The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1919-05-08
CLERK OPENED BOMB PACKAGE
Store Employee Opened and Re-
wrapped Deadly Packages Un-
conscious of Danger.

The bombs thus far discovered and
examined in the countrywide plot to
destroy prominent men with internal
machines appeared to have all the
earmarks of having beenlmade in Ger
many, according to officials of the
naval intelligence service. who call
ed the attention of department. of
iutice representatives and police Of
ficials to the facts at hand.
The explosive ingredients discover
ed in the bombs bore startling re-
semblance to those found in the lat
est type of German, mines discovered
during the latter weeks of the war
along the Long Island and New Jer-
sey coasts
Descriptions Of the general COM
position of the bombs bear a most
remarkable and startling resemblance
to the new type of German mine"
said one of the naval officers. zone
of these mines drifted ashore at Nor
iches Bay, Long Island, and we dis
nlembered it. The description of the
internal machines found in the mails,
although smaller, of course, tallies In
every respect With the composition of
that mine.
I'm the German mines there is a
glass container filled with acid. If a
ship comes into contact with one of
the horns of the mine the shock
breaks the glass container, permitting
the acid to come into contact with
the Illuminating caps placed beside
the container. The acid explodes the
caps which in turn, fire the explosives
with which the mine is charged
1.-The Internal machines found in
the mails have an outer cylinder
that corresponds to the cover OF the
mine. The glass vial containing the
acid is like the glass container in
the mine. The Illuminating caps are
similar and the acid coming into
contact with the Illuminating caps
explode the dynamite with which
the bombs are charged"
Belief was expressed that terror
lists in America could not have Sc
cured the illuminate Of mercury used
in the bombs, and that since the
bombs undoubtedly contained full
inmate of mercury the natural de-
ducation was that it had been Sc
cretly sent from Germany or that the
completed bombs had been sent from
there - 't,str,s' u,
Two Internal machines one adj
dressed to Senator Reed Smoot and
the other to the governor or lieut.
enant governor of Utah, are now
somewhere in the mails, en- route to
Utah, it was learned today, after
having been returned to the Gimbel
Brothers store for additional
postage.
When they we're sent to the store.
marked Insufficient POSTAGE the
bomb plot had not been disclosed and
the clerk who received them opened
the packages. He owes his life to the
fact that they did not explode. He
replaced the wrappers, affixed the
required postage and they were sent
forth.
This is a joke on somebody" said
the clerk in the Gimbel Brothers
shipping department after he had
glanced at the packages contents.
when the fact became known that
the name of his employers had been
used on the wrappings covering
bombs sent to prominent men, the
clerk recalls having handled two of
the bombs without suspecting their
real nature and reported the facts
to the store authorities. The latter
lost no time in getting in communi-
cation with federal authorities and
means to and the Internal machines
were instantly set in motion.
Word was flashed all over the
United States to postmasters to hold
all packages in any manner resem-
bling those described by the Gimbel
Brothers shipping clerk. 1t was re-
garded as practically certain that
neither Of those two packages will
be delivered to the addresses.