The New York herald., 1922-07-13
SHELL USED ASPROP
FOR DOOR EXPLODES,
KILLING 8 CHILDREN
One of Victim Aged II to
16 Believed to Have
Struck Missile.
BUILDING IS WRECKED
Relic From Target Ground,
Believed in Watertown
to Be 'Dud.'
MANY SUCH SOUVENIRS
MANY SUCH SOUVENIRS
Boy Dragging Similar Projec-
tile Met Death by Explosion
Just After Troops Left.

WATERFOWL. July Eight chill
dren, ranging in age from IL to 16
years. We're blown to bits this after
noon when a rs millimeter shell used
as a door prop on the back porch of a
house in Dimmick street exploded,
wrecking the house and snattering
windows within a radius Of two blocks.
The authorities. who have begun an
investigation. have not been able to
learn what caused the shell to ex-
plode. but it is believed that one of the
children struck against it or hit it
with something.
The children were playing near the
porch when the explosion occurred.
Neighbors said the bodies were sent
fifty feet into the air. Seven of the
children were killed instantly and it
was impossible to distinguish their
bodies. The eighth. Morris Salisbury,
aged 16, who lived in the house, lin
gered for about half hour, although
his arms and legs were blown away
and he was internally injured.
The other dead are: Frances Wiley,
aged 1s: Vivian Jones, 12; Oln Brown,
IL: Arson Workman. 49, Edna Work.
man, IA; Sarah Barden. 13. and Donald
Horton of Pulaski, N. Y. who was
visiting the Brown boy. Donald had
arrived in Watertown less than two
20 hof he
she'll Found ON Drill Grounds.
The shell was supposedly "dud." II
had been picked up on the target grounds
at Pine Plains. camp about fifteen
miles from here, after the departure OF
the Buffalo artillery men last fall.
Numerous Watertown citizens have been
using souvenir shells as door props and
ornaments. and 1t had been thought all
the pro1ectiles were dead"
The shell was the property OF Edward
G. Workman, paper mill machinst.
who occupied the house with William L.
Salisbury. The shell had been on the
porch since the early part of the sum-
mer, when it was found that the screen
door required a prop.
No one was in the house at the time
of the explosion. The two men were at
work and Mrs. Workman had gone to
Depauville to attend the funeral OF a
friend. Not wishing to leave her two
children and the Salisbury boy alone.
she had the other boys and girls of the
neighborhood pass the afternoon In the
yard
After playing croquet for about an
hn, he oh drfr N
heat of the sun to take refuge under a
tree. AS they stood laughing and
chatting the explosion came.
The shell apparently let go without
warning. Two carpenters at work on
a house next door to the Workman
home said that a second before the
detonation they had heard the voices Of
the children laughing at play. The two
men were the first to reach the scene.
They were greeted by scene of utter
desola ton. On the ground lay the
eight bodies and over all gray pail
of concrete dust was beginning to settle.
Fragments of clothing were suspended
from trees and housetops. Two auto
mobile tires which had been on the back
porch were blown to the roof of build
ing 200 feet away. Blocks of concrete
were blown against neighboring houses
and into the streets and surrounding
yards.
Charles A. Phelps. an attorney. who
was driving through a street near the
house at the time. said the house. which
was made of concrete. seemed to be
pushed outward and upward Then the
gray material suddenly separated. he
added, and flew for hundreds Of yards
in every direction.
Concrete Columns Shattered.
The concrete columns holding up the
porch roof were shattered and their fly