The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1906-10-12

Philadelphia, Pa, Especially -
Eight persons were killed outright,
several others are likely to die and
at least two-score were injured by
exploding gas in the Market Street
Subway at a point between Sixth
and Seventh Streets. Buildings
rocked under the shock, and many
were set ablaze as the fire darted
through the supply pipes. Thousands
of panes of glass were shattered, and
no building within a radius of a
block escaped damage. The explo-
sion occurred about $40 o'clock, an
hour when workmen fill the streets.
Pedestrians were blown high in the
air, and trolley cars rolled in their
tracks as though they were on rock
in the excavation, while the injured
were blown high in the air, by
the exploding gas. The street caved
in, traffic was halted and business
was suspended. The flaming gas
scared nearly to the height of the
tallest buildings in the neighbor-
hood, and water was of no
avail to quench it. The loss will
reach more than 100000. Work
men are searching for bodies of sup
posed victims in the great cavity
made by the explosion.
Sounded Like Thunder.
The time of the accident, 6.36
O'Clock, is fixed by Lyttleton, po-
liceman at Seventh and Market
Streets, who had just looked at his
watch when he heard the defamation.
He says the report was dull and rumb
ling, like a peal of midsummer thun-
der. Looking east, he saw the great,
square timbers of the subway's tenn
porary structure going skyward, car
rying away the trolley wires and
filing the air with debris. Huge
feet in the air, tumbling about like
so many match sticks.
Lyttleton ran to the nearest box
and sent in a call for the fire engines.
Mangled Bodies.
Hardly had the policemen and fire.
men arrived than they saw that the
accident had been disastrous one.
On the southeast corner of Sixth and
Market Streets, in a pool of blood,
was the mangled body of mana
pedestrian killed on his way to work.
Across the street, on the southwest
corner was another body, that of an
other workman killed almost with
out warning.
On the apex of pile of broken,
twisted timbers rested another body,
that of a man killed while at work
in the subway At the base of these
timbers, laying in several feet of
water, was another body. Securing
a rope, Miskell, the district engineer,
working in the heat and glare of the
flaming gas, lassoed this body and
pulled it to the surface.
All about, several within the sub
way itself, were unconscious men,
members of the working gangs due
to begin operations at $50 O'Clock.
Clustered in or about the great tun-
mel, dinner pals in hand, they had
been caught unawares. Several had
been crushed under falling timbers,
others had been injured by being
thrown violently to the ground.
Ambulance after ambulance, pa
troll wagon after patrol wagon clat-
tered away to the nearby hospitals.
At the Pennsylvania Hospital, where
most of the injured were taken, it
was soon reported that three men
had died, swelling the list of dead
to seven.
Then the firemen, finding water of
no avail, tried to quench the flames
with dirt, wagonload after wagon
load being dumped into the flaming
hole. 1t was not until the supply
mains had been tapped and the flow
of gas stopped. however, that the
flames were gotten under control and
extinguished.