Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1910-12-20
ington avenue poured thousands into
the streets.

| ed in twinkling. The tall facades
of the many fashionable hotels in the
| neighborhood were spotted with the
faces of half dressed guests, shaken
from their sleep, peering from broken
windows.
| Black robed priests from ST. Pat
rick's cathedral nearby and white
coated ambulance surgeons passed
each other on kindred errands of con-
ISOLATION and comfort
Frank Smith, the chauffeur of a
wrecked automobile, cut, bruised and
shaken, told from the cot where he
lay in a hospital, what he remember
ed of his first impressions.
Almost before realized that there
had been an explosion he said "a
rain of bricks and mortar began to
fall on me. Then a six foot timber
shot down out of the sky like an ar
row. / had one foot on the brake
and the other on the accelerator with
my knees wide apart.
THAT great arrow passed between
them and smashed down through the
floor of the car. Then the trolley car
toppled over on me and pinned me
beneath the mass of wreckage. Two
priests We're pulling me out for dead
when | got my wits"
The worst focus of death was the
spot at which the trolley car and the
automobile were hurled together. The
seven passengers were dumped to the
underside Of the car in a tangle of
iron work. sharp fragments of glass
and broken panels.
Miss Mary Pope was caught by the
head between a stanchion and the ov-
erturned automobile beneath and
crushed to death. Three other pass
oil n q q
with wreckage and died before help
could reach them.
Twenty feet away, Miss Edith Off
ner, 2S years old, a stenographer in
magazine office on her way to work,
was speared through the head by
flying joist. Policeman Toomey had
just signalled to the trolley car to
stop and was leading two little girls
across the street by the hand.
One was torn from his hand by
the first blast of air and the other
by a rebound. The second girl Mary
Gilman, IL years old, had her right
leg torn off by flying fragment of
the iron railing surrounding the Lex
ington avenue station.
Seventeen men in fire house NO.
were shaken from the beds.
Battalion Chief Duffy was sitting
at his desk when the windows fell
about him, and an iron girder burst |
head-on through the wall, knocking |
him down and badly bruising him. He |
got the men to bandage him and he |
went to work Immediately.
In the Bible Teachers Training /
school founded by Miss Helen Gould /
on Lexington avenue, fifty young men I
and women were eating breakfast. I
Those on the far side of the room first I
a .nri- !
GUS accident when, in looking toward I
The street, they saw the napery on |
The tables nearest the windows dab
oled with blood. Fully half the stu
ients were painfully cut by flying
glass.
In the babies hospital at Fifty
ninth street and Lexington avenue,
he infants were being given their
morning bath. Nurses were thrown
o the floor with babies in their arms,
other babies were tipped out of their
ribs and ins two instances, babies
we're popped upward out of their
ubs as if they had been drawn out
~ q powerful suction.
The following statement was issued
his afternoon at the New York Cen
raj offices;
A careful Investigation made by
,hief Engineer Kittredge, Construc-
ion Engineer Harwood, Electrical
Engineer Katie and Manager Whaley
f the Grand Central terminal, indi-
ates that the explosion was the re-
ult of an electric train backing over
humping post in the storage yard,
reaking a gas pipe, the escape from
which penetrated the lower part of
he sub-station power house and be-
anne ignited therefrom some cause |
Unknown
The Central officials at that hour ]
aid that the fatalities from their in
ormation stood at nine dead with
,ossible additions to the list of miss !
ng employees, although search of the
uins, which was approaching COM I
letion, had failed to reveal any more ,
odies.
Albert Seagroatt, the motorman of /
he train that rammed the bumper
nd broke the gas main. was held by
he coroner on a technical charge of
omicide. He said he smelled gas
fter the collision and notified the
Workmen were digging at the ruins
II night. looking for the four missing /
rcrkmen and Assistant District At I
1rney George LaVelle. accompanied /
V Guv w. Culgin, an engineer Of the {
hiding department continued an in I
estigation far into the evening. !
Hurried estimates during the day I
laced the damage at not more than |
alf a million dollars. but a canvass Y
+ the neighborhood showed that Few
tructures had escaped. Windows ;
ere smashed literally by the crowds a
nd nice problem is raised as to the /
ability of the insurance companies g
nder the circumstances.
The handsome residence fronts
ere decorated with blankets, sheets
ewspapers, burlap or old rags as the
lickest substitute for window glass. 4
everal institutions i'm the neighbor- '
ood have appealed for aid to effect
spairs and order will not be restored
,r weeks.
The Tiffany studios at Forty
,urth street and Madison avenue,
lily half mile from the scene sur
red. Valuable stained glass win
ows. valued at $4,000, were
mashed. one was a memorial piece
orth $4,000 Another on the far side
the building, from the explosion,
as bent outward and then broken. II
as worth about $2.500. r
Albert Seagroatt. the engineer OF !
le motor car which broke the pipe
ne. was released on parole tonight
the instance of District Attorney
rhitman. who says there is no eVl-
ance to warrant his being held. 1t
as the coroner's office which ordered
IS arrest, and had planned to hold
i'm in $4,000 bail.