The Daily Missoulian., 1910-12-20
Great Catastrophe at New York Central Sta
ton Costs the Lives Of Ten People.
CAUSE OF THE DISASTER IS ILLUMINATING GAS
Runaway Train Crashes Into Lumber Pile Which Bursts
Gas Main---Gas Collects in Auxiliary Plant and Is
Set Of by Spark From Third Rail

I No. 2. directly across the street from
the power house, lifted like magic
carpet. A shower of glass, bricks,
mortar and spintered timbers began
to fall on the pavements and in an in
stant the streets We're filled with
PROSTATE men and women blown flat
| by the shock and the rush of the air.
They sat dazed where they fell, pick
| ing slivers from their flesh.
Pandemonium.
I A moment more and crowds. be-
sieged the drug stores begging for aid
and clamoring for telephones and then
the clattering gongs of ambulances
rang between the tall buildings. The
/ tenements to the east of Lexington
avenue poured thousands into the
streets.
Whole houses were emptied in a
twinkling. The tall facades Of the
many fashionable hotels in the neigh-
borhood were spotted with faces Of
Ehalf-dressed guests, shaken from
their sleep, peering from the 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 s
Impressions Of Chauffeur.
Frank Smith, the chauffeur Of a
wrecked automobile, cut, bruised and
shaken, told from the cot where he
lay in hospital Of what he remem-
bered of his first impressions.
Almost before realized that there
had been an explosion" he said, "a
rain of bricks and mortar began to
lfall on me. Then six foot timber
shot down out Of the sky like an
arrow. had one foot on the brake
and the other on the accelerator, with
my knees wide apart,
"That great arrow passed between
4 them and sma shed 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 were pulling me out for dead
when got my Wits
The worst focus of death was the
spot where the trolley car and the
) automobile were hurled together. The
J seven passengers were dumped to the
underside Of the car in a tangle of iron
{ work. fragments Of, glass and broken
! panels.
7 Miss Mary Pope was caught by the
: head between stanchion and the
. overturned automobile beneath and
! crushed to death. Three other pas
sengers. all men. were overwhelmed
with wreckage and died before help
could reach them.
i Twenty feet away. Miss Edith
$ Offner, % years old. a stenogra pher
9 in magazine office on her way to
4 work, was speared through the head
by a flying joint.
Little Girl Hurt,
$ Policeman Toon1ey had just signal
Il led to the trolley car to stop and was
$ leading two little girls across thu
street by the hand. One WAS trrr
v from his hand by the first blast of ali
v and the other by the rebound. Th'
Ie second girl, Mary Gilham. IL years
i old. had her right leg torn off by ,
II flying, fragment of iron railing sur
! rounding the station Seventeen mel
,e IN firehouse No. 2 were shaken from
= their BEDS Battalion Chief Duff.
- was sitting at his desk when the win
dows fell about him and an iron girde
"a burst through the wall, knocking hin
- down. and badly bruising him. H
= got the men to bandage him and wen
- to work Immediately.
!, In the Bible Teachers training
school. founded by Miss Helen Goult
e. on Lexington avenue, 50 young me-
and women were eating breakfast
Those on the far side OF the roor
Y realized that there had been a seriou
q, accident when in looking toward tn
~ street they saw the napery on tn
- tables nearest the windows dabble
:. with blood. Fully half the student
- were painfully cut by flying glass.
!. - In the Babies hospital, at Fifty
~ ninth street and Lexington avenue
- the infants were being given thei
morning bath. Nurses were throw
.e 10 the floor with babies in their arm
- other babies were tipped out of the
cribs, and in two Instances babie
X were popped upward out of their TUX
er as il they had been drawn out by
Sc powerful suction.
ed Statement by Commissioner.
Fire commissioner WACO, WI
reached the scene of the explosio
ad within .25 minutes after it occurre
as and ordered the heads Of the division
ry Of the fire department to make
to thorough Investigation. issued stat
ls- ment tonight: y
''All of the investigators from tn
ere department agree in the general stat
he ment that the explosion was cans'
;as by train hacking into the bump
and breaking the tWO-inch supp
be l------- =
,se (Continued on Page Ten.