The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1902-01-28

MANY WERE INJURED
While Some Of The Victims Are Badly
Hurt, IL Is Not Believed Any WIN
ie-Property Destroyed 10
Estimated 1000, 900.

New York. Jan 2S.-The explosion
yesterday of the reserve supply OF
high explosives stored at the Park ave
nue. shaft OF the Rapid Transit tunnel
now in course of construction, killed
six persons. injured a hundred others
and seriously damaged all the proper
ty reached by the flying debris and the
vibration of the shock.
The irregular square formed by the
Murray Hill hotel ON t&e west. the
Manhattan Eye and Ear hospital and
the Grand Union hotel on the east,
and the Grand Central railroad sta
ton on the north was the scene Of
the explosion The buildings named
sustained the great damage but the
area extended for several blocks in
four directions
The Killed were.
Cyrus Adams. cigar man at the Muir
ray Hill hotel.
james Carr. waiter employed at
the Murray Hnt.
Lawrence Hein. of Ausonia, Conn
J Rodefick Robertson. Of Nelson, 3.
C.
Ralph II. Thompson, assistant engi-
neer
Thos. Tubbs. master mechanic for
contractor SHAKER.
The list of injured is an exceeding.
~ long one but most of those in IT
have only cuts caused by flying glass.
None are believed To be seriously
hurt
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 was run down beside 1t at the
intersection OF East Fortyhrst street.
The street railway approaches were
housed over with "A superstructure
used for the operating plant Of the
Rapid Transit contractors. Temporal
ny occurred. 1t tore great gorge in
the street, demolished the temporary
buildings and part Of the superstruc-
ture and sent mass Of earth. splinter
ed timber and twisted iron high in
the air Much of IL went batering
against the front Of the Murray Hin
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 hospi-
tai on the east Of the avenue, Jared
nearly as bad and had TO be abandoned
By the management The Grand Union
hotel lost all Of its windows and glass
partitions and practically every front
window 10 the Grand Central station
was shattered. The great clocks on
itg front towers were blown from their
cases. Thousands of windows, some
Of them seven blocks from the tunnel
shaft fell in fragments 1t was the
shower Of broken glass and falling
debris that injured the greatest num-
Der.
The cause OF the explosion and the
quantity of explosives that blew up are
not definitely known. Several causes
have been advanced. One was that a
| fire started near the powder room and
that Master Mechanic Thomas Tubbs
| lost his life in a desperate attempt tC
Quench IL before ii reached the deadly
| fume Another is that Is started from
| a spark produced by a stray current
of electricity. A third placed he blams
| upon a blast In the tunnel Still an
other gave a gas explosion from cleo
| tricai contact la the trolley conduit In
| the street railway subway, Severa
| men who were very close to the shaft
escaped. while others hundreds OF feel
| away were knocked down and seriously
| injured.
| Ina Shaler, engineer in charge of the
| work at Park avenue. John Bracken, Z
| foreman, and Martin McGrath, an as
| sistant foreman, were placed under ar
rest and charged with homicide. VIM
| b. Parsons, chief engineer Of the RAPID
| Transit commission. said that Shalel
was one Of the most competent ant
careful engineers he ever knew.
/ The damage may exceed $1,000 900
The first estimate on the Murray Hi
| hotel placed the loss at 500 600. bu
| later the hotel was abandoned as I'M
| safe. II the building is condemned
| the loss on 1t alone will approach 81.
100000 The damage to the Crane
| Union was estimated at $4,000 ant
| that TO the Manhattan hospital at s25,
COO The loss at the Grand Contra
station was entirely In glass. as wa
| that OF the one hundred or more othe
| buildings affected by the explosion
| No estimate was made Of the losse
| sustained nv fha RAND Transit con
| tractors.
There was a clash in court in tn
afternoon between District Attorne,
Jerome aud es~5ner Golddenkranz. re
sulting In the former being struck Ii
the face. and when almost free tigh
occurred