The Johnson City comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1916-1917, 1916-07-27
MANY MANGLED
BY BOMB
BOMB CARRIEDIN SUIT CASE
SIN KILLED AND FORTY.FOUR
ARE INJURED.
SIDEWALK STREWN WITH TORN
AND MANGLED BODIES.

San Fl dHClSCO, july ---A Al led5l
six persons were killed and forty
four or more injured here today when
a timed bomb, concealed in suit
case. exploded on San Francisco's
main thOroughfare in the midst of a
throng viewing a preparedness par
ade. A one-story brick structure,
against which the suit case stood, was
wrecked and the explosion blew
gap through the crowd, blasting wo-
men, men and children. 1t is posi-
bic that some bodies were blown out
of existence, the police believe. The
suit case contained cartridges, bull
lets, gas pipes, scrap iron and glass.
The police arrested Frank Joseph
son, a lOdger in a sailors boarding
house, who cried, Il didn't do it! |
didn't do it," and trembled violently
when he was being searched at the
station house. The police said he had
not been accused of anything. Charles
NJ. Fickert, district attorney, issued a
statement attributihg the deed to a
mind unbalanced by arguments for
and against preparedness. The par
ade was not interrupted.
The explosion occurred at Steuart
and Market streets, two blocks from
the Ferry building.
Walk Strewn With Bodies.
The holiday throng, cheering a con-
tingent of veterans of the First Cali
forna infantry of the Spanish-Ameri-
can war, became a shambles. The
blare of fifty bands and the road of
drums drowned the cries of the in
jured, but the sidewalk was strewn
with torn bodies.
1.-TWO men standing beside me were
blown to bits said a woman who,
with her two children, was injured.
All the newspaper Offices in San
Francisco yesterday received a com
munication written in Roman script
with an indelible pencil many of the
words being heavily underscored. The
communication was signed:
The Determined Exles From Mill
taristic Government. Italy, Germany,
United States, Italy, Russia"
Letter to the Editors.
In several instances the writer re-
peated himself. The communication:
THE editor: Our protests have
been in vain in regards to this pre-
paredness propaganda, so we are go
ing to use little direct action on the
22nd, which will echo around the
earth and show that Frisco really
knows how and that militarism can
not be forced on us and our children
without a violent protest.
Things are going to happen to
show that we will go to any extreme,
the same as the controlin gclass, to
pursue what little democracy we still
have. Don't take this as a joke, or
you will be rudely awakened Awak-
en- (siD; we have sworn to do our
duty to the masses and only send
warnings to those who are wise, but
VIII oare forced to march to hold their
jobs; as we want to give only the
pyrocriptical sic patriots who shout
for war but never go, real taste of
war.
Kindly ask the Chamber of Com
merce to march in solid body, if
they want to prove they are no cow
ards. A copy has been sent to all
the papers. Our duty has been done
SO far"
Precautions Taken.
Every possible precaution, police
officials said tonight, had been taken,
but the innocent looking suit case,
where a country visitor, of
whom there were thousands, might
have set it down, attracted no atten-
ton.
The force of the bomb was aston
shing. A piece of lead pipe was
blown two squares into the North
western Pacific railroad waiting
room. A womans gold watch, pre-
belonging to one of the vic
inns, was blown through the air and
landed in fruit stand block and a
lalf away.
An ambulance, summoned to care
'or fainting spectator, stood across
Steuart street when the explosion oe-
cured. The patient had his leg frac-
,ured and man aiding the attend
ants fell with fractured skull, but
he ambulance steward was unin-
ured. He packed both men and some
)ther victims into the ambulance and
'ushed them to the hospital.
The official count of the parade in
Heated that 51,319 persons were in
inc.