The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-05-23
HOTEL MANHATTAN IN GLOOM.
LIGHTS WENT OUT AND ELEIA-
TORS STOPPED SHORT.
Cap Blew or steam Pipe at Midnight with
Rambling Explosion-M!ld Panic
within ami ''Ith0ut soon Quieted
Goal PRsscr Dead--Cantiles Twinkle.

n Goal PRsscr Dead--Candles Twinkle.
rllmbling noise like a smothered OK
plosion. startled guests of the Hotel Man
haitian about midnight last night. In
stantly every light in the hotel winked out,
the hotel was left dark as a tomb and the
elevators stopped running, hanging between
floors, some of them loaded with guests.
People on Forty-second street and Madison
avenue who heard the roar ran to the hotel.
In three minutes there was crowd OF
thousand or more
Guests rushed from their rooms down
the stairways and into the Office. terrified
by the rumble and the sudden darkness.
Several cried that the hotel was afire.
number had caught up few articles OF bag
gage. few were scantily dressed.
People from the street rushed into the hote
Office. Others ran for policemen, turned
in fire alarm and telcphoned to hospitals.
Manager Patch OF the hotel ordered the
operator at the telephone switchboard to
telephone instantly to every room in the
hotel that there was no fire and absolutely
no danger With number OF cool headed
guests OF the house, he called out for every
body to be patient moment and there would
ton for the explosion.
Bellboys and chambermaids scurried for
candles and got them by the armload.
The otfice was brightly lighted with them
in few minutes. More we're sent upst airs
to bedrooms. The bar twinkled with them.
The hotel looked like house OF frefiies,
Meanwhile steam began pouring from the
basement windows on the Madison avenue
do - = u al ~ 10 IN ropf In hon
clouds. 1t was impossible for at least ten
minutes for any one to descend into the
boiler room from which the steam was
pouring. Finally, David Stewart, chief
engineer Of the Manhattan, and his assis-
tant John j. Mckinley. wrapped damp
cloths around their faces and went into the
basement
The place was 80 full Of steam they
couldn't see. Stewart, cropping his way
stumbled over body. They dragged 1t
to the st stairway and 1t was carried to the
office. 1t was identified as that Of coal
passer who had been working in the boiler
room with twenty or more employees
when the explosion occurred. Nobody
knew his name, and the man was quite
dead, suffocated by steam and frightfully
burned about the face and body.
1t appeared from the position OF the
body when it was found that the coal passer
had been feeding coal to the furnace when
the cap blew off Of heavy steam pipe. The
others who had been working there fed
just in time. Some Of them, 1t was found
were slightly burned The dead man had
tried to reach an elevator on the Madison
avenue side and had been overcome within
few feet Of it.
DR.. Dominick, in an ambulance from the
Flower Hospital, worked over the body OF
the coal passer for several minutes, hop
ing that breath of life might remain
but it was no use. The body was then
taken to the East Fifty-first street police
station to await Identification.
The hotel management was unable to
explain the precise cause Of the accident
1t was supposed that there was an unde-
tected weakness in the soldering Of the
cap to the pipe. Az soon as it parted 'he
power which ran the lights and the elevators
was released, throwing the house into
darkness and suspending some of the guests
between floors.
1t was an hour before repairs were made
sufficiently to allow the electric lights to
blaze again and the elevators to run. After
the first moments of fright the guests be-
haved coolly and volunteered to assist the
manager in anything needful.
The explosion apd the consequent excite
ment caused such a crowd to collect at
Forty-second street and Madison avenue
that the police were very busy for three
quarters of an hour shepherding them into
order and keeping the curious out Of the
hotel,
Jater the dead man was identified at
the station house as James Doran, 20 years
old The hotel people could not get at
his address last night
Investigation showed that the pipe from
which the cap was blown Is called COM