The San Francisco call., 1908-04-24

hole in the flooring that leaves a clear
opening several feet in diameter to the
basement floor. The vestibule itself
was utterly destroyed, the outer doors
and porch pillars being scattered in
splinter form all the way across the
street and into a vacant lot beyond
/, and above the place where the YES
tibule was built is an opening through
two floors and the roof to the sky. The
force of the explosion did not expend
itself in one direction, but was of a
twisting nature that carried destruction
in every direction.
To the left of the vestibule entrance
was the back of a huge brick CHM
ney that opened into a fireplace in the
dining rooms at the north of the house,
and it was the existence of this Chin
ney. directly interposed between them
and the point where the internal ma
chine was placed, that undoubtedly
saved the lives of the four persons
who were in the dining room. The
chimney and fireplace lie in a heap of
plaster and broken brick on the dining
room floor, and there is not splinter
left of the partition that separated the
rest of the dining room from the front
hall. Undoubtedly the chimney broke
the greater force of the shock in this
direction and saved the lives of Mr..
and Mrs. Schenck, Miss George Schenck
and DR.. Guy Brown.
TEN POUNDS OF DYNAMITE
Harry East Miller, powder expert
from the offices of the Hecules powder
company in San Francisco, made care
full investigation of the wrecked house
yesterday and reported to the police
that he believed the damage was caused
by about 10 pounds of No. / dynamite,
quantity which would have been suf-
fieent to create the damage and might
have been placed in a package not
more than eight inches square. The
twisting explosion would have been the
natural result of discharge of dyna-
mite confined in the vestibule and
placed close to- the door and Miller
declares that its force would have been
expended in every direction. All that
holds up the wrecked body of the
house is a by 6 joist which passed
under the floor just to the rear of the
vestibule. and had this collapsed the en-
tire house must have caved in. Behind
this joist, which is still intact five
heavy floor joists were broken and 1t
is Miller's belief that the men guilty
of the crime had studied this construc-
tion of the dwelling and planned to
sunder the bigger joist.
When Charles Schenck saw the two
strangers pass the house just before
liAC SAplOolOl Ollt VI lL6Iu Carried very
gingerly in his arms a cylindrical pack
age that looked to be about a foot long
and seven or eight inches in diameter.
The package was wrapped either in
brown paper or piece of light colored
cloth, and it is the theory that this
contained the Internal machine, which
was carried to the porch as soon as
young Schenck had departed, dropped
into the folds of the umbrella in the
ina fn IL xxvf&1 1T
six or seven minutes.
PIECE OF A HANDKERCHIEF
In the rubbish near the place where
the vestibule was located a piece of
white silk handkerchief, crisscrossed
with fine black lines, was found yes
terday morning. The silk was burned
around the edges and belonged to no
member of the household. Near it was
the charred doorknob, which was with
in few inches of the umbrella in the
vestibule. Immediately after the ex-
plosion Dr. Guy Brown, who was in the
dining room at the time, found in a
corner of the room a piece of the silk
umbrella covering on fire, and as 1t was
the only thing about the house which
caught fire at all the fact adds much
to the surmise that the Internal ma
chine was concealed in the umbrella
The latter had been left in the vesti-
bule less than Is minutes before by
Anita Schenck. and it is impossible that
the explosive could have been placed in
position prior to that time or until
after young Schenck had left the steps.
In the rear of the house was found a
heavy window weight yesterday and
as this had never been seen before by
any member of the household it is
supposed to have been either a part of
the machine or else TO have been car
ried as a weapon by one of the would
be assassins. That the same men who
committed the crime visited the house
the previous night is suspicion borne
out by the statements of Charles