Omaha daily bee., 1911-02-02
t was the Katherine W. that was de.

It was the Katherine W. that was de-
stroyed.
Engineer Blown from Cab.
An engineer in a shunting locomotive was
blown from his cab and died OF a fractured
skull. A tugboat captain was hurled from
his wheelhouse and flshed out of the water
fifteen minutes later, swimming about the
southern side OF the demolished pier
Inside the passenger station there was
damage visible everywhere. The floors
were Uttered with broken glass. Windows
fronting on the inner court had been
sucked from their frames sashes and all
States were torn from the roof. The hands
Of the ferry house clock were torn off The
southern wall bulged like a pasteboard
box left out in the rain. There were no
sashes in most OF the windows and no
glass in those that had sashes
! Two ferry boats of the Central Railroad
of New Jersey, the Somervlle and the
Plainfield, lay in the terminal slips and a
third, the Lakewood, was just edglng into
/ the river. All of them careened violently,
and were showered with their own glass.
Many of the wounded passengers came to
New York for Treatment.
| In New York the terror was intensified
/ by uncertainty. For half an hour nobody
knew what happened or where Those in
! the rocking skyscrapers thought the lower
/ floors had been torn from under them.
Those in the street thought the massive
towers above them had been toppled down.
Literally acres of glass were broken.
| Eighteen windows were smashed in the
| Standard Oil companys building. In Trim
ity church valuable glass window was
strewn in the aisles.
Details OF Explosion. 4
! New York business men, who stood in
| their windows looking out over the North
river at noon, saw puff of yellow dust
shoot into the air Just below the Jersey
Central terminal and then drift with the
wind until It covered the terminal train
shed. The next thing they noticed was that
every tugboat in the river seemed to be
heading to Communpaw.
Turning to the streets below they saw
them black with a surging throng There
were incipient panics here and there
throughout the city as far north as the
Bronx. The jar crossed many telephone
and fire alarm wires. downtown and all
sorts OF complications ensued Fire engines
were dashing hither and thither in quest
| of non-eXistent fires. Terrified tenants
made matters worse by turning in alarms
that had not sounded Of their own ac-
| cord
Rhinelander Waldo, fire commissioner for
New York. and Fire Chief Croker were
among the first to reach Commun paw from
New York. A picked hand of New York
police accompanied them.
Ambulances could not come fast enough
and express wagons were commandeered
for duty in their place How many were
injured never win be known In full, but
those treated in the New York hospitals
alone were 100 and in Jersey City Ho-
boken, Union Hill and surrounding towns
more than double that number. The esti-
mated number OF dead is thirty-two, Of
whom five have been recovered.
WASHINGTON. Feb. 1.-Congress will
be asked TO pass a deficiency appropria.
ton for the repair OF the Ellis island mmi.
grafton station as soon as an estimate OF
the cost can be prepared. Commissioner
Williams said the damage probably would
range from $4,000 to $4,000.