Norwich bulletin., 1920-09-17

Vapor In the street an overturned. au- tomobile was blazing fiercely and near by, close to the body of a dead horse, was another fire, evidently among a pile of wreckage.
 Almost in front of the steps leading up to the Morgan bank was the mutt lated body of a man. Other bodies most of them silent in death, lay near by. AS I gazed horror-stricken at the sight, one of these forms, half naked and scared with burns started to rise It struggled, then toppled and fell life less into the gutter.
 "On the opposite side of the street were other forms. One of them was that of a young woman, her clothing torn and burned away. It was moving not in an effort to rise-but in the agony of death. 1 started toward her, but as, I did it became still. In glancing down I saw that the pavement was dis 1 colored with blood. In plain sight, within a radius of thirty to fifty feet, were nine lifeless forms.
 The body of the dead horse in the middle of the street showed plain evi- dence of having been in very near the cen:er of the blast. It was literally | torn to pieces.
 1 Windows Blown Out.
 'The window of the Morgan building were blown out and through the open l ings could be seen the smoke -blackened 1 interior of what but a few moments pre- vious had been one of the handsomest l banking rooms in the city. Opposite l the entrance to the newly complete
 White exterior of the sub-treasury an l after the explosion took place. The 1 smoke had partially cleared from the street, but from the Morgan building h9 m }qI iDe
 been subjected to bombardment O machine gun fire. the doorway, with it!
 massive steel grill work, was shattered and tho stone surrounding the doc
 cracked and battered away.
 By this time the crowd was pressin:
 in, held in check by the hastily gather ing police At the doorway of the Mor
 gan bank was an uniformed 'uard. ap parently half dazed, but sti, . lg - hi
 post and holding back those mho sough , to enter the structure
 "Then came the anbulances. Nearb . trucks and automobiles were first press
 ed into service. Volunteers needing no : blood-smeared hands and clothing. ten
 derly lifted into the vehicles the bodie , of the dying and the dead. The dea
 that remained for additional convey
 ances were charitably hidden from sigh
 by covering torn from awnings or b
 robes from arriving motor cars. ; Five of Firm in Building.
 Five members of the Morgan fir
 accident. Thomas W. Lamont, Dwigf ! W Morrow, Eliot c. Bacon and Georg
 Whitney were in a conference on tn s second floor of the Broad street sid
 of the Morgan building. They wei : shaken up by the force of the explosion
 but all escaped without injury.
 : Junius Spencer Morgan, son of J. ]
 Morgan, head of the firm who is no T. abroad, was at his desk on the lowe
 floor when the explosion occurred. |. shattered the glass partitions of his 0 II flee, showering him with fragments F s received slight cuts on the hands ar arms.
 et Threw Conference Into Disorder. n 'The. explosion threw the conferen
 upstairs into disorder" MT. LamoI
 said. We were jared by the concu Fl sion and rather excitedly ran down 70 the main floor, where the most conf sion prevailed. There were about ,d employed who were more or less iniur ,, and those clerks who had miraculous " escaped injury from falling debris. we re courageously devoting their attention s assisting those who were less fortuna C. One Valued EmpIoye Killed. oe One of our valued employees, Willia y Joyce, was killed. He was the son
 Thomas W. Joyce. who has been in O 0- employ for 30 years and who was hi
 self badly hurt. All our large windo
 on the first floor and some on the St e- ond floor were blown in. The office W n+ be ready for business tomorrow mo1 rr ing"
 Ve 400 to 500 in Building. at There were between 400 and 800 e ,d ployes in the Morgan building at { 7O time of the accident Despite injur , sustained when he was struck by fyi M glass, Junius s. Morgae aided many ct. ct. his clerks, who were m5re seriously hu ;no MT. Lamont said tonight. The you an mans coolness, he added, brought ,s excited employees to their senses and D ~ bably prevented a panic In the Morg at building when the explosion occurred \ oa Morgan remained at his offices until ,s tonight and assisted in restoring or od there
 no. Despite the police theory that the
 cident was caused by the explosion of ,-, internal machine, several eye-witnes .n o reported that a wagon bearing the s | Ike building a few moments before the bl - aat occurred. This led to the theory, wh yii was still held by members of the M o+ gan firm tonight, that the explosion ou caused by collision between this or sive-laden wagon and another vehic rad From what we have learned I am ,., clined to believe that the explosion seS due merely to an accident" MT. Lam ion declared tonight. There are no reas m mo that We can find that would lead t, premeditated bombing. I can see nc
 ing to be gained by such an act.
 cumstances of the occurrence surely an not point to an attempt to wreck in Morgan offices.
 the If anybody really plotted destruc cial of our building, believe that We wC of have been sent the warning that nb- usual in such instances. And we | n- not been threatened in any manner
 believe the explosion was due to notl ess. more than an unfortunate accident 1 ex- dray loaded with exnlosives which I -ict, informed had arriv on the site of
 stock exchange bunurng addition ac rect the street from our offices" 1rst No Permits For Explosives. o-i An investigation by representative ,,a,, the fire commissioner, however sho ,,n that no permits of explosives were ,,,o ther received nor expected during ,-, day at any other building under my struction in the immediate vicinity. cording to the fire commissioner a,.a said a canvass had been made of
 construction work in the neighborho last French Commission Warned. and A letter giving warning of today S and plosion was dropped Wednesday, m ans ing through the mail slot of doc
 bne of the offices of the French ents commission at 65 Broadway, it bee