The sun., 1903-11-13
CATS BLEW UP THE GAS TANK a?
THREE MEN HURT AT BERGH
SOCIETY,S HAPPY DESPATCH.
One Theory Is That an Electric spark From
cats Fur Fired the Gas-Smoking Was
FOrbid-Ceillng FrescOed With Cats

"Can electric sparks from cats fur
blow up gas tank?" is a question presented
by an explosion yesterday afternoon in
the steel cat and dog despatch" in the
shelter, owned and operated by the Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
at the foot Of East lO2d street. The
"despatch,' which was charged with gas
from the street main-gas mixed with air
and which contained ten or twelve cats
that had been thrown in to be asphyxiated,
blew up, without any apparent cause. as
employees were dumping another basket
full of cats into it. Three men were hurt,
enc, Theodore Goodenough of $40 West
Fifteenth street. perhaps fatally, and all
the cats were killed more or less summarily.
Goodenough, 1t is thought, has his skull
fractured. He is in the Harlem Hospital.
The other injured men are Andrew Scho-
field Of All West Fiftieth street, whose face
and hands were burned and lacerated, and
Charles Schoenf1eld of 2344 First avenue,
who was also injured about the face and
hands Schoenfleld is in the hospital, but
Schofed went home.
The despatch is a steel case, about
ten feet long, four feet wide and four feet
high. 1t is in room Immediately behind
the office in the shelter. On the top of
the despatch" were two covers of heavy
plate glass, set in steel frames and firmly
fastened down. Thin lids covered the
holes through which the animals are passed
into the asphyaiator. The steel box will
hold nearly six cubic yards OF cats. 1t
is charged with illuminating gas afresh
before each execution begins, SO that the
animals may be put out OF the way as
quickly as possible. 1t was heavily charged
yesterday afternoon when about o'clock
the cat wagon, which had been out on the
regular daily collecting tour, drove up at
the side entrance to the shelter and backed
into the room. The wagon was full Of
cats, in baskets. Some of them were sick.
All OF them mewed.
The driver Of the wagon, Goodenough
dumped three basketfuls into the de
spatch," while Schoenfed held one OF the
covers up by. means of tackle attached
cts were well behaved. Basket con-
tanned, among others, black cat who, the
men say, looked like fighting Tom.
Goodenough had this cargo to dump, and
Schoenfield lifted the cover again Sew.
eral Of The black cat s companions dropped
out without any fuss, but the black cat
in in the basket. he dug his claws in
between the wickers and hung on, holding
of the basket with him. Goodenough
put the basket down into the very mouth
Of the hole and shook It hard. The black |
cat and those with him dropped-at least.
GS0deno"gaa fb;0 tSsY ad and the others in the room
There was fash and bang and shower
of cats, and people in the Office ran in, TO
find Goodenough and Schofield and Schoen-
field stretched out on the floor in a litter
Of f,,r md Fra nf1nn NafS hn
plosion had blown open the steel front door
bodies are reno we'd, and had wrecked the
plate glass covers. The ceiling of the room
with cats. The black cat was stretched
out in a corner. slightly disfigured, and
dead, like all the rest.
The horses ran away with the cat wagon,
wagon yowled and fought, and their rum
pus continued for long time after the
horses were stopped. Twenty-Five or
thirty dogs in the shelter raised a howl that
could be heard for a block An ambu-
'a1e The 'Gue men ' ana John M Reid, the the manager
Of the place. who was in the office at the
time, all declare that nobody in the room
was smoking and that there were no lights
Of any kind burning The only explana-
that the cats in rubbing against each other
when they were being dumped into tho
"despatch" emitted electric sparks of suf
ficient intensity to ignite the gas. This
view of tho accident also was regarded
as plausible at the headquarters of the
society. No authorities fully qualified to
express an opinion on the proposition were
to be found last night but the universal
scientists who haunt Park row said that
if 1t was true. as reported, that woman
recently, by an electric spark developed
by walking over Brussels carpet, set fire
to her hair while drying it, after giving it
an alcoholic bath, why. II was just as possi-
BILE that on fine dry day like yesterday
cat sparks should explode gas mixed with
air
Any employee who is caught smoking
in the building, by the way, loses his job.