Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-11-04
QUEER REFERENCE
~ mi.
Alma-Tacema's Miraculous Es-
cape From Death.
FREAKS OF AN EXPLOSION.
The Artists House Was Wrecked, and
How He Got Out Alive and I'm
injured Is a Mystery.

In 1874 a canalboat carrying Il hun |
dred barrels OF gunpowder along the !
Regents park canal in London ex- |
ploded just opposite the magnificent |
house of Laurence Alma-Tadema, the J
famous artist across the road. This |
happened at o'clock on rainy morn. |
ing. Every window in London within
radius of a mile was smashed, and
the houses in the immediate vicinity,
though solidly built of brick and stone,
were wrecked.
81 was sound asleep in bed at the
time" said Alma-Tadema, land the
first l knew of the explosion was when
I found myself standing out on the
sidewalk in front of my house in the
rain, with my pajamas Oh and bare
feet How l got there l neSer 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. t..4
.The canalboat, we found out after
ward, had blown up underneath a solid
| bridge that crossed the canal at that
! point Had it not been for that my
house anG the others near it would
| have been utterly Knocked TO pieces.
1t was fortunate, too. that there was
no one on,the street III the time. Had
the explosion occurred in the daytime
hundreds of persons might have been
killed or MANNED.
But the strangest episode connected
with the event concerned the man
whose duty it 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 chill
dren l knew the fellow and had often
chatted with him on the bridge. The
day before the explosion he had ar
ranged with a friend of his to come at
4 O'Clock and relieve him. 1t was a
Saturday. and he wanted to take his
wife and children 4 little trip down to
Bushey 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, rs o'clock, drew near. Peter,
so he told me afterWarl. began to feei
| anxious lest HIS ltfclu SuouIi NAVE
forgotten the appointment. He paced
up and down the bridge and looked
up the street, but the morning was sc
dark and misty with the rain that he
could see only n Short distance. \
few minutes beforena. he said. he no
ticed line of canalboats come slow
ly down toward the bridge, but PAID
no special attention t61tiibtIi.
Just before the first boat passed
under the bridge he stepped off il
though in doing so he was infringing
the regulations, and sauntered up the
; | street in the direction from which h,
, expected his friend to appear. He hat
!, gone about forty Yards WHEN the ex
, plosion took place. and whepshe turned
not a brick of the bridge was left. l
/. he had been less impatient or if hi
: friend had been more prompt. one o
, both of them would never have beer
q seen or heard of again.
"But my own little adventure wa
i. singular enough. AS l said. l wa
not conscious of having been awaI
ened by the explosion. still less O
having got out of bed, come down
l. stairs, opened the front door and ster
i ped out to the sidewalk. The shoe
e had Knocked all memory of these act