The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-12-20

layer working on the main power
house adjoining the auxiliary house,
the time OF the break IN the pipe IL
approNimated OF few moments after
o'clock. Two clocks stopped by the
jar. flx the timo of the explosion itself
at s.2s, In the interval. the broken
main had ample time 10 pour high
pressure gas into the lower levels OF
the auxiliary power house. When
worknen set to clearing away the
strewed lumbcr, II is assumed that one
of them dropped steel tool across
tho third rail. there WAS a flash of
electricity and the great reservoir OF
accumulated gas exploded. What hap.
pened then will never be Adequately
told. The roof of Fire House No 2,
directly across the street from the
power house, lifted Hike a magic car
pet. 4 shower of glass, bricks, NOR
tar and spintered tiTbers began to
rain down on the pavements In an
instant the streets were filled WIN
PROSTATE men and women. blown fiat
by the shock dctonation and the rush
of air. They sat dazed where they
fell. picking slivers from their flesh.
Bcsicge Drug stores.
A moment more and crowds besieged
the drug stores begging for aid and
clamoring for telephones. and then the
gathering of gongs of ambulances be-
gan to clomor between the tall build.
ingS. The tenements to the east OF
Lexington Avenue poured thousands
into the streets Whole houses were
emptied in twnklins. The tall
taeades of the many fashionable hotels
in the neighborhood We're spotted with
the faces of the half-dressed guests.
shaken from their sleep, peering from
20, usin
from St Patrick's Cathedral nearby,
and white coated ambulance surgeons
passed each other on kindred errands
of consolation and comfort.
On technical charge OF homicide,
the police late to-day took into GUS
tody Albert Seagreatt motorman of
the train which bumped into and broke
one of the gas pipes near the substa-
ton. Seagreatt said he tried to-. stop
the train with his brakes and reversing
levers but could not do so.
The worst focus of death was the
spot at which the trolley car and the
automobile We're hurled together. The
seven passengers We're dumped to tho
under side 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 u
stanchion and the overturned automo-
bile beneath and crushed to death.
Three other passengers, all men, were
overwhelmed with wreckage and died
before help could reach them.
Spcnred Through Head.
Twenty feet away, Miss Edith Offner,
twenty eight years old, stenographer
IN a magazine Office, on her way to
work, was speared through the head
by a flying joist.
Policeman Toomey had just signal
ed 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 the rebound The
second girl. Mary Gilman. twelve
by flying fragment of iron railing
surrounding the Lexington Avenue
station.
Seventeen men in Firehouse No. >
were shaken from their beds. Bat
talon 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
and badly brusins him. He got the
men 10 bandage him and went to work
Immediately
In the Bible Teachers Training
School founded by Miss Helen Go,ld
ON i>e&iHSNoli Avenue iiily young men
and women We're eating breakfast
Those on the far side of the room
first realized that there had been a
serious accident when, looking toward
the street. they saw the napery on
the tables nearest the windows dab
bled with blood. Fully half the stu
dents We're painfully cut by dying
glass.
In the Babies Hospital. at Fifty
ninth Street and Lexington Avenue.
the infants were being given their
morning bath. Nurses We're thrown