New-York tribune., 1920-09-22
Hoofs of Death Wagon
Horse Are Inspected by
Farriers i'm an Effort
to Identify the Driver
No Sign of Bomb
AT Custom House
Many Federal Employees
Take Holiday; Building
Is Under Guard All Day

Members of the Journeyman Horse.
shoers' Union gathered at Gamon's Hail
Sixty-ffth Street and Third Avenue
last night to examine the two hind
hoofs and shoes of the horse that is
thought to have drawn the wagon bear
ing the death bomb to the scene of the
explosion last Thursday at Broad and
Wall streets. The shoes afford the only
definite bit of evidence in possession
of the authorities.
The two shoes bear the distinctive
marks of union workmanship. and it
was the hope Of investigators that one
of the men would be able to identify
them as his handiwork and offer some
description of the person who had the
morse shod. The horscshoers were ad.
dressed by members of the bomb squad
who passed the shoes among them for
examination.
No conclusive identification was
made by any of the 100 members of
the union present. John F. Fitzgib-
bon, president Of the local, declared
however, that every union man can
recognize his own work, and that if
the 300 other union horseshoers of
the city are given an opportunity to
look at the shoes the man who did
the job eventually will be found.
conference was held in the Fire
Marshars Office in the afternoon of all
the officials trying to determine the
nature of the explosive that caused the
disaster. Because of conflicting sto-
ries told by witnesses the authori-
ties have 50 iar been unable to tell
whether dynamite, INT or picric acid
the conclusion of the meeting.
Crowds at Custom House
The eyes Of the city were for the
moment concentrated Yesterday upon
the Custom House, which, according to
& warning to William H. Edwards, Col
lector of Internal Revenue. was sched-
uled to be blown up at . p. m. A truly
holiday crowd turned out to witness
surrounding Office buildings was at a
premium. No explosion occurred, how
ever, and the stubborn old Custom
House stuck firmly to the ground.
Neither New York nor Mr.. Edwards
seemed to worrv. The collector sat al
his desk dispensing ordinary routine
business. New York. as represented by
5000 Of its citizens, crowded to pass
the special guard of sailors and enter
or stand near the Custom House as .
o'clock approached.
Charles Lewis. of the Stock EX-
change, q venerable gentleman, was
not greatly perturbed either. At ten
minutes to . he sent his card in to
oO1 flc Il tol
"Wcll. Bill" he said. "if they blow
up the Custom House and you go with
it I'm going, too. He sat there until
thirty minutes after the hour dcsig-
mated for the destruction Of the build
ing.
The government took every prccau-
tion to forestall the predicted catas-
trophe. The building was carefully
sea archcd from cellar TO garret Monday
night and the guard of sailors was
supplemented by additional secret scrv-
ice operatives.
Great nervousness prevailed among
the 100 employees Of tho Custom
House Monday when it became known
that Mr.. Edwards had received a
postal card, saying: "Thcrc is a plot to
destroy the Custom House Tuesday
September II, o'clock"
Many Take Holiday
Heads Of departments, recognizing
the effect of such a message on their
employees in the wake Of the Wall
Street disaster. made it optional with
the workers whether or not they re-
mained after noon yesterday. About
$50 of the LOO employees elected to
go home. it was said. OF those who
remained about so per cent were
women.
One department head, however
Joseph +. Carroll, who prcsides over
the Bureau of Customs Statistics, in
which about fifty women and as many
mon are employed, felt that business
should ''bc conducted as usual" Ac-
cordingly he called the women workers
Of the bureau together Monday night
and explained that as citizens on Il
suffrage parity with men ne would
expect them to report for work yes
tcrday.
During the morning Mr.. Carroll no.
CONTINUED page thres)