The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1917-09-30
Terrific Explosion Brought Death and Property Destruction Two Years Ag
MANY BUILDINGS DESTROYED
And FORTY SEVEN LIVES LOST

Monday, September II, 1915, was one
OF the fairest Of September days Ard
more was the dwelling place of ten
thousand or more progressive citizens
who enjoyed all the ADVANTAGES of an
ambitious new state city The year
had been one Of prosperity and the
.citys residents were engaged i'm pros
porous industry.
The temperature had reached high
point at the noon hour and there was
noticeable absence of stirring breeze.
The merchant and clerk had barely
returned from the midday meal when
the scene Of peace, plenty and industry
was changed, In am instant, TO suffer
ing sorrow and fear
Tank car l. n. y. S051. standing ON
the Santa Zee railway tracks, few
hundred yards from the passenger sta
ton, had been reported as leaking
through the safety valve, gas which
hung in pockets over the railway yards
The car was loaded win casinghead
gasoline. the most volatile liquid
known a workman had been sum.
moned to adjust the safety valve lie
mounted the car and disaster swept
over the city. The cause of the ter
rife explosion is even yet in debate.
Battle sieged cities of Europe may
present a scene of more terrible havoc,
but to Ardmore people, the few hours
following the explosion We're those Of
such agony sorrow and fear as might
he imagined are experienced by the
survivors of battle torn city.
a souvenir booklet published boy
The Ardmoreite. relates the story, in
part as follows
Suddenly-in the twinkling Of an eye
in the tleeting part Of second and
all was changed. roar as of thou.
sand of the most terrible engines Of
war ever invented by man, rent the
air Ten thousand devils shrieked the
earth rocked and groanel for miles
around, and "a whitening blast as from
the very gates Of hell. swept up the
streets of Ardmore. with the angel OF
Death waving her black banner in the
fore
Two-pernaps three perhaps five
seconds and then came the walls Of
human creatures in terror and in tor
ment Those who survived looked up
on picture-no "A reality-that no
Dante or Dore by canto or dream could
ever equal
Within the hour forty souls went
forth to meet their Maker some in ag
ony. and others, like the light of q
candle snuffed out before the breeze
Scores were left behind manned anC
bleeding, to remember that day as
day Of days, should they live thousand
years. on the busy streets, where q
few moments before neighbors and bus
mess associates had met and exchanged
pleasantries, lay twisted timbers, dis
torted things. that had been perhap,
parts OF proud buildings
Hither and thither dashed horses
some still hitched TO vehicles. and som,
having broken loose from incumbranc,
poor dumb brutes perhaps. but read,
when the terror Of the moment wa,
passed, 20 crop the hrst tuft OF grass
boy the wayside. Theirs was not "A last
ing fear Crawling from wrecks o
what a few moments before had beer
busy and prosperous mercantile es,ah
hshmonts blackened, bleeding, dazed
were human creatures. Some OF then
scarcely looked like human hein,s. an,
when at FIRST they spoke. it was III,
babbIe of one who is beroft Of the intel
iigcnce God save.
Aul then ON the air pealed the fir
bell The Fire Fiani n all his slor,
was also there 90 lend % hand, and dab
hio in agllisA g..r BOO tu, destruction