The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-11-06

500 feet away
The flight Of the crowd that had been
pressed m about the bursting mortar. wss
in the opinion of everybody in the mob,
"A race FOR life although the danger was
really over within a second or 80 after the
first crash In that time everything en-
plosivc had exploded. and IL took longer
than that for the panic-stricken crowd To
face about and spread out enough TO be
able to run at all
II was crowd Of many concent ric circles.
he centre of which was the deadly battery
Of mortals. And while those in the inner
circles were shrieking with pain or groan-
ing with the fear of what might Yet happen.
feeling the blood from their own or their
neighbors' wounds on their hands and
faces, those in the outer circles We're yelling
for this or that candidate and showing good
naturedly To get nearer 10 the fireworks
FLIGHT FROM THE HORROR
But that lasted for less than a minute
The fear and dread was rapidly contagious
II took Possession Of the thousands, who
owe their lives or limbs to the fact that
they didn't get 10 the show early enough
to have front places, or that they were not
in the path of the missiles that went over
the heads of the crowd. And then the
crowd dispersed leaving dead and diving
on the pavement.
They fled through Twenty-third, Twenty
fourth and Twenty-fifth streets and only
few had the desire or the courage to come
back
There were many women among the fugi-
tiTcS and some Of them had children. One
woman with baby in her arms ran
through Twentv-fourth street, unhurt.
but shrieking MY baby My baby" She
outran the crowd tina, was going in the
same direction and was barely saved by a
policeman from stumbling headlong into
ali excavation in FOurt h avenue.
The policeman asked her what the trouble
was and she repeated My baby" The
child was not injured When the police
man had convinced the mother Of that
she became hysterical She was only one
OF many women who broke down in the
same way after the eXertion and excite
ment Of getting away We're over.
=, pp!c vito vr-c on their way TO the
fireworks or the bulletin boards and who
had '.either heard nor seen anything Of 'he
accident. We're met 10y the terror-striCken
fugitiyes and uNinc,ivcly turned and ran
with them without: stopping TO ask qlIes-
tions.
FIXING The BLAME.
Assistant District Attorneys Schurman
and Train and Coroner Scholer worked all
yesterday trying to fix the blame.
Tho legal proceedings began with the
arraignmert of the nine employees of the
Pain Fireworks Company. who had been
locked up over night, before Magistrate
Barlow ia the Jefferson Market police
court, There was no eNamiI at ion there
At the request Of Inspector Brooks and
Capt. Walsh, the prisoners were all re-
manded TO the Coroner. The result of
the days Investigation was the holding
Of John Craig, the foreman in charge Of
the fireworks display. in $4,000 bonds on
| charge of manslaughter, and the holding
of John S,amm and William Ridley as
witnesses. The other prisoners were dis
charged.
The man who actually set Of the bomb
hat h.Nt Ifa.a La,
yet. He disappeared in the confusion
following the blow-up. He Is an Italian,
and, although he has been in the employ
OF the fireworks company for some time,
the members Of that company and his
foreman, Craig, said that they did not
know hi, name or address. Coroner
Soholer has ISSUED a warrant for him
Craig was released last night on a $40 600
bond furnished by Henry Pain, BROTH
Of James c. Pain, president Of the COM
pany. President Pain is In London.
The foreman charged with manslaughter
has been In the pyrotechuic business for
twenty-one years and Is an expert. He
had charge OF the fireworks display IN
London at King Edwards coronation and he
also had charge Of the fireworks at the in
auguration Of President Palma of Cuba
Craig's father. who died a month ago,
was an English expert in high explosives.
MORTAR THAT DID THE KILLING
Yesterday examinations by the Coroner
and Mr. Schurinan were held separately
and behind closed doors, but later in the
| day all hands got together and went over
practically the same ground with the re-
porters present.
Fragments If the shattered mortars
| were brought down 10 the Criminal Court
Building that the invest igators might get
| a better idea Of just what had happened
| and incidentally get some faint inkIing of
that material II was that had killed and
manned so many people,
| Foreman Craig Was able to give "a very
| lucid explanation of what had happened
| but could not tell how il had happared
| The mortar, which did the greatest damage
was one of the largest provided for the dis =
play 1t was five feet loI .riLo inches in diam
| eter and made of chilled steel in two lavcr3,
with an aggregate thickness of half an inch.
| At the top and bottom the cylinder wa
| reinforced with additional half-inch steel
| bands Inside the bottom was IA bowl
| manned intact The cylinder itself was
| blown into hundred pieces and IL was
these Jagged fragments Of metal that did
| he killing.
The bomb Foreman Craig explained,
| IL placed in the bottom of the mortar and
| fired by a long fuse which trails ont over
| the top of the cylinder and on he ground
| for ten feet or more. The bomb is in two
| parts-a spherical shell containing the
| smaller bombs that are intended to ex-
| plode in COlOred stars IN lnlddlf, ana
| conical case, beneath the sphere, which
| contains the charge of gun powder for
! sending the bomb skyward. This gun
powder charge, of course, II alone intended
| TO explode in the mortar,
The long fuse which goes from tho ground
| down into the cylinder connects wit IN two
| other fuses on the bomb One of them
il quick firing and leads 10 the gunpowder
| ON the bottom. The other Is slow fire.
leads into the heart of the spherical shell
| and is timed o explode it when II Is 800 feet
| in the air
FvsE PROBABLY DEFECTIVE,
Three explanations Of the premature
explosion were offered by Craig. The first
which was that accepted by Coroner Scholer
and Mr. Schurman as the most plausible,
| was that the quick fire fuse was defective
and didn't ignite the gunpowder in time
| 10 send the whole thing into the air before
| tho slow-fre fuse caused the explosion of
| the shell itself within the mortar. Another
| explanation was that the bomb was care
| lessly put into the mortar upside down 40
| that the explosion Of the pc" der would not
raise il The third theory VAS that eX-
| plosiyc gases had accumulated In the mortar
as the result, of previous discharges. That
| theory was an aitcrthought on the part OF
| Craig, who remembered IL as the cause OF
! a sinlliar explosion several years ago AZ
Manhattan Beach.
TEL me about that explosion said the
tOrolcr.
The foreman told Of the bursting Of the
. t1a. hat doh