Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1911-02-08
BLAST KILLS SCORE;
HUNDREDS HURT
New York City in Panic As Dyna-
mite ExpIodes.
WALL STREET IS FRIGHTENED
Railroad Terminus and Pier on Water
Front Wrecked-Country for
Radius of 20 Miles Trem-
bles From Shock.

New York = Thirty-fve tons Of
dynamite. In transit for shipment
from pier No 7, in the Communipaw
terminal of the Central Railroad of
New Jersey, exploded and anywhere
from thirty to fifty men are believed
to have been killed outright and a
hundred persons. some of whom at the
time of the explosion were five miles
removed from Jersey City, were seri-
ously injured Falling bricks and
splintered glass windows aided in add
ing the names of a thousand more
persons to the list of injured. The
damage is estimated at 100000.
At the same time the terrific force
Of the blowup reached through the
underlying strata of rock not only in
Manhattan, Brooklyn, Richmond and
the Bronx, but far away points in
Long Island and Connecticut, rock
ing skyscrapers, smashing glass. tear
Ing away window frames and sending,
panic stricken, tens of thousands of
men and women into the streets. fear
full that an earthquake or some other
vast natural turmoil was upon them.
AS in all upheavals of tremendous
force, persons nearby escaped death;
buildings close at hand were not in
jured; persons far away were killed;
structures at great distances were al
most torn apart. For instance, North
port, 40 miles down Long Island, trem-
bled with the shock Bayonne, only
a mile or two distant, did not know
anything had happened until it read
the evening newspapers.
Wall street for a time suspended
business through fright and anxiety
New York's fire engines and ambu-
lances changed violently up and down
the streets searching for the scene of
whatever had happened-nobody for a
long time knew. There was semi
panic for nearly an hour in this city
until 1t became known that the cause
of the great roar, the swaying of
buildings and the tinkle of breaking
glass that cut and bruised scores was
a good mile away.
What happened, briefly, was this:
Two cars of dynamite, containing Is
tons each, from the Dupont Powder
company works in Wilmington. Del,
had arrived on the tracks at the end
of pier number almost adjoining
the big Central station at Communi-
paw, the explosive being consigned to
Palisades, on the Hudson. for use in
blasting out rock
Two lighters, the Katherine w and
the Whistler, had drawn up to the
pier end to receive cargoes of the
dangerous stuff They were to have
been towed DIP the river once 1t was
slowed aboard. On the former was
Captain John Healy and eight men, on
the latter four men.
On the pier end itself were twelve
Polish laborers. some, it being just
noon, starting to eat their dinners
from their pals; others engaged in
transferring the dynamite from the
freight cars to the lighters
There were at least "a men within
actual handling distance of the dyna-
mite.
Next there was an awful roar. a
great cloud of haze and dust, a trem-
BILE of earth and structures above the
earth within a radius of 80 miles
square, an immense wave from the
river that splashed high above every
thing nearby (even scattering mud
upon the collars of persons on the
New York side of the river), and then
a vision of death, manning and
wreckage.