Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1921-04-01
BLAST IN CHICAGO
KILLS 8 PERSONS
Scores of others Injured When
Big Warehouse Destroyed.
PROPERTY LOSS 100000
Claimed That 800 Pounds of Black
Gunpowder and saItpeter Being
Mixed in "Moonshine" Fireworks
Factory Caused Explosion.

Chicago, March 30.-Three hundred
pounds of black gunpowder and salt
peter being mixed in an unlicensed
fireworks factory by four men in a
one-story warehouse in the rear OF the
notion store of Singer & Schaeffer at
1927 South Halsted street caused a
terrific explosion that killed at least
eight persons. injured scores and
spread devastation and terror for
blocks through the West side tene-
ment district
Max Singer, a nephew of William
Singer, who with his partner, Nathan
Schaffer, has disappeared, made this
confession to Fire Attorney Shirley
High and police of the Maxwell street
station. Both the missing men are
being sought.
Bodies HURLED for Yards.
The blast was so terrific it reduced
the warehouse to a hopeless mass Of
bricks and splintered timbers.
Several bodies of persons inside the
building were hurtled in fragments
for yards.
Houses and stores for two blocks
around were shaken as by an earth
quake and windows were smashed
over a wider area.
The warehouse, owned by Joseph
Well & Son, was in the form of an
L." the length of it lying along Hal
sted street, and the wing turning into
Barber street, small thoroughfare
starting at Halsted and running east.
1t was in the wing, where the office
and transfer room were located. that
the blast occurred.
The neighborhood is busy shop
ping district. Directly across from
the warehouse is the department store
of L. Klein and near by are a number
Of smaller places.
All of the injured, except one man,
a teamster, who crawled cut and
bleeding badly from the ruins, were
shoppers and Children in the streets.
They were showered with glass frag-
ments and bits of brick and wood.
Within a minute the district was in
turmoil. Five companies called by
all alarm had to batter their way by
inches through a fast-forming mob of
spectators. The first cali for police
men was supplemented by orders, call
ing out reserves from all nearby sta
tons.
For two hours the rescuers were Sc
riously hampered by the jam of peo-
pie, who literally fought with the po-
lice to get sight of the disaster.
Two witnesses, Jack Rosenthal of
1872 Barber street and Samuel Holman,
proprietor of paint shop near the
warehouse, told the police they saw
men running from the Barber street
wing of the warehouse a moment be-
fore the explosion. Rosenthal said he
saw two men, Holman saw one, he
said.
Arrest Partner in Novelty Firm.
After an investigation into the blast.
Fire Attorney High arrested Edward
Schaeffer, partner in the firm of Sing
err, Schaffer & Co, whose novelty
store adjoins the scene of the blast.
The fire orney expressed the belief
that the explosion of firecrackers, of
which Schaeffer has large quantity
stored in his basement, may have
caused the blast. Singer. the other
partner in the novelty concern, is be-
ing sought.
Harry Well, son of the owner of the
Barber street warehouse, was taken
into custody on orders of Capt Pat
rick Kelliher. Police officers did not
say what suspicious they had.
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