Daily Arizona silver belt., 1908-11-28
4 QUEER EXPERIENCE
Alma-Tadema's Miraculous Es-
 cape From Death.
FREAKS OF AN EXPLOSION.

New He Get Out Alive and unin.
 jared Is a MystOry-Ths PuzyIs of the
 Staircase and Hallway.
 In 1874 canalboat carrying a hun dred barrels of gunpowder along the Regents park canal in London ex. ploded just opposite the magnificent house of Laurence Alma -Tadema. the famous artist, across the road. This happened at o'clock on rainy morn ing. Every window fin London within a radius of a mile was smashed. and ! the houses in the immediate vicinity, though solidly built of brick and stone. were wrecked
 T was sound asleep in bed at the time,' said Alma-Tadema. "and the first l knew of the explosion was when l found myself standing out on the sidewalk in front of my house in the rain, with my pajamas on and bare feet. How I got there I 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 as if driven in by the blow of giants fist.
 The canalboat, we found out after ward, had blown up underneath n solid bridge that crossed the canal at that point. Had it not been for that my house and the others near it would have been utterly knocked to pieces. It was fortunate, too, that there was no one on the street at the time. Had the explosion occurred in the daytime hundreds of persons might have been killed or maimed.
 But the strangest episode connected with the event concerned the man whose duty 1t was to keep watch on the bridge during the night. His name was Peter Knox He was thirty-seven years old, married and had two chil- dren. knew the fellow and had often chatted with him on the bridge The day before the explosion he had ar ranged with friend of his to come d o'clock and relieve him. It was Saturday. and he wanted to take his wife and children little trip down to Bushcy park on the Thames, and he wished to get to his home in east Lon don in time so as to have breakfast and be off early on Sunday morning.
 Well. as 1 o'clock drew near. Peter, anxious lest his friend should have forgotten the appointment He paced mp and down the bridge and looked ,up the street. but the morning was so dark md misty with the rain that he could see only short distance. A ticcd Il line of canalboats come slow ly down toward the bridge, but paid no special attention to them.
 Just before the first boat passed under he bridge he stepped off it. though in doing so he was infringing the regulations and sauntered up the street in the direction from which he l expected his friend to appear He had i gone about forty yards when the cx- ploSion took place. and when he turned | not brick of the bridge was left. If | he had been less impatient or if his | ii"ba hah DN'il OIt UT both of them would never have been ! seen or heard of again.
 But my own little adventure was | singular enouSh. As I said. I was | not conscious of having been awak- | encd by the explosion. still less of | having got out of bed. come down stairs. opened the front door and step 1 ped out to the sidewalk. The shock | had knocked all memory of these acts out of my head, and I have never re- covered it. But what puzzled me most was the condition of things l found when l went back into the house. The hall | was q mass of wreckngc. and the stair case from top-t to bottom was covered with pieces of broken glass. sharp as razors and so distributed that found it impossible to ascend without a light to show me where not to tread
 Nevertheless I had come down those sIme stairs. with my eyes shut or uusct iEg, and had never so much as scratchcl my bare feet The thing was impbss ~llc. and vel I had Gone it. I had leen skeptical' about miracles before that but since then l have been both believer and an evangelism Chicago Record-Herad