Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1920-09-17
ny wINuFnED VAN QUEER

NEW YORK, Sept. 1G-A war-torn
city rising from singing clouds
flying glass and dust: crnters torn
in the pavement where little brown
pools ooZc toward tho cutters; win
dows gaping like sightlcss eyes.
This was Broad and Wall" today
two hours after the explosion. which
stopped the beating OF the countrys
financial heart and filled hospitals
with dead and dying.
a mile away. at Brooklyn Bridge,
the air vibratcd TO the clang of am
bulance gongs and shricking sirens.
Persons talked in little throaty
gasps. Everybody in downtown New
York had felt the terrific impact and
reacted to 1t. fought my wav
through Nassau Street. Police and
soldiers standing with bnyonets fixed
halted all who wished TO approach
the disaster.
Toucring Walls Arc Menace.
Besides the danger Of tottcring
| walls and the constant rain of glass
there was that which demanded
special care: Uncle Sans treasure. in
one of the very buildings befor
! which it happened.
But it was my impression that an
| cncampmcnt had been opened up on
the steps of the subtrcasury: no one
| was allowed upon that side Of the
street. II it is true that some one
set off n bomb with the idea Of rob-
bling the building, that some one is a
disappointed person tonight
The biggest policeman I ever have
seen took me to the middle of Wall
Street and I looked upward. The
walls of the United States assay
building: Of the J. +. Morgan G. Co.
building. tho Stock Exchange, and
those adjoining looked as IL they had
suffered an attack of smallpox. They
were SCARED and nickcd as high as
seventh and eighth stories: charred
shrcds of awning nuttcrcd dizzily
above the street.
The policeman said: Dynamite
| blows down. Even If waEonload
OF dynamite had exploded accidcn-
tally. breaking and tossing about
bits of window bars and other metal,
| they would not have risen with such
| force as To chop pieces out of granite
| eight stories above the street But
| shrapnel. sent off by n bomb would.
| Besidcs-look. He held out to me n
| Jagged piece OF shining metal two
or three inches long. 1t was polished
! and wicked. He said he had picked
II up on the steps of the Morgan
| building.
Like Ruins in Flanders.
| That building. temple OF finance.
! stood devastated even as ruins In
! Flanders. They told me that all the
! wires were down, and that the floors
! inside were piled with wood and
! glass. I imagined n sportive giant,
! sciZing window bars and twisting
them as child twists taffy candy;
! they were spiraled and jerked from
| each other that way.
1t was at the curb opposite the
the assay Office that saw what had
once been an automobile. But like
the window bars. cvery piece of metal
every little rod on it was twisted :;
/ there was neither wood nor leather
! on the tortured frame. In the gut
ter was splinter or two OF wood
| painted red. One sees that color when
wagons hying Gags labeled "explo-
| sives" move swiftly by.
And beside the spinters were
! sHicuS oi d morse anu Il cratcT III tne
pavement, And these were all that
| was left of persons, reasons or OBJ
jects having to do with the disaster.
Police say all the facts never may be
known. IL being likely that those
mos' directly concerned were blown
from the face OF the Garth. Edward
Turner, who is a clerk In the office
or the American Sugar Refining
Company near Broad and Wall. was
going TO his lunch at 1908.
lie waa going south in William
tStrsct and hes!tated at the cush,tp
4. ~ ,.HlfAi