The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-06-23
Death-DeaIing Catastrophe
 Near Attalla.
,HREEDANGEROUSLY HURT
The Boiler at Big Lumber
 Plant Blew Up.
Busy Scene Turned Into One of Mourn ing, Widows and Orphans Add ing Their Cries to Groans
 of the Wounded.

Gadsden, June 22.--(special. )-one of the most horrible explosions in the his tory of this section ocurred at 7:45 o'clock this morning at the large saw mill of the Attalla-Curtis Lumber Com pany two miles beyond Attalla and seven miles west of Gadsden, in which four men were killed and three dan gerously wounded.
 The killed are: Will Rosscn. locomo- tive engineer. head blown off and body mangled horribly, leaves wife and four children; Marion Maddox, struck in head by scantling and killed; James Watts, blown. one hundred feet, both legs broken and crushed to death; J. A. Cash. blown through roof of mill and horribly mangled.
 Injured: A. w. Smith, horribly scalded and will die; R. M. Wood. cut in head; A. W. Crabtree. leg broken and body crushed; Barney Works, saw yer, head cut
 Mill Complete Wreck.
 The mill was a complete wreck, and where only a few minutes before was
 
 one of mourning. The scene. was most horrible and heartrending. The groans of the wounded were added to by the wailing of wives and children of the dead Burned flesh and brains of the dead were scattered for hundreds of yards and a more desolate scene could not be pictured.
 
 hour this morning. The regular engi- neer was absent and Will Rossen. who runs the locomotive, came in to show the substitute how to run the engine. J. B. Parker. foreman, asked Rossen to watch the boiler until he secured another man. Parker returned shortly with A. w. smith and as Parker stepped out the boiler exploded. ear- rying death and destruction.
 There were three boilers, two of sev- enty-hve horse power and one of one hundred horse power. The guage showed two guages of water and ninety pounds of steam The supposition is that the boiler was not coupled up and there was no way for the steam to .ecape. Pieces of boiler found after the explosion were red hot. The boiler was blown entirely away. One piece weihging seven hundred pounds was blown 800 feet. One fiue twenty feet long was blown 500 feet, entered the roof of a lumber building and came cut a few feet further. Flues could be seen scattered for half a mile, warped into all shapes. The splendid machinery was wrecked beyond repair. The mill had a capacity of S5.oOo feet of lumber daily and was the best equipped mill in the State.
 ROssen's Head Cut OR.
 Will Rossen and A. W. Smith we're in the engine room when the boiler exploded. Smith was scalded all over will die. Rossen was blown fifty feet, tis head cut off by flying timbers and his body crushed to a jelly.
 Flying pieces of boiler tore great holes in the roof of the mill and sent death to two men at their work. Ma rion Watts was struck by a large piece of timber on the head and his neck broken. He was 25 years old and had been married three months.
 James Watts was sitting on the Ium- Der slides. He was blown fifty feet against the side of the mill. He was brained and whirled around feet fore most and blown one hundred yards fur ther to lumber pile and every bone in his body crushed.
 I Cash was standin1 naar tba planer. He was blown to the roof of the mill and crushed to death. Blood could be seen everywhere.
 There were forty men at work in and around the mill, and the wonder is that more were not killed.