The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-11-06
FIREWORKS HORROR.
Daylight Showed 1t Worse
Than Suspected.
6RISLIEST SIGHT IN YEARS
And No Law Prevents More
Such Spsetaclcs.

Inquiry Brings Out the Fact That the
Police Had No Power TO Prevent It
A blanket Permit Of the AID ermcn
Covered Such Displays And ". n.
TIears,'s Agents Chose This Place
His Picture Was BeinG Chcerrd while
the Victims Lay Dead Not Many Yards
Away-Death List J.; and More VIII Die
OF the many city employees Of various
departments who found extra work await
ing them yesterday morning a. the result
Of the fireworks horror In Madison avenue
on election night that of the street sweepers
was the most CHASTITY and grewsone.
II was their lot to remove, as far as pos
sble, all trace Of the carnage Of the night
before In every little depression in tho
asphalt between Twenty fourth and Twen-
ty-ffth streets they found pool Of blood.
They picked up bits of human flesh on the
sidewalks, in the cutters and on IN" grass
plots in the park.
II was not until daylight came that any
realizing sense could be had of all the hor-
rible details of the tragedy The full glare
Of day revealed things that could only be
guessed at the night before as the rescuers
groped about among the dead and dying
On cleo; ion night nobody saw a fragment
Of a child's hand wodged between the iron
Jalings Of Dr. Parkhurst's church That
was one of many of the CHASTITY finds Of
yesterday morning. The hand was proba-
hlv that OF one of the small boys who were
literally torn 70 pieces half block away
from the church and whose mangled bodies
are now at the Morgue.
Small boys seemed TO fare the worst
A man on his way down TO business yes
'erday morning walked down Maids on
avenue Curiosity to see the scene OF the
disaster led him to go that way. He was
sorry later that had not followed his usual
route.
Among other things that this man saw
vas a wisp Of light hair clinging 10 the
brownstone front of the Bishop residence
The hair was attached TO tho stone by a
piece Of scalp. II was on a level with the
top If first story window. The glass
ia that window, as in many others, was
shattered and the exposed window cur
tains were ruined by blood stains.
There were enough fragments Of flesh
scraped from the rough stone surface Of
this house front to fill a quart measure.
Across the avenue in the park was more
human debris as evidence Of the fearful
force with which the victims Of the ex-
plosion were torn to pieces. A foot was
found resting against the curb OF the foua-
tain basin. Park laborers raked the grass
and the harvest was heap OF fragments
# coats and hats and shoes. And in the
pile were two fingers and another bloody
fragment OF a foot.
WORSE THAN FIRST STORIES TOLD.
Unlike the accounts OF most tragedies :.
the first stories of this one erred on the
side OF conservatism. Yesterdays careful
investigation showed that the facts were
worse than the most sensational accounts
If the night before had made them out
TO be.
On the night Of the slaughter. for in
stance, a very circumstantial story of Just
how Policeman Shea had been killed was
told by an excited bystander, who had been
in the crowd within the danger zone. His
story was to the effect that the back of
Shea S head had been crushed in by fiy-
ing piece of iron.
The policemans body lay on the pave
ment covered by his big uniform overcoat.
Nobody thought to lift the covering for
the purpose of verifying the bystander's
story. There were too many injured TO be
cared for and too many dead to be identified
10 get at all the particulars Of one victim
end.
But when Shea's body reached the Morgue
' some time yesterday morning 1t was found
that he had died with his face to the fire
II was not his head, but his body, that had
been torn TO pieces by the bursting of tho
mortar. A section, six inches long, of the
chilled steel cylinder had penetrated his
chest and actually cut his heart in two.
At the same time his face was reduced to
u shapcless pulp by piece of bombshell,
THOUSANDS NEAR ny DIDN'T KNOW.
The most astonishing thing about this
whole sicr ening tragedy Of election night
was that it occurred within sight and sound
of thousands who knew nothing about IL
till the next morning, when the news
papers came out.
one man who spent the whole eVorir u
q, the Manhattan Club looking at Il Q cleo
ton returns knew nothing Of the oaiaInity
uIill he read about II yesterday morning
The same was undoubtedly true of many
others who spent the evening AT the Man
haitian Club. Yet that club IL within "A
short block and half Of the house that was
shattered with blood and fccked with bite
q flesh.
affair was Conccntr rated within two blocks
When they were ready to 20 home the men
and women who had witnessed 1t followed
the lines of least resistance and, instead of
forcing their way through tho greater
crowd on the Broadway side Of the park
telling their story As they went along,
hurried east through the side streets To the
Third a Fourth aveiiac car lir"s
The throngs in the Fifth Avenue Hotel
and Holman House corridors and the
thousands ia front Of more hotels knew
nothing Of the tragedy. II they heard
the explosion above the urroar Of and
music and the yell, of the multitude or IL
they noticed that the fireworks display
had come To a sudden end thel g We're plenty
of explanations for both without think
ing of the possibility of a tragedy.
The explosion occurred exactly at 1910
O'Clock. About that time the returns
from up the state began to indicate pretty
conclusiv'ly that Odell was elected That
fact furnished the explanation for the
cessation of the Hearst fireworks.
One man in the Broadway crowd said:
We'll, Coler's licked. Willie Hearst has
quit sending up rockets"
For the next two hours Hearsts pho
tograph was flashed onto the Journals