The Hawaiian gazette., 1905-04-25

at the second reading had decided that
the report of the minority committee
in favor of the l20-degree test had
been adopted.
The Speaker ruled against Harris
THE FAKE DISPATCH.
Meanwhile the House messenger had
handed to him bundle of last
night s Bulletins, each copy having
marked in blue pencil the following
item:
"Los Angeles, April with a ter
| rife detonation the big boiler of the
| Union Ice Works, mt Second and Ala
media streets, blew up early this morn
| ing, seriously injuring two employees
and setting fire to the plant, which
was destroyed. The fire burned for an
hour and half and caused damage es-
timated at nearly 100000, mostly
covered by insurance. The cause of
the explosion has not yet been ascer.
tanned.
"Mark Hazel. one of the employees
of the night force of the company, had
a miraculous escape from death in the
explosion. He had been beside the boil
er all night and had just turned and
walked away a short distance when
the explosion occurred. He was hurled
in a great burst of flame against an
| adjacent walk. With his clothing on
fire, he managed to drag himself from
the building, where he was picked up
by others ana rolled in the sand until
the flames were extinguished. He was
badly bruised and burned, but sur
| geons say he will recover.
"The building was filed with expen-
sive ice making machinery and large
ammonia tanks. There were stored in
the building 1900 tons of ice and forty
drums of ammonia. 1t is the opinion
of the chief engineer of the factory
that the explosion was caused by the
| ignition of gases escaping from car
load Of oil that was being unloaded in
front of the engine ROOM
Scrawled along the border were the
words: ''Do we want anything like
this to happen here7''
The heading read:
OBSTRUCTION WROUGHT BY
LACK OF CARE HANDLING Low
OIL" while a brief introduction said
that "the danger to life and property
from low test fuel oil'' was shown in
the dispatch.
THEY SMILED.
| The opponents of the octopus oil
monopoly lay back and chuckled after
reading the article, for the enemy had
| come INTO camp. 1t was plain at first
reading that there was nothing what
ever to justify the supposition in the
first place that the place had been
blown up by oil at all; secondly that
there was nothing to show that if it
( had been blown up by oil that low
grade oil was responsible. The head
ing and introduction were simply sam
pies of puerile attempt to mislead
the public and the House.
Still, with this wooden gun. poor
Broad was put forward to make the
| fight.
HE WAS FRANK.
Broad commenced with the assump-
tion of frankness which is occasionally
effective. He wanted to know why
this bill had been put forward at all.
He noticed in the papers the names of
people interested in the oil business
and supposed they were trying to get
the bill through. If the House permit
ted the bill to pass he could see fierce
competition in which the public would
get all the worst of it. Then the Ia
boring man was lugged in by the neck
and shoulders and Broad pictured the
desolation which would ensue if the
men now holding jobs should lose them
when the new company came, if it
were allowed to come. Incidentally,
! in the general introduction of oil burn
ers, he saw hundreds of Woodworking
men thrown out of jobs because they
are used to handling coal instead of
oil.
HIS BOMB SHELL.
Then Broad threw his fake bomb
shell. He had been supplied with an
unmarked copy of the Bulletin, so that
there could arise no suspicion as to
his bona fides. He pointed to the article
reproduced above and in more or less
impassioned Hawaiian, he drew the at.
tention of the House to it.
The House did not laugh; it simply
snickered.
Harris rose to point of order and
Read through it was, in English and
In Hawaiian.
BROAD DIDN'T KNOW.
Smith took Broad in hand.
WHAT he asked, "exploded in
the ice works at Los Angeles, the
boiler, the ammonia, or the oil9"
''The paper says the boiler" falter,
ed Broad.
"Well there surely was no oil in
the boiler of all places" remarked
Smith. "And what was the fash-test
of the oil which may have exploded2
he resumed.
"The paper does not say" returned
Broad lamely.
Was the member aware that Los An
geles was very near the center of pro
duction of high-grade oils, asked Smitl
again, and did he not think it probable
that under those circumstances if any
oil at all exploded it was most prob
ably high-grade oili
But apparently Broad did not know
anything about it, for he did not answer
cit is very plain, remarked Smith
"that the most explosive substance il
the ice works was the ammonia which
when heated, is extremely dangerous
There is nothing to show that the OF
exploded. Ii it did, it did not ex
! Al. 4. ~