The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-02-21
POKED into ADYNAMITE STICK
AND JP WENT FOtR BONFIRE
BUILDING LITTLE BOliS.
TWO in the Hospital and One May DIr-COu.
tractor on Whose Job an JncSploded
Blast Vas Icft Arrest ed-A queer
Combination That Brought Disaster.

tractor on Whose job an exploded
Blast Vas icft Arrested-t queer
Combination That Brought Disaster.
Four little boys sneaked into an e1caya-
ton in Tooth street at the noon hour ycstcr-
day and started bonfire. BY a queer
combination OF circumstances they Incl
dentay touched of stick OF dynamite
which had been left there by a contractor
or his laborers. Now the four are all in
hospital Five-y ear-old Joe Flynn the
youngest Of the lot, is between life and
death and IL he lives he will almost GER
tainly be blind. The others injured are.
FRANCIS THonNE. years old, 1855 West iooh
street. torn and burned about the face and body.
ALBERT PRuDEs. 10 years old. iii West tooth
street. badly shaken up. bruised and burned.
WILLIAM HEusroS. Is years old. 1859 West Tooth
street, left leg and face cut and bruised,
Lawrence Hynes, a contractor OF i73
Amsterdam avenue, is eNcavating for the
foundations of building a. 1872 West 100 h
street Up to last Saturday his men had
been setting on small blasts. They stopped
this yesterday and went to clearing away
the debris.
Now Albert Prlden loves TO make bon
fires. He has been in trouble before be-
cause Of this tendency Coming from school
at the noon hour. he peeked over into the
excavation. The workmen had gone 10
dinner and there in the deepest hole lay an
alluring heap Of splinters and bits Of wood.
He -hollered" to the gang. and the Thorne
boy and the big Houston boy followed.
Little Joe Flynn tagged on behind. In
three minutes they had great bonfire
blazing against the foundations OF the
Lutheran Church in tho next lot.
The Pruden boy. who has a turn for in
Nestisation, began to poke around in the
embers with a hroomstick BY and by
just under the fire he found n little round
hole.
bet lisa mouse nest fellers he said.
and began to poke. Little Joe Flynn put
his face down as near to the fire as he dared
10 see what would happen to the mouse.
And Al Pruden thrust down his stick al
ready blazing al the end, and poked hard
Willie Flynn, no rels ton 10 little Joe,
was watching the fun from the eXcava tons
edge. He saw the Prudcn boy begin TO poke,
saw little Joe peek into the hole and then
the ground under them seemed 20 lift.
and they few dozen fee in the air, landing
in screaming. crying heap n the edge
Of the big hole. The explosion broke every
window in the near side Of the apartment
house on the next lot.
OF course the neighbors poured in. They
found little Joe screaming feeby, found
Houston stunned and the pruden boy
sittiug up dazed and bleeding The four
boys had been dropped in heap twenty
feet from the fire
The West tooth street police station Is
only few blocks down the street Patrol
men Minogue and Kelly sent for ambu
HnCes. Little Joe was in such bad way
that he was hurried to Roosevelt Hospital
but the others were sent home Later Pruden
took turn for the worse and was taken to
the hospital.
Hynes. the contractor, was put under
arrest but Magistrate Whitman paroied
him till to-day. He declared that the hole
must have contained an unexploded blast, /
from which some workmen had drawn the
cap. supposing that this would make it
harmless.
II takes both fire and conclusion 20 set
of a stick OF dynamite Of the kind used by
Hynes. Without the cap such powder
may be thrown into the fire. whore II will
burn harmesslv, or may he handled
roughly without exploding But Al Pruden's
lighted stick furnished both fra and con-
cussion and did the business.