The San Francisco call., 1908-04-24
away from the wrecked house instead
of toward it.
CLEwS ARE FEW IN NUMBER

I.
CLEwS ARE FEW IN NUMBER
With the scant descriptions given by
this informant and by Charles Schenck,
the authorities are attacking the, prob
lem of placing the responsibility for
the crime. In addition they have little
to assist them beyond few scraps of
SILK, charred doorknob, some bits of
umbrella covering and the deductions
TO be made from careful study of the
wrecked dwelling. The theory on which
the police are working is that either a
dynamite bomb or an internal machine
containing nitro glycerin was dropped
into the folds of an umbrella which
side of the vestibule OF the house and
that it was placed in this position after
Charles Schenck had left the front steps
and within five or six minutes prior to
the explosion.
The police, however, were not the
only ones who displayed a lively in
terest concerning the crime yesterday.
An amazing activity on the part of
the United Railroads of San Francisco
developed early in the day and reached
its elimination when William NJ. Alb
bott, second in command of the cor
poration's legal department appeared
at the office of District Attorney
Brown in Oakland with offers of any
and all kinds of assistance in ferret
ing out the guilty perpetrators of the
crime. He promised in behalf of the
United Railroads that the corporation
would back to the limit any reasonable
efforts to run the would-be assassin to
earth. and said that nothing would be
overlooked to insure the success Of the
man hunt.
EMBARRASSED BY, QUESTION
Would the United Railroads display
anf1el NJ +ha
ordinary individual had been dyna-
mited?" he was asked. Are the mo-
tives of the United Railroads the out
come of a desire to stamp out the
practice Of dynamiting houses in the
community"
That is not fair question" re-
piled Abbott in haste THE interest
we show is explained by this copy
of The Call" and he referred to the
paper of yesterday containing the ac-
count Of the explosion.
Mysterious Pinkerton detectives, who
refused to say by whom they were en-
ployed, interviewed Captain of Detec-
tives Petersen yesterday concerning
the crime, and the neighborhood of the
Schenck home was overrun all day long
with strange, mysterious looking de-
tectives, who belonged neither to the
Oakland nor the San Francisco detec-
tive departments.
That no one of the eight persons who
were in the Schenck house at 7:30
o'clock Wednesday evening was killed
or seriously injured is little short of a
miracle, and the narrow margin of
their escape from death became a mat
ter OF even more wonder yesterday
when daylight disclosed the awful ex-
tent OF the ruin wrought by the infer
nal machine. How human beings could
haUa IN "a
debris and splinters, or how their
bodies could have witbstood the shock
of a concussion strong enough to rip
the Side out of the house at a dis
tance beyond them and to hurl a heavy
porch pillar $50 feet, is inexplicable.
That all eight survived the shock and
suffered only minor injuries is due to
one Of those strange freaks of chance
which are so often noticeable in the
midst Of a calamity.
NOT A FANATICS DEED
The police authorities and virtually
all others who have studied the prem
ises where the explosion occurred are
unanimous in the belief that the crime
was not the deed of fanatic or half
crazed crank. but an act performeds in
cold blood by some &lan or men who
had deliberately planned to kill Cal
lagher at any cost, even though any
number of innocent lives might be
sacrificed. Indications are that a care
full study had been made of the plan
and structural strength of the building
and the chances carefully weighed as to
the exact spot in which Gallagher
would be at the moment of the ex-
plosion and that the explosive was
placed at the exact point where it was
believed the results would be most
certain and disastrous.
At the point where the front doors
of the house opened from the outer
yestibule there is only great jagged