Arizona republican., 1904-10-29

vault in the office of the Phoenix Street Railway cohpany were blown sopen with giant powder and the inner doors were puncturedFby slivers of the chilled steel from thes hole torn in the outer doors. Entrance to the vault was not gained, however, but had it been the cracksmen would have found themselves still further emba1 rassed, for all the money and really valuable articles were securely locked in a safe inside the vault.
 The office of the railway company is on the corner of East Washington and Carr streets. and only a hundred yards from the residence of Manager Robert sherman and II. w. Heap, superinten- dent of the Phoenix Water company, an affiliated Institution. It is also only a hundred yards from the ear barns of the railway company. The marauders had even less time to work in than usual in enterprises of that sort, for it is generally about midnight before the cars stop running and everything gets quiet in the vicinity of the office and barns. But what little time they had was diligently employed They first went to the carpenter shop in the barn and secured a brace, in which was in- serted the steel drills used in penetrat- ing the vault door. That the explosion occurred at $40 is official, for that is the hour at which the office clock stop ped, and TO sane man who looked at the clock yesterday believes that it ever ran a second after the explosion. Nor is it likely it wiQ ever run again. The window glass was shattered, of course, and pieces of steel were hurled through the curtains and against the wall, giving a general rough house ap- pearance. The combination of the doors was blown out in a chunk, fnak- ing a hole in the doors about the size Of mans hat
 It is evident that the cracksmen. made little or no investigation after the ex- plosion. but trelcked as fast as pos sible. for they took nothing away, not even the tools they worked with. A number of steel drills were found near the vault, and it was learned yesterday they had at some time been purchased at the store of Talbot & Hubbard. Un- der the hedge, not far from the office. were, found four and a half sticks of giant powder. some fuse caps, etc The powder was wrapped up in a white handkerchief. which bore some initials in one corner. but the mark was so badly faded the letters could not be discerned.
 The remarkable thing about the ex- plosiOn Is that 1t was heard so far away and yet did not disturb the peo- pie in close proximity. A city employe who is an early riser reported to the marshars office between nnd o'clock l that while coming up town from his residence in the south part of the city ! he heard a noise that sounded like a safe blowing enterprise. Notwith- standing that fact. Mir Heap, who lives within a few hundred feet of the office, did not hear it, and Manager sherman, in the same house, only ! heard an echo. t aroused him. and he stuck his head out of the window for a minute, heard no excitement. and went back to bed again. thinking it
 was some one shooting at a dog. as he ! had heard a shot. probably at a dog, some time before midnight
 The officers have no definite clue. though they have two or three parties under suspicion, and arc busy getting