The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-21
BrOckton, Mass, MOurns
 For Her Dead. FLAMES COMPLETED WORK Exact Fatalities May Never
 Be Known. Instances of Sublime Heroism Which Frightened Dreadful Scene of the
 Grim Reaper's Frightful Harvest.
FLAMES COMPLETED WORK

Brockton. Mass. March 2o.-This city Is in mourning tonight for at least three score of her citizens whose lives were plotted out early today by the explosion of a boiler in a large shoe manufacturing establishment in the Campello district conducted by the R. B. Grover Company.
 The explosion was immediately fol- lowed by a flash of flame which con- stunned the factory, a long four story structure. as if 1t were a house of cards. and incinerated an unknown number of men and women who were unable to extricate themselves from a mass of tangled wreckage formed by the terrific upheaval in the boiler room.
 It may never be known just how many persons perished in the wreck age. No one knows exactly how many persons were fin the factory. The number has been estimated at 400, but Treasurer Charles O. Emerson said to- night he doubted whether there were so many at work. Two hundred and fifty survivors have been accounted for and at midnight the remains of fifty bodies had been recovered from the ruins. Fragments of human frames which possibly might belong to bodies other than those enumerated have also ben found. Few of the remains have been identified. The head in nearly every case is missing and except in rare instances it was impossible even to distinguish the sex.
 Estimates of Dead.
 Of those missing the police expect that quite a number will report to- morrow. The death list is estimated at from fifty to seventy-five. The entire Grover factory was reduced to ashes within an hour after the ex- plosion. The three story block across the street owned by Charles H. Dahl borg and five dwellings were burned.
 The search for the remains was in progress the entire afternoon and was continued tonight. The work of iden- tifying those killed progressed slowly owing to generally unrecognizable re- or the NlClInSS. ne llSI OL Identified dead follows:
 John R. Cole, H. H. Hall, Jerome A. Mayo, George Smith Emma B. Pray Florence A. Dunham, bookkeeper aged nineteen. Samuel A. Tilley fore man stitching room; Ernest Cabon, for mer councilman Nellie Leary. Miss Seerna Shaw Burrows, Marion Tufts, Miss Fitzgerald James N. Bell
 The following were seriously injured. many of them, it is believed fatally:
 Nora Coughlin. critical; Herman Pierce. serious; William Lightfoot. dan- gerous; Charles Rollins. serious Arthur Pierce, will recover; Mrs. J. H. Cabe, internal injuries; James Shehan and Ralph Churchill jumped from third story window, will recover; Mrs. David Rockwell, will recover; George Jones, internal injuries: Mrs. August Burgess, serious; Charles Carlson, spine injured; i; Mrs. John Howard, internally injured; Daniel McDonald, internal injuries, Mrs. Lena Baker, Mrs. Thomas Chis- holm, Elizabeth Mulvihill, Mamie Con- roy. Kitty Noon, blown through win dow serious; Daniel McSnerry, Warren Lewis, serious; Frank Pierce, Arthur Pierce, John J. Garvey Nicholas Cor lers, Thomas McSherry, P. J. Hanley, Andrew Lundell, serious; Elmer H. Dodge, serious; Ella Whitcomb, Walter Lawrence Mrs. Samuel Bicwell, Charles Eaton, Mrs. Julia Shields, serious; Mrs. Emma Delano. William Lyford.
 Came Without Warning.
 The explosion which was followed by such a sacrifice of fife and entailed appalling instances of human suffering occurred shortly after the operators had settled down to work for the day. Suddenly the air vibrated with the roar of an explosion. At the same moment the larger wooden frame of the fac tory of the four story structure quiv- cred and then the rear portion of it collapsed. In a fraction of a second this section of the great building had been transformed into a mass of iron and wood wreckage in the midst of which human beings were pinioned. in another moment fire had broken out in the debris and death by fire and suf- location became the fate of scores of the operatives.
 When the boiler exploded it passed upward almost perpendicularly tear ing a passage as it went killing many on the way. Afte-krising high in the air 1t descended haIf the distance and then swerving northerly cut it's way like some huge projectile through a dwelling house fifty feet away and pierced another dwelling further along, deinolishing the latter structure Here its course was stopped.
 Scenes of horror followed the wrenching apart of the factory build ing. Tn the rear the three upper floors weighted as they were with heavy machinery. collapsed with a crash that was heard for blocks. Men and wom- en operatives working in departments of tffs section who were busy at their machines had time but to turn in an attempt to flee after the first dull roar. when the floorings sank beneath them and they were carried to the ground floor, crushed and bruised amid the mass of debris Many fell into a veritabfe fiery furnace.
 Operatives Panic Stricken.
 in the sctions of tn factory which remained standing the operatives were panic stricken as they sought to es- aana. Many fled down the stairways