Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1908-11-05
A QUEER [XI|'E|1IE|II|lc,E[
AI.na- TaJema's miraculous Es-
cape From Death.
FREAKS CT AN EXPLOSION

SStisb iOiil GCGliis
FREAKS OF AN EXPLOSION.
The Artists House Was Wrecked, ana
Flow He Get Out Alive and Unin-
! jureel Is a Mystery--The Puzzle of tho
Staircase and Hallway.
In 1874 q casl;.lboat carrying Il hGn.
dsca Earre's of sunpowdcr along the
Regents park camel in London ey-
plodei just opposite the magnificent
house of Laurence Alma Tadema, the
famous artist, across the road This
happened 1t 4 O'Clock on a rainy morn
Ing Every window in London within
Il radius of Il mile was smashed. and
the houses III the Immediate vicinity,
Though solid!y hailt OF brick and stone,
Wore wrecked
Il was soun,l asleep in bed at the
tima." said .Nlnia-l aslcma. and the
first knew OF the explosion was when
found myself standing out on die
sidewalk in front of my house in the
rain, with ms l,ajamas on and bare
feet. How I got there never knew.
The entire top of the brick wall in
! front OF the lawn before my house was
!, blown off. and The front of the house
/ itself WAS rs if driven in by the blow
of a giants fist.
"'Ihe cana!boat, VIC found ont after
bridge that crossed the canal ut that
point. Had it not been for that my
house and The others near ii Would
have lcea utterly Knocked To pieces
1t WAS foftrnatc. too. that there WAS
no one ON The street ut the time. Had
the explosion occurred in the daytime
hundreds ot persons might have been
killed or MANNED.
But the strangcst episode connected
with the event concerned the man
whose duty ii WAS 10 keep watch Oh
the bridge during the night His name
WAS Peter knox. He was tAirtN seven
years old. married and had TWO chill
dren. Knew the feilow ana had often
chattea With BIN en- iila bridge The
day before the explosion LIE had ar
| ranged With Il friend OF his to come at
O'Clock and relieve him. 1T was ~
Saturday, and he wanted to take his
wife and children II little trip down to
BnsAcy park on the Thames. and he
wished to get to his home i'm east Lon
don in time so MS to have breakfast
| and he off early on Sunday morning.
well, as 4 O'Clock drew near, Peter.
so he told me aftcrward, began to feel
anxious lest his friend should have
forgotten The appolntmcpt. He paced
| up and down the bridge and looked
MP the street, hat the morning was so
| dark and misty with the rain that he
conld see only II short distance a
few minutes before 4, he said. he no
| tjced Il line of cataboats come slow.
ly down toward the bridge, but paid
no special attention 10 them.
Just before the first boat passed
under the bridge he stepped off it,.
| though ia doing so he was infringing
the regulations, and sauntcrcd up the
| street in the direction from which he
expected his friend to appear He had
gone about forty yards when the OK
| plosion took place and when he turned
| not brick of the bridge WAS left. III
he had been less impatient or if his
friend had been more prompt, ono or
both of them would never have been
seen or heard of again.
'siiut my own little adventure was
singular enough. AS 1 said was
not conscious Of having been awak-
cncd by the explosion still less of
having got out of bed, come down
stairs, opened the front door and step
pod ont 10 the sidewalk The shock
had Knocked all memory of these acts
out of my head, and have never re-
Covered II.
"Ent what puzzled me most was the
| coalition Of things found when i
ut back into the house Tho hall
n mass Of wrcckagc, and the stair
g from top TO bottom WIS covered
9TH pieces of BROKEN glass, sharp as
ra.ols allil 80 distributed that found
II Impossible TO ascend without light
To show me whore not to tread.
"NeNeithelcss hal come down
these same s'lirs with my eyes shut
or lnsoeill@ and had never so much as
scratched IA. bare feet The ching
was i;npossihla. and yet had done fl.
had been skeptical about miracles
before that. bnt since then have been
both n believer and an evangelist
Chieago Record Herald
t,;e c,,;,3n.