The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-07-31

into the water or far from the places where they stood.
 All about them was the deafening crash of freight cars torn apart and falling in. The long line of wooden sheds adjacent to the warehouses had crumpled under the blow. Roofs were flung off or sent crashing down. Destruction lay upon everything in the yards. upon everything except the huge concrete grain elevator whose massive columns rose gray and un- shaken through the unnatural light. It was this explosion that caused the damage throughout the metro- politan district The impact of it was felt far up the Hudson and down the New Jersey coast. Lower Man haitian and Jersey City got the brunt of it. In most instances the damage was confined to broken windows and skyl1ghts, but here and there a wall wavered under the tremendous puff of air that was forced out in all di- rections.
 Doors were caved in or bulged out ward. Most people knew nothing about the fire or the fusilade of small shells until. the great crash came. Then. they rushed into the streets or clambered up to rooftops. The sight that met their terror open ed eyes was one not soon to be for gotten. VI J From the section of Jersey City ly- ing along the, ridge that is part of the Palisades it seemed as if the whole of Brooklyn was boiling up. in one gigantic flame. Women <&ere screaming and men, were shouting as they rushed from their homes half clad. Police patrol wagons and au- tomobiles were ringing their bells as they dashed toward the blaze. Ambu- lances loaded with nurses changed their way through the crowds that were beginning to fill the streets. The walls of frightened children came from darkened homes as the mobs surged along. Overhead the light rolled upward.
 There are two main avenues lead ing to Black Tom from Jersey City one the direct route down Claremont avenue; the other Communipaw ave- nue, which leads to the yards of the Central Railroad yof New Jersey. Down in the marshy meadows, seam ed with the tracks of railroads, these two thoroughfares are connected by a paved road. Men and women were making their way along these streets and along the tracks of the New York & Newark Railroad.
 There Is a network of tracks on the low flats between the harbor and the Bergen Hills. With the exception of the main line of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, these tracks were filled with thousands of freight cars be- longing to the Lehigh Valley, the Gen. traI Railroad of New Jersey and the Baltimore & Ohio. As one approach ed the fire, hundreds of men and women who had climbed to the tops of these cars for better view were silhoutted against the sky.
 The view from these cars, a mile from the harbor shore line, was start ling in its grandeur. To the south the flames could be seen rolling over the huge warehouses of the National Storage Co., The one furthest to the east was already a glowing mound. Flames were rising 200 feet high in mass from the main building. Now and then as a well fell, in and sent them higher the outlines of oil tanks half mile away from the warehouses could be distinguished. Toward the bay from the warehouses there were half a dozen fires. They looked like signal fires along the crest of hill. Shells Spout From Fires. Then from one after another of these separated fires came puffs of red flame. There would be a streak upward and then in the sky overhead a mushroom of dark red and yellow flame, then the boom that told of shells exploding. One after another the separate fires took on different ap- pearance. Instead of watch fires along the hills, they began to look like batteries of mortars throwing out gobs of flame. The roar of exploding shells was incessant, but without the regularity that makes a drum beat of artillery.
 | , At o'clock in the morning as rail guards with clubs and threats warm ed back adventurous persons eager to
 reach the front, one could see from the foot of Communipaw avenue the light of burning barge that had I drifted up the bay from Black Tom. She seemed to be direcetly back of | EIllS lSldHQ. u6 llI6 DuTI6u dUOut
 her steadily with every now and then a tremendous burst upward.
 The crowds saw clouds of f1amc lift themselves out of the barge, illumine the whole sky for a second and then lldisappear. As men and women pressed forward there came to their ears the wailing "eeyeow' of the fly ling shells. Sparks wentinto the dark
 ness leaving long smoky streamers Again they burst apart and showered I like Roman candles, Sometimes as
 one gazed across the marshes it looked
 as if locomotive with fire streaming
 from her smokestack was rushing
 along the shore.
 Shells Fan About Onlookers.
 Those who went along the road con-
 meeting Communipaw and C1aremont
 avenue, or approached Black Tom by
 way of C1aremont avenue, came into full view of the whole panorama o1
 flames. Reaching out into the bay
 from tho north side of Black Tom 1r
 the form of Q crescent is a long arm of land covered with rocks and the de-
 bris that the tides bear. On this arm of land were the moving picture men
 and many others.
 Before .he.r eyes, botweon Black
 Tom and Bedios's Island. ths hulk o1
 a long barge was outlined. It wss
 burning down end to end, ard ort G!
 7, s:lells camo hurtlins with increas. ] ing fury. They fell red hot upon thu
 A