davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The evening world., 1911-02-01
CAPT. LAMBS EXPERIENCES,

Capt. John T. Lamb. the pier captain
of the Jersey Central. was In his Office
on Pier 5 with two of his assistants, he
said. taking applications from two young
men who wanted to go to work as
cooks on the company's boats.
Capt. Lamb was taking down their
names when the side OF the office blew
in on all Of them. The whole party OF
five crawled out from the wreck and
were loaded on an express wagon and
taken to a tug. which carried them to
New York. Jersey Central officials
went to the hospital and took Capt.
Lamb and his assistants away. but
william Nelson and Freder!okson, the
two boys who were hunting for Jobs.
were turned loose In the street in their
bandages to make room for people
more badly cut.
Robert Abelard. a surveyor. OF No.
GO Myrtle avenue. was In the station.
he said, when a SWIMMING sheet OF glass
cut off the top OF his derby hat. 1t went
on and nearly cut in half a man who
was ten feet away from him. Abelard
tainted and became conscious again on
a ferry-boat crossing to New York.
Hurled Against Wall.
Isaac Lehman of No. ISL Clinton ave-
nue.. Newark. was in the ferryhouse
near the ferry slips, lie was thrown
AGAINST the outerwall Of the shed.
Everything went black for a few min
utes. Then, when some light flashed up,
he saw a team or horses which had
The evening world., 1911-02-01

passed and see their Jumbled together
contents.
A man was staggering shoreward
alongside these cars a few PAGES ahead
OF me. His face was cut by broken
glass out of semblance to a face. He
dropped on the earth on the end OF tho
pier just as an ambulance surgeon
reached hin. In half a minute with
yards OF temporary ~bandage swathing
his head he was in al ambulance on his
way to st. Francis's Hospital In Jersey
City. The surgeon paused In his work
Of binding up the man long enough to
tell me that two express wagons loaded
with injured had already been taken
away.
And I guess there are plenty more
waiting for u.s." he added. as he knot
ted the bandages into a grotesque tur.
ban effect around the victims skull.
Windrow Of Wreckaae.
To get around to the pier where the
dynamite ven of I was forced to make
a wide detour because there rose In
the path a sort OF windrow OF wreck
age as high as a mans head. My route
brought me in line with the Central
Of New Jerseys station. and I ran
through 1t. 1t. too, was a wreck in
side. The walls. Of course. had stood,
but the huge skylights In the top Of
the train shed and in the waiting room
were all blown out and the fragments
OF glass from above still dropped In
Jagged showers.
The barber shop and the restaurant
opening off the waiting room were
Quilted and what had been inside them
food and BARRIERS tools and tableware
strewed the floors as II a small Cyclone
had been swirling inside the building.
The ticket booths were all smashed and
men s,ood guard over the money and
the tickets inside them. Everything wa.
covered deep with a film of light dust like
powdered pumicc. \ lone telephone girl,
VINO had stuck to ner pos n was
sending In calls for doctors and police.
looked as IL she HAD been dipped head
first in a barrel OF wood ashes.
The Crowd Kept Back.
On what was left OF Pier Z l found a
dozen or more Jersey policemen charg-
Ing about aimlessly and giving orders to
which nobody paid any heed what
soever. They had lost their heads TOO,
or else there were not enough OF them
The evening world., 1911-02-01
on the piers without attention and three United States Express wagons were
pressed into service and rushed to the hospitals filed with wounded.


The ferry boat Lakewood was leaving the Communpaw slip and was
swinging to the northward. bound for Manhattan, when the explosion &C.
Cured. The starboard side of the ferry-boat a crushed in and spintered
About twenty of the passengers were injured. The captain of the Lake.
wood. seeing the destruction that had been wrought by the explosion ito the
Communipaw ferry-house. and convinced that his damage W al all above the
water line, kept right on to the Liberty street slip In New York.
The first outside aid to reach Communipaw a furnished by Police
Sergeant Bogert and a detail OF men from Harbor Squad A. Their boat "a
alongside Pier A at the Battery at the time Of the explosion. The echo had
not died away before the nose Of the little craft wa pointed toward the
cloud of smoke on the Jersey side of the bay.
As the Manhattan police boat approached Communipaw. ploughing through
the mass OF pulverized wrechag a man a zen swimming aimlessly
toward the shore. He wa dragged aboard the police boat and proved to be
Harry Ford. the cook Of the tug William McAluster. He "a minus his
right ear and had a big cut In his scalp.
Manhattan felt the shock plainly. South Brooklyn and Columbia Heights
ere slammed as though by a terrific blast of air coming from the west;
ward that blew gu windows and set solid buildings trembling.
The sensation In the skyscrapers Of lower Manhattan was M that
those who went through the experience will remember to their dying day
The great structures of steel quivered and rocked from side to side. There
Is o more substantial building in the city than the Pulitzer Building
The rocking sensation was plainly felt by those sitting In their chairs in
the editorial rooms OF The World on the twelfth floor and in the tower.
Within tel seconds after the shock thousands OF windows IN the sky
scrapers were opened and tens OF thousands OF heads popped out into the
chilly air. With o ne accord those who sought to find what had happened
the shock came from that direction.
The evening world., 1911-02-01

reared and fallen backward and we're
thrashing around. He saw the flying
heels OF the horse strike a woman and
knock her twenty feet. She fell moor
scious.
Vincent Comovito. steward OF the
Lakewood Country Club was leaving a
train In the station. He was knocked
down and then pinned under a beam.
The evening world., 1911-02-01
JERSEY CENTRAL DEPOT TORN APApT.

The shock of the explosion practically wrecked the Jersey Central Rail
road station. The corrugated iroa roof was torn and ripped as II 1t had been
tightly stretched cloth, the iron pillars and beams We're twisted and the
framework 70 bent that it WILL be impossible to use 1t in reconstruction.
Every pane of glass was smashed and the main waiting room was piled and
Uttered with debris
RThe train dispatcher stuck to his Job in spite OF the panic tht fol-
LOVED the shock and stopped the running of trains In or ut OF he station.
With the exception OF reporters who went TO use the telephones, he was
The only person in the station.
The roof OF the train shed was torn away in sections and great pieces OF
iron hung In jagged sections from the beams to the ground.
In their slips the ferryboats Somervlle and Plainfed were moored The
somervile had Just discharged her passengers when the explosion came
Every windowpane in her was broken and the shower cut the faces of sew
enl Of her crew. The Painfeld had the same experience.
A lighter OF the Lehgh Valley line was moored a short distance north OF
the location OF the explosion. The pier, undermined, fell, smashing upon
the lighter, burying 1t beneath the water, Two men who wer O the
lighter sank, but came to the surface and were picked up and sent to ST.
Tnanciss Hospital, Jersey City.
EVER nagmans and st1hhman's shanty in the yard wa wrecked
The demand ir ambuiances was 30 great that the injured were waiting
The evening world., 1911-02-01

to spread n fire line. Depot hands
helped them to hold the crowds BACK.
A stream OF officials. firemen. surgeons
and newspaper men were filterins last
them and running dow the pier. 1t
was hard to pick your way along. The
dock was piled up with wreckagc. most
Of 1t broken fine but some In big pieces
1t vas slippery and wet from the
water which mad been sucked out OF
the river by the force of the explosion
and sprayed over ii. And everywhere
there were clots of red and mouidy
bones Of beef cattle. l n where the
red clots had ONE from. and in a min
ute l "a to know how the who.e
place came to be covered with these
odorous rib and shoulder bl%ies n
horns of cows.
Just an hour before the crash came
the dingy four-master Sigrid. a Nor
weglan bark. had landed on the lower
side of Pier to discharge a cargo OF
future glue and buttons. A gang OF
Italian -'longshoremen had swarmed
aboard her and rugged sings and had
started to heave out her smelly freight.
The explosion. 1t would seem. lifted
bodily into the air sundry tons OF the
bones and horns and scattered them
every where. on the water. on her decks
and even on the land.
Worst Horror Of All.
Here the worst horror OF all was to
be found. The crowd OF light haired
S~candinav!ans who made up her crew
we're roosting about forlornly. mos. of
them with their faces and heads cut.
They hadn't recovered their senses suf-
hciently to begin trying to clean up the
~irlghtful mess that covered their ship.
But this wasn't the worst thing. Down
In the hold. prone on the bones. YOU
could see two bodies. one OF them head
less and In What was left OF the freight
sling thirty feet aloft dangled a human
arm still In its burnt sleeve, caught
fast In a knot where two lines crossed.
The fireboat New Yorker and two po-
lice boats from Manhattan had landed
alongside the Slgrid and Chief Croker,
Fire Commissioner Waldo and other
New York officials were on the wrecked
pier, doing what they could to help. 1t
was Waldo who found a long string of
freight ca. s. every one OF them loaded
with Grated dynamite.
The sides OF the cars were gone and
The evening world., 1911-02-01

CONTINUED from First Page.)
except the toothlike end Of these
pllings.
The pier next above 1t on the north
was a permanent structure with metal
sides and lots of glass windows in Its
sides. From the lower wall the strips of
corrugated iron sheathing were torn oft
and stacked up on the deck Ike huge
playing cards. All the windows were
gone and you could look through from
side to side. In the little pocket be-
tween the destroyed pier and the badlJ
damaged one a our-masted brig was
moored. She had been four-masted-
she wasn't any more. Two of Ter masts
stood yet, topping crafty with their
rigging hanging on them in a night
marish tangle of broken spars and
tangled ropes. one mast was broken
blown short or-and its sp inferred
stump sticking up like a huge frows
whisk broom. Tit fourth was gone
entirely. II had been lifted out OF Its
step like a tooth out OF its socket.
All a Wierd tumble.
All about and in the shadow of these
central objects there was a wierd tumble
OF lighters and tugboats, all showing
signs OF damage In Scared sides ana
the empty sockets OF portfolios where
glass had been. The water was covered
for an eighth of a mile out with a thick.
greasy scum. This was shredded debris.
broken up so fine that one might have
skinned II off the surface with a spoon
almost. In this coating on the water
were such things as a mattress. a deroy
hat and scraps OF what looked like
mems drlll Jumpers, but which might
lave been bits of sail cloth. The river
was brown with this stuff.
A tug anne putting out of the heart
OF the ruck, conveying - little steam
holster that had been ,llght some
where IN the zone {, the smash. The
wooden deckhouse on this holster was
fattened down on it's float into a wierd
likeness to a crushed hat. Somebody
called out that two men had been killed
on board this hoist. In the presence Of
a disaster which we knew must be so
widespread the death OF only two
| seemed a mere incident.
Like Sweep Of a T%yphoon.
"e" "e'e e..'"'9 Up S'oa" u" w
""'''eu any piSieu 'usooa's' incs
'ooNe" d u '"e' "au Deeh '"'ous" I"
- P"oo" W way vi o'aS' "i"'S an"
ou. asa!"' i"er PAM was Seorehe'
anu '"eIr caoih "ihuo"s were gaping
"o'e'' i"e 'n'o"''cn VI ~ Va ."'",
"a5 ~ w :
sa' nv 80 p~m
:" ~ y" ~ 80
" 80,
~" ~ =. "aPps -
,Hes "eIo s.''ueu
N ~ .m.e ,,nh
W." 80. ,
as 49, 80 ~ -
~ - w "a
w So ..uas
inv 'ee , '"e" a"s.s,.a
" no y Isea" 80. We
~ ~ uar,
u"e !" W
's"e ou
CHOW "aN ""' -
u e ~.
II ponee"'" "au'eu ~ A.
'u"l > No. - nvJ 49,
-. 80
~ 49, 80 aaa
I" ~ 80
=" - e"''e' v 80 -
INC p,aue M"ele tne "e" "eie "a'
w. "m, ,n @
The evening world., 1911-02-01
HURT; PANICS in BORO

Brooklyn hospitals we're taxed to their capacity to bind up the wounds Of the
injured Most Of the hurts YER caused by broken glass.
In the Communipaw section OF Jersey City. few who wereo IN the streets
atthe time Of the explosion escaped injury. The medical hospital resources
ofJersey City and Bayonne proved entirely inadequate to care for the vic
Tins The Chief OF Police OF Jersey City sent word to Commissioner Crop
sey at 1915 o'clock that the town was In a condition approxlmaung the
aftermath OF ar earthquake and asked for medical aid.
Police surgeons and volunteers from east side hospitals we're hurried
$, Jersey City by Commissioner Cropsey. Ambulances were also sent over
Scores Of persons were lying in the streets of Communipaw unable to help
themselves.
One Of the innumerable tragic freaks OF the disaster occurred to George
wigginton of No. 1869 Fox street, the Bronx, who was getting shaved in a
barber shop at Liberty and West street The barber was thrown tut OF
balance, the razor slipped and the mans throat a ut from ar to ear
He was taken to the House Of Relief MORALLY injured.
York. the congregation Of a Catholic church ran, shrleking and praying,
to the street. Fulton street, Brooklyn. In the shopping district, al show.
cred with broken glass. Ellis Island sustained a damage u 800 900 to
buildings, and the immigrants charged to the ferry and tried to throw
themselves into the Bay.
O. Manhattan Island, south OF Fulton street. was fairly ridded BY the
conclusion. Broken glass Uttered the sidewalks and pavements. Tens OF
thousands o clerks. men and women, working o. the upper floors OF sky.
scrapers started for the stairways and elevators. They thought New York
had been visited by an earthquake and that impression as generally
shared.
The evening world., 1911-02-01
IsYourHome
THE
Exception?

Eighty per cent. Of the homes
in this country have pianos,
and a home without one is
the exception. The piano is
looked upon to-day as a necessity
and not a luxury, particularly
where there are children to edu.
cate.
The evening world., 1911-02-01

Ellis Island caught nearly the whole blast of the explosion. Fifty O,
the officials we're In the restaurant at the west end OF the main building at
luncheon and $50 of the 1000 immigrants O the island YER in the main
dining room.
The floor heaved as though with an earthquake and then the win
glass. Many OF the diners we're blown from their chairs and hurled against
the walls.
Every plate OF glass IN the island was shattered. Doors we're torn
from their hinges. The damage Was roughly estimated at 100000 t6
Government property.
All the medical inspectors of the immigration Bureau were set to work
dressing the wounds Of the scores of lei and women who we're cut and
praised. The whole institution was like a hospital.
A little tug called the Dewey, pulling and straining to get a coal bare
away from Pier No. T. was almost blown out Of the waterb by the force Of
the conclusion The captain of the Dewey "A found unconscious in tbs
pilot house. He W hurried to New York II another tug. Apparently his
injuries were mortal
The area involved in the destructive effect of the explosion extends fol-
two miles along the Communipaw waterfront. Fully a dozen tugs and as
many more barges ana lighters were utterly wrecked. Several larger YES.
sells are wrecked so far a their upper works were concerned.
Factories and warehouses along the water front were 81 shaken and
wrenched that many were condemned soon after the explosion. The m
ployees were just getting ready to go out to lunch. Those who were IN
sarways were thrown down and injured.
Every ambulance in Jersey City and Bayonne was started for the
Communipaw docks as soon at the scene OF the accident was located. The
explosion occurred at a remote point and It was hard to reach It from the
land side. The general impression in lower Jersey City was that the Stand.
ard OIL plant at Constable Hook had blown up
The City Hall at Jersey City. at Grove and Montgomery streets, seemed
the main supporting pillar had cracked. Inspectors OF the Building De.
partment err summoned to see IL the structure q liable to fall down.
No one will be permitted in the building until an examination has been made,
The evening world., 1911-02-01
TUGB0AT AND SHIP WRECKED NEAR BAKGE.

The tugboat william McAnister was wrecked. Harry Ford, the oook.
was sucked from the deck Of the u by the vaeuu following the explosion.
dragged eighty feet over the wreckage Of the pier and the barge and dropped
picked up by he patrol boat OF Harbor Squad A Of New York.
"The McAnister," said Ford, was Just making fast o the pier, about
100 feet to the westward Of the dynamite barge I was standing in the door
ofthe galley getting ready to pass a line o a deckhand O. the pier. Then
I fit as though the whole world had hit m e IN top of the head.
"Vhst happened don't know. came to in the water padding When
! y. In the water was nearly one hundred feet from tn. tug. As l look at
It now. 1t Gems that as sucked from the tug by a back current Of air,
carried clean yer the wreckage and out into the river"
Pier No. g. a corrugated iron structure, a crumped like q mass Of
paper Small boats and tugs lying alongside this pier we're wrecked. The
bark Ingrid. just In from Buenos Ayres with a cargo of bones. and lying at
Pier No. Z WA dismasted by the force OF the explosion.
The bones from this cargo were blown out Of the matches, which had Just
been opened. and distributed for miles along the waterfront OF Bayonne.
After the explosion tn hand and arm OF a man were found eDtangled In the
rigging of the bark A longshoreman, standing o. the pier alongside the
lnSnd and just about to start in with a gang to upload the cargoo OF bones
had his head blown of. His decapitated body was found In the hold OF
tho bark.
Tugboatmen and Others who were In the vicinity Of the explosion sy
that there we're some fifteen men at work oil the end OF Pier No. 7 and on
the dynamite barge. transferring explosive from the freight cars to the
barge. None of these va seen after the explosion. 1t was supposed that a
arm and hand blown into the rigging of the Ingrid are all that as left of
oas Of them.
The first man found dead in the hold of the Ingrid val identified as
Etsano Moro OF No. II Conover street, Brooklyn. Later the body of his
brother. Michaelo, found in the debris One of his arms had been torn
on and II was supposed that his was the arm which hung In the rigging
OF the ship.
The evening world., 1911-02-01

Soon after the shock OF the explosion passed the streets in downtown
Manhattan we're swarming with crowds that made locomouon almost i'm
possible Business a suspended on the Stock Exchange and in banks
Through the crowds changed fire engines. water towers and ambulances
looking for the scene OF the disaster, for rumors yer thick and dropping
from every side.
The City Hall was empied by the shock. 1t was rumored that some
me had thrown a bomb in the Mayors Office. Doubtless 1t will be founl
that walls have been cracked and foundations weakened In many old build
inss in the lower section of Manhattan.
The scene OF the eApodon is n little clutter OF docks close to the Com
munipaw Station of the Central Railroad OF New Jersey II is directly
across and about n quarter of n mile from Ellis Island. This spot is the
omcial mooring ground for barges containing explosives and is the only
part OF the harbor SO recognized.
The barge containing the explosive a at the end OF Pier Z, al
wooden covered structure. O N which a gang of men werea 1t work. At neigh
boring piers werem oored sailing vessels and barges. All the docks In that
section are busy places.
The noon whistles were just blowing at the time of the explosion and
dockhands were hurrying ashore. The tug William McAhster al floating
In. broadside to tie up to Dock No. 9. about sixty feet toward the mainland
from the magazine lighter.
Exactly at noon the barge let go. The time is established by the stopping
Of clocks all over Bayonne. The big clock Of the front Of the Central Rail-
road Of New Jersey ferry house stopped with the minute and hour hands
together pointing toward the zenith.
~ gret nAs OF yenowish smoke shot up into the air from the scene Of
the ASpbkioa. Hheaer and higher It blew. until It seemed to form into clouds
and float lasHy away on the wind. The sun. which had been shining bright.
ly. became overcast In a few minutes
When the smoke cleared away not a sign remained OF the dynamite craft
thst had been moored to the end OF the pier But n the surface Of the
water noa'ed masses OF wreckase. the separate parts Of which we're not
larger than a mans hand. Mutilated bodies noated In the wreckage, and
here and there a man could be seen swimming for safety.
The wooden covering Of Pier Z was absolutely razed % the pier level
save FOR o few splintered timbers here and there. A floating hoist, which
had been passing out from the docks and was within 100 feet OF the lighter
attthe time Of the explosion. a crumped like I'm opera hat. Three men
wpre aboard this hoist There was n sign of life a. GARD Is the smoke
ckared away and the wrecked, ungainly craft noated of with the tide.
The evening world., 1911-02-01

M EAtra tharYe FOR IL. g
Advertisements Tor The World may be left al
any American District Messenger Office In tAs
city until . p. n.
The evening world., 1911-02-01

In Manhattan the brunt of the shock was felt below Fulton street
Acres of glass were blown out of windows and skylghts. Stocks OF goods
wore blown from the windows of stores IN distributed along the sidewalks
In nil the streets in the financial districts the sidewalks and pavements were
Uttered with broken glass. In some places the debris a ankle deep
Horses showered with glass n away and thousands OF pedestrians were
injured more or less severely.
The women operators on the upper floors of the Western Union Building
at Broadway and Dy streets became panic stricken and a for the win
dows. That old structure fairly jumped from the effect Of the shock. Chairs
and desks leaped from the floor
All along Broadway. from the PostOmce down. the fronts Of stores and
the pa eglass windows OF banks on both sides of the street. yer pule
out of their frames by the suction after the blast. The buildings emtled
Of their tenants In q stream. and Broadway a densely packed with n
panics ricken crowd.
A battalion of fire apparatus plunged through the mob to Wall street
and Broadway. followed by ambllances, and hung about until the real Ioca-
tn Of the blast was found. A peculiar freak of the suction was that no
two adjoining windows we're broken,
In the high buildings which had windows overlooking the harbor MI tho
glass was smashed and many clerks and other occupants were ut by broken
glass