The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-09-22
HURLED To DEATH
Street Car Load of People Blown
Up by Dynamite.
Fifty Pound Box of Explosive
Dropped on the Track.
NINE WERE KILLED.
Forty Were Injured and Some
of Them May Die.
Many Were Made Deaf by the
Conclusion.
Express Driver Lost the Box
from His Wagon.
BLOWN TO FRAGMENTS.
Ground Strewn With Arms and
Legs of the Victims.
Human Foot Blown Through
Window of Nearby Building.

MeIrose, Mass, Sept. 22.-The au-
thorities of the state and city of Mel
rose started an inquiry today into the
explosion on the Boston and Northern
street railway here last evening, when
an electric car bound for Boston to
this city was blown up by dynamite and
nine persons killed and forty injured.
OF the injured several were in critical
condition today and may die. A COM
plete list of the dead. as positively
identified, is as follows:
The Dead.
DIR. MALCOM E. MCCLELLAN, Mel
rose Highlands.
EBB HAINES, Melrose.
MRS. EBB HAINES, wife.
MARION, four-year-old daughter Of
Mr.. and Mrs. Haines.
MRS. ADA CROUCH, Stoneham.
MISS ETHEL MERRILL, Is years
old, Melrose Highlands.
DIR. FRED d. MARSHALL.
e. A. STOWE. South Boston.
WINFIELD ROWE, Saugus, motor
man.
The more seriously injured are almost
completely deaf as a result of the con-
cussion when the car struck the dyna-
mite although physicians think it prob
able in the majority of the cases hear
ing will return.
Roy Fenton, driver of the express
wagon from which the box of dyna-
mite fell on the car track. was still de-
tanned at the Melrose police station to-
day, pending the. investigation by the
authorities. The dynamite slipped
from the wagon without the knowledge
of the driver and he was on his way
back from stable to recover it, when
the explosion occurred.
How 1t Happened.
The car was blown to pieces by
striking a fifty pound box of dynamite
that had fallen off an express wagon
At least a score of persons in the im-
mediate vicinity of the explosion were
hurt by flying glass and splinters.
So great was the force OF the ex-
plosion that all but ten feet of the rear
portion of the car was blown into small
pieces while windows within a radius
of quarter of a mile were shattered
The immediate vicinity of the acci-
dent presented fearful spectacle
when those in the neighborhood
reached the scene. The ground was
strewn with legs, arms and other por-
tions of the bodies of those who had
been killed, and shrieks and groans
came from the writhing forms of the
injured. The car contained mostly
men on their way to their homes in
this city, the accident taking place
only quarter of a mile from Melrcse
center.
Within a few minutes great crowd
had collected and the injured were
cared for until physicians not only
from Melrose, but from Medford. Ev-
erett ana Maiden, reacneQ the scene.
For more than three hours there
was the greatest confusion and il was
difficult to obtain the names of any
of the dead or injured or to ascertain
the cause of the accident Thousands
of people rushed about trying to find
relatives and friends and the hospitals
were besieged.
The police arrested Roy Fenton,
driver of an express wagon. Fenton,
it was learned, was carrying two So
pound boxes of dynamite on his wagon
and did not know until he reached
the express office that one of the boxes
had dropped off He hurried back in
the hope of picking it up but the cleo
Iric car reached the box first The
report was heard many miles. Di-
rectly opposite the scene was the Ma
sonic building every window of which
was shattered, and through one of the
windows a human foot was blown. y
score of persons within a hundred
yards of the car were knocked down
and rendered deaf by the conclusion.