The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, March 19, 1937, Page 2

TO 600 SCHOOL CHILDREN DIE IN TERRIFIC EXPLOSION IN TEXAS| °s. 2. Neson, dro an of __ Born of oil, many authorities theorized the $150,000 struc- ture, show spot of the derricked oil belt, met destruction in the Gas Accumulated in Tiles | Superintendent W. C. Shaw, who stood outside on the rounds and barely escaped death from debris that hurtled 300 @ame manner. yards in all directions, said it from the nearby field had was “quite possible’ unburned accumulated in basement cran- les and hollow tile and finally gave way to spontaneous com- on. The odor of gas had been strong for weeks, he commented, and several survivors of the tragedy said gas fumes had both-|child ered them recently. Forty-five minutes proved death for the students. the difference between life and Plans had been made originally to dismiss the entire stu- dent body early for a track and to release only the participants early. few survivors. field meet. Later it was decided They were among the J. Mahaffey of Salma City said, “I heard the rumble” of the blast while he was 12 miles away. E. J. McGee of nearby Gaston arrived in time to see “about 60 or 60 scared and bloody children running to their homes.” Carries Ou it 50 Bodies Capt. Bert (Sailor) O’Donovan of the Kilgore fire depart- ment personally carried out more than 50 bodies. A military investigation was instituted and another prom- ised by the state railroad commission, administrator of gas and oil laws. The scattered destinations for the recovered dead made checking difficult. number at 399. Rechecks later higher. Late Thursday night checks placed the indicated the figure was slightly awaiting transfer to motgues .An- other line of 38 was nearby. company employe who was in the butldirig, saw 20 children buried under collaps- ing book shelves. In some cases the bodies were 80 unrecognisable that parents dis- puted possession. Fingerprint ex- perts were hastened here, many prints of children having been made of visitors at last year’s Texas cen- tennial. Undertakers undertakers who cared for some of the Ulereeel faa of the hundreds of vic! 4 “Indescribable is an inadequate word,” Jerome Crane said. “We went immediately to the Overton Funeral Home. There were at least 75 bodies ithere. At least 20 of them will never be identified, unless parents are able to do so from remnants of clothing that still remained. “Barton Beatty and I personally cared for the bodies of 17 children between the ages of 10 and 17. They were the most horribly mangled re- mains of human beings either of us had ever seen.” Solons Take Action ‘The Texas house of representatives Friday at Austin adopted a resolution providing for a legislative investiga- explosion. Maj. Gaston Howard seid an in- vestigating board of six would start functioning Friday afternoon. Sur- vivors and eye witnesses would be susioned in an open hearing, he said. First definite indication that ac- Many sobbing parents waited to claim their dead in the|cumulated gas caused the blest that school children, throngs of 5,000 ringing the s moking pile where only a bare split: wall was left standing of the three-winged main building, “richest school in the world.” lifted hundreds of heavy girders and bricks into the air, came from Major Howard when he said Dr. BE. P, Shoch, noted chemis- Efforts were concentrated at the site of the auditorium, |try professor at where most of the 700 high school students were gathered when Taree the walls shook, the tile roof rose, then fell back with crushing brought force upon the collapsing structure. Hundreds of grade stu- dents already had been dismissed from a nearby building. At Warm Springs, President Roose- velt, appalled by the news, urged the was hit on the back of the head by Contrast Ie Startling, Available records indicate that not Red Cross “and all of the government something. I jumped out the second|/more than a dosen times since the agencies” to speed aid. Guards Patrol Scene National guardsmen, under martial law orders from Gov. James V. Allred, patrolled the horror-swept scene. “This is the worst I have ever known,” said Joe Davidson, 54-year- olo World War tor who twice ex- périenced hav’ a plane shot out from under hit Three of his four children perished. “Kids were blown out through the top onte the roof,” sald 18-year-old Martha Harris who witnessed the ex- plosion from the home economics building 60 yards a “Bome of them hi up there and others fell off to the ground... 1 saw a girl fall out of the top down through a big window which opened to the outside. The glass cut her leg off just like a knife would.” The force of the blast, which hurled bricks a quarter of a mile and was heard for “nearly three miles away, ‘was terrific. “No ordinary blast could have ever wrecked completely the high school building at (it is nearby) New Lon- don,” said T. Roy Ainsworth of Hous- ton, architect of the firm Which de- signed it. 3 Had Steel Framework Tt had # steel framework and steel teusses in the roof. American Legion officials at Over- ton said several sticks of dynamite, used for. blasting football field, were found in the wreckage but had no con- floor window.” fcunding of the nation have more Wildest disorder followed. As the|than 400 persons, children and adults, reports spread, roads became clogged |lost their lives in @ single accident, with screaming parents racing to the |storm or other disaster. school in automobiles, Calls were sent out for all available nurses and physicians. Some came by plane from Wichita Falls. Recover Dead Rapidly By nightfall bodies were being re- moved at the rate of about one every five minutes. One spectator thus described the scene: 2 “In the middle of a ring of about 5,000 persons lay the remnants of the huge structure. The center portion FORMER FARGOAN WORED ON BUILDING Minneapolis, Mar. 19—-(P}—A North Dakota man who helped in- stall the Bell signal system in the consolidated school building at New London, Texas, which was de- stroyed by a boiler explosion, said here tha the structure was “modern and well-constructed.” The man is Lawrence Fritchette, formerly of Fargo, N. D., who ‘worked in the schoo! builaing two years ago. had only a bare split still standing. The were piled about 15 f quarry-like’ effect. derous oll trucks to the mass of de bris covering the stretched huge stout cables. Sweate me | ing oll field “roughnecks” turned er- ‘streaming 1 of concrete and acetylene torches bit. into twisted steel to release the rants of mercy—many seeking their own sons and daughters. “In the manner of stevedores, they lined up on the rock and debris hand-to-hand to ® clearing. “Blood smeared an upturned brick. | With a shout, the workers gathered Ith. before time for dismissal,” fy » 16, whd was in the CAPITOL available shovels and stretchers were called. head lights TODAY AND SATURDAY MATINEE A seciol bon tums mountain wildest, in a Nerthecst lumber comp! \ LFARK AVENWE LOGGER (Mm BEATRICE ROBERTS ADDED NEWS — COMEDY AND CARTOON SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY “Nancy Steele Is Missing” By contrast, 602 died in the famous Troquois theatre fire in Chicago in 1903; about 600 in San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1906, and 1,021 in the burning General Slocum in New York's East river in 1904, Major disasters children in this country have been few. The worst was the Collinwood school fire in Cleveland, Mar. 4, 1908, when 172 pupils and two teachers lost thelr lives, because the doors opened | 2" the wrong way. * Pathos, Tragedy | In School Blast (By the Associated Press) Dallas — Coffin makers were swamped with orders for medium- sized caskets in which to bury vic- tims of the London consolidated eohool tragedy. : New London—The name of Alvin Dlast .scene. needed badly of lockjaw’ developing ° i Markets. Se the siavest Corp 12%. WPKINNON TO TALK SL CONSERVATION WITH §. EXPERTS Leaves for Washington to Dis- cuss . Activities. Under New State Law Daughter, Schlabach, ” Di Thursday; St, Deaths Alexander pies i 88, Fayette, N. t 11:36 p., m., Thursday, local Marrtage Licenses Amering Gi fy Jose) Miss arionne Arline Jon Bismarck. < Reuben Williaff D! Mary Melissa Swindlii marck. Jack Parker, ‘New Salem, and Miss Isobel .Just, J! hospital. ton, D. ©., where he will confer with H. H. Bennett, chief of the federal of 0-ordin: under an act recently passed by the Mealaoe and approved by Gov- tion to determine the cause of the| state mustered into the North Dakota Na- tional guard at a ceremony Thure- day night in the lower gymnasium of the World War Laren idinpni-! feasible, an election is held with a majority of the land occupiers de- whether the district will c Rules ‘Upon organization of a district, the gress, state committee calls an election to: tures rather than increase taxes,” told a press conference. “God knows, taxes are high enough already.” M’Kenzie County Boy Drowns in Yard Pond attr City, N. D., Mar. 10 —U)— body of Orville Helms, 2%-' 2 Se ee ort iff on cultivated land occupiers will be asked to practice strip cropping, planting of buffer strips of hedge or shrubbery and planting of wind- breaks along the sides of fields from hire prevailing winds come, he ‘The work for conservation of mois- ture will include tilling and listing on the contour, contour plowing and terracing. | Weather Report | WEATHER FORECA' For Bismarck and vicinity clow ton! Siljan Will Manage Paper at Williston for that city. *|More Corn and Wheat Seedings Are Planned or North Dakota: ‘unsettled tonight and away colder extreme ‘or South Dakota: Mostly clou and unsettled tonight and Saturd snow extreme south portion tonig! ir Unsettled tonight and Saturd robably snow or rain Saturday extreme west portion; much it of Divide. et ‘he uy all sections and precipitation curred in the southern Plains val 10: Bismarck station barometer, inches: 38.16. Reduced to sea level, 30.00. Sunrtee, 6:48 a. m. Suncet, 654 p.m. PRECIPITATION x For Bismarck Station: Saeee' St. Louis. Mo.. cl It Lake City, U,, ata Fe, N. Mex., Mich., cldy. 28 raining 40 snowing 30 wa, cldy. 32 sear .. 30 oeeu S222 | Sasssrsausceesssss: 333 Mi. methods used peing. tried i programs are being Commercial Secretaries Picks Dickinson Man to Succeed M’Carthy Don Lemos of Dickinson was ap-| Rifle Club to Match OT ea Me i i ile ua a3 B seEe * A rey gE i : ib H E J ¢ g 3 i z £ rE | 4 i : z i goss 2 g i | f a we i He te ae 58 3 2 co Wallie Simpson’s ~ NTINUED) « Divorce Is Speeded; No Collusion Found ‘were present in the inter- woman for whose love King: Scores With Minot PARAMOUNT TODAY - SAT. - SUN. Loaded With Tunes - Girls and Gags! Clyde Harvey, 7:00 p. m. Christian Endesvor un- Ger the leadership of Supt. Hall Prayer meeting at 8 p. m. Wednes- @ay. . Church service at 8 p. m. Sunday. All services held in the German Lutheran church. BALDWIN Sepe Presbyterian Church of America BUTTERWORTH is Harry, the pisse penic of Panama! "The Jungle Princess” singe ‘em oweet and- 7:00 p. m. Thursdays, Junior Chris- Endeavor. C. T. Brenne, Pesce eee Tne et Deel st ae Divine worship at Zion at 2:30 m +