wing of the depot were thrown about by the shock. A. T. Turner. record clerk in Superintendent Shepard's office, was thrown from his chair and his hands were badly lacerated. In the next room to Turner's. Chief Dispatcher c. B. Will son and his four assistants who were directing the trains of the New Haven line. having several hundred trains to look out for. were scratched with flying glass. but did not leave their chairs, even when they could not see their instru- ments because of the smoke One man, Foster who was watching a single track strip in Connecticut. did not even get mn to look at the ruins after the smoke cleared away.
 fine station tonight presented some- what the appearance of dismintled cas- fla the big windows being only ragged holes.
 General alarms brought hreTen. police reserves and every available ambulance GO the district and the injured were