The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-09-17

lContInued from Page One-)
ing.
The explosion came at time when
the canyons of Lower New York were
thronged with people crowding their
way into lunch rooms near by.
A reporter of the Associated Press
making his way down Wall street from
Broadway, saw suddenly go up in
front of him cone Of flame and
smoke 1t came from the very center
of Wall and Broad streets, between the
Morgan building and the sub-treasury.
1t mounted SO high that awnings on
the fifth floor of many skyscrapers
were burned to cinder.
Then there was a roar that was
heard far up Manhattan island and
hundreds of persons were hurled to
the pavement. Cries arose and on Wall
street, paved with broken glass, there
gushed forth streams of blood, more
fit for a battlefield than Americas fl
nancial center.
One man was seen to sit up,
brush his hand over his eyes and then
topple over dead in the gutter. Near
him were found the bodies of tire wo-
men, and further on more bodies lying
side by side with the carcasses of
horses.
Hardly had the roar of the explo-
sion ended when a rush for the finan-
cial district was made from all parts
Of the city. Thousands came, moved
only by curiosity, but there were 9TH
ers inspired by other motives-physi-
clans and nurses bent on mission of
mercy and police and secret service
men and soldiers ordered to protect
property and run down plotters, if
bomb plotters there were.
The first thing that occupied the
attention of the investigators were
wrecks of a truck and automobile at
the spot from which the blast was be-
ieved to have come. From the wreck
age were taken a New Jersey auto
mobile license whose reported number
corresponds with that issued to Dun
ham Beedon, a Newark pharmacist,
who was reported this morning to have
gone to Wall street on business.
He was said to have escaped injury.
Federal investigators soon TO 4be
headed by VIM j. Flynn, chief of the
department of justice bureau OF in
vestigation, summoned from Washing
ton, conferred their attention on these
wrecks.
Some advanced the theory that the
automobile had collided with a powder
wagon, and the Du Pont company was
asked Immediately to find out whether
any of its vehicles had been in the
vicinity at the time This was done
after. construction men had expressed
belief that the truck was of the type
Investigators sought to run down re-
ports that a bomb had exploded in !
front of the Morgan building
Assistant District Attorney Talley,
after visiting the scene, announced his
belief that the explosion could not have
been due to an accident.
THE factors that lead me to this
belief said MIR. Talley, ARE that the
time of the explosion was at 1901 p.
m, when probably the greatest damage
could have been done, and the location
of the explosion was midway between
the Morgan offices and the new United |
States Treasury building"
Working on the conspiracy theory, |
the police picked up all remnants of
the wrecked automobile and wagon, |
even going so far as to remove the |
shoes from a dead horse in order to |
establish the identity of the vehicles |
and their owners.
Detectives also picked up near the
scene pieces of cast iron window |
weights, smelling OF powder. There
were dozens of these and the theory
was advanced that they might have
formed part of an internal machine.
All pieces of clothing, including
shreds of cloth and battered hats were
collected by the police.