The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 28, 1898, Page 14

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, THURSDAY, JULY 28, 1898. WORK OF A FIEND DISCLOSED BY A FUSE FOUND IN THE RUIN FOUR MURDERS AT THE HERCULES POWDER WORKS Explosion in the Nitro-Glycerine House Caused by a Wretch Not Yet THE DEAD. | JOHN ALVAREZ, lead burner, married, resident of Pinole, leaves a | widow and four children. JCHN ASHE, lead burner, single, resident of Pincle, leaves an unmar- ried sister in Oakland. PATRICK MURPHY, nitric acid cook, resident of Pinole, leaves a wid and four children. HERBERT STRATTON, carpen- ter, resident of Pinole, leaves a newly | wedded wife. | THE INJURED. ‘ L. P. Evans, worker in nitric acid | department, married, resident of Pin- ole, arm shattered, contusions, flesh wounds. Nicholas Welch of Pinole, outside employe, right leg broken. John B. Rice, assistant washhouse knee dislocated and Jok singie, the body R. Bredhoff, married, Pinole, jaw ed, internally in- O'Neill of Pinole, laborer, bruised on several parts of incotton laborer, sin- | ple of hou sound was married, one child, side ' three ye Found. Dan Neville, single, ear injured. Gus Stout, carpenter, nerves shat- tered. John Lucas, married, Martinez, two children, bruised on several parts of the body. F. Walton, single, hand bruised. K. B. Quinan, assistant chemist,in- jured in lower limbs. Alexander McCullough, foreman of the works, arm injured. E. Healy, ankle dislocated. Once again the little town of Pinole 1s wrapped in sorrow and its flags are at half- In r house death has again entered suddenly, and for the first time in the history of its pow- the astrophe of the work explosions there on that the morning w of terday murderous miscre During the eighteen years since the built, Pinole | ccustomed to perlodical | The mothers aud children [ ™ Lorrible fire were knocked doewn by fiying de- der be plosions fve in an atmosph works were first an- ticipation, and a soon as the direful | bris. b : —the sound of which is so well | . The explosion that proved fatal and SR e »’).‘11 there {s | that completed the wrecking of the known—comes over the hill, there s | niff, Roie Gecurred about 5 o'clock, | | but one thought in every mind. Yesterday morning, not quite a cou- after midnight, the awful heard for the first time in | Its force c complete | ev ful n only be estim the ess with whi wrecked z in the vicinity and the fear oc and death it dealt out to the stantly the village was | Workmen who were nearest to i tonyath 88 WAS | " Before the smoke and dust had clear. s 2 DU A | ed away cries of wounded men were Vv plac CERTAIN we b on to kill anybody, for he took a time for r inten no one we roy property. was cz remains, a explosion, ed down piut in some n 1 thirty it the work of 1 to- out who he wms, Jerry Collins, married, resides in | San Francisco, injured on the side. | Gus Sandal, chief engineer, widow- er, one child, Pinole, drum of right ear fractured. ADVERTISEMENTS. Scratched CONSTANTLY Baby Badly Aflicted with Eczema, Hands, Face, and Clothes Covered with Blood. Face Covered with Large Sores. Medical Tr‘atment Useless. Cured by Cuticura. SKIN NOW sm‘:mm AND ROSY. My niece’s little biby boy, two years old, was €0 badly afllicte]) with Eczema that he peeded constant waishing. It was all over Ris face, and he sciatched the sores con- stantly. Momnings, “uis clothes would be stained with biood, #2d his face.and hands would be covered. }iis family never could take him out, as his “uce was always full of large sores. They had medical treatment, and tried everything theygheard of. menced using the CUOURA REM: spring and found thatit 1ast she had a won- orful healer. Tie sor®3 left his face and ho was entirely cured, nrrgnmr his face is as smooth and rosy as thofrh no sore had ever Mrs. L. J. ROOT, ~New Scotland, N. Y. been thers to mar it. Feb. 16, 16%8. CUTICURA WORS 'WONDERS In all the world there Is no of¥er treatment so purs, s0 weet, 5o speedily effective for df¥ressing skin humors of {afantaand children as CUTICUR % greatest of skin cares, biood purifiers, apd humor remecizs. ‘They afford instant relief, permit rest and sleep, andgooint to & speedy, per- mapent, and economical cure, wiyn the best physicians, hospitals, aud all else fall. SPEEDY CURE TREATMEN rm baths with Corr- ouma Boar, gentle sncintings CUTicURA RESOLVENT, greatest _ humor cures. e Bold Porez Di Cazu. o ls;‘v.u!ha!l:hn "fld« TR DRUG AND' O i to Bure Bvery Baby Mmar,” matied few. AN IT “WAS TIHE WORK OF A MISCREANT. cap and that it 1 under the blow cask, ard outside » were working they discovered the fuse, that resuited so fatally s near enough to have been injured. 1sed by some of the material from the first fon 1s the smallest v een here, but, unfortuna amage to em- an usual W. R. erintendent. 2de a careful Inves: tion, and so far everything points to evidence of crime ar person. There is g » in the works, and the only reason I can think f - At it was bron o The fus | sessfon of the Coror I shall pursue my Investigations along WM I have indicated. 1 ear that a man, unknown to anybody em- ‘ \ the works, was seen around the neighborhood, and I shall en- A. R. VEAL As the scene, e dis r the wreck. body, horribly mutilate nd while they were b 1 the mass of timber, and sheet lead, two other viet! unearthed. The four bodie: | ried up the side of the hill | were taken into town by the Coroner, { where an Inquest will be held on their | lifted f this cap that Wl the effec to explode the blow tank and c: remains Saturday. o works. Fearing fire | Although the actual damage to prop- ordered out the men and s | erty is remarkably small, the list of in- m jured is larger than in former explo- | sions when fifty times the damage done s | vesterday was experienced. As such a large number of men were at work when the second explosion occugred, it d want to harm eve in any foc a tra us, but I feel sure story about a Spanish or in our miast. It is very where they [k The Wrecked Nitro Glycerine House in Which| Both Explosions Took Place. 1 | the seat of the explosion than others | who were killed. | Frank Battis, propri | Times, s L witness | “w! etor of the of the e | shot straig of several hi w all sorts 1d without waiting for anything fur- ther ran off up the track, as v e of the boys must illed. It came to me like a flas I heard that & piece of burned f been found that a strange-looking in- | dividual T had seen the ev works from Pinole, he sneaked off ss the hills and could e into the powder company closed property without being seen. | The of of the works, together | with Sheriff Veale, held a consultation | regarding the origin of the fuse found near the blow tank | “It was this fuse,” said Assistant | | Superintendent Bermingham, “which estroyed the works. It was found { this morning just at the east end of | the mixing house by one of our men and was given to me. You see that | the fuse has been burned. But who | 1ing before | might have been the man responsible for the first expl I him about 8§ o’cloc Instead of taking the | road or the rallroad track up toward | and aden tar hill ju ixing hous hit on the I don’t know a great of it. 1ing house I would certainly have ed worse. I was working where I was at the time, otherwise I would have been among the men Injured. I did not have any idea that the washing house was in danger be- | cause there was nothing in it that could cause.an explosion. Mr. Quin- an's theory as to the cause of the accl- dent is that In the explosion of s. At the time I what it was. It back with some- | who were | vashing tubes and shattered the wood- | immediately east | deal and 1 feel the | If I had been nearer the | the | tank me of the acid was pro- :cted into the salt in the tanks in the washing hou ‘This is very plausible. The effect of the explosion was terrific. I saw sev- eral men hurled through the air at a | remendous rate. And yet, of two men who were working side by side, one was Kkilled, and the other, though | blown a distance, escaped injury.” The man nearest to the scene of the last explosion and who escaped Injury in an almost miraculous manner was Chemist Smith, who has been con- nected with the works for the past three years. Detailing his experiences he said: | He sim- Iters are si through w lined troughs, e percolates. stuff blown nitr: the The nitro-glycer- and we did not intend to open it for nearly empty, and | with ident. the the | contalned in have ever had during s that of a murderer. but when all are In such a state of nervousness it is diffi- I have gone E, Sheriff of Contra Costa County. "R BN awake and at the windows and in the g0 to the scene, not knowing what they might find, but believing that their ser- vices would be needed. As none of them returned, and as no deaths were reported, it was pre- sumed that the explosion was trivial and that no one was hurt. With the coming of daylight, the town was reas- sured and the anxlous wives and mothers were congratulating them- selves that all was well, when a sec- ond and far more terrible concussion was heard and, instantly Pinole knew that its worst expectations were real- ized. A few minutes later the truth was known and when the large flag that always flies in the center of the town was only raised half-way, the universal query was— Who?" Shortly before two o'clock yesterday morning a slight detonation aroused the sieepers at the Hercules Powder Works and the officials at once started out toinvestigate. Before many seconds passed there was a loud explosion, that was heard all over the town a mile away. The practiced ears of the em- ployes who stay at the works, familiar with such sound, at once traced its source to the nitro-glycerine house, which stands by itself on the extreme n:‘rmern edge of the company's prop- erty. Assistant Superintendent Berming- ham mustered a gang of men and at once started to clear away the wreck- age. Although it was very dark it was considered inadvisable to wait for day- light, as there is always danger of the debris taking fire and largely increas- ing the danger to the surrounding buildings. The men on the ground wera re-enforced by many who came in from the town, and probably not less than seventy-five were working under Su- perintendent Bermingham removing the wreck an hour after the explosion occurred. An inspection showed that the damage had been confined to the corner of the building occupied by what is known as the blow-tank. This tank 1s a massive iron affalr and was blown to pieces by the force of the explosive that was within it. The brick founda- tlon was also blown out and the under- pioning of the bullding badly under- mined. Beyond the wrecking of the blow-tank no great amount of damage was done and no one was Injured, as the bullding was not near any of t bunk houses. 7 e Y First Explos ion. The Blow Tank Under Which it Is Supposed the Fiend Placed the Fuse That Caused the Just at daybreak a workman named Dan Frayer discovered a plece of burned fuse, about four feet long. It had but recently been burned out and Wwas in such a position as to suggest that it had been placed under the blow- tank. Frayer at once called Mr. Berm- ingham to .inspect it. and by his re- sponding promptly to the cail the as- slstant superintendent saved his life, for a moment later there was a severe explosion on the main floor of the nitro house, and Bermingham and two or three others who were insnecting the is remarkable that more were not killed. The effects of the explosions were remarkable in many ways and bore most striking testimony to the erratic nature of nitro-glycerine when ex- ploded. Although a strong iron tank was twisted in all directions, glass tubes and globes a few feet away were not even cracked or disturbed. Al- though doors and stairs were sent a hundred feet, many panes of glass were left Intact. Some men were nearer to used it I don't know. Why he used it I don’t know. You can see what injury it has done. “I heard the explosion a little after half-past 1 o’clock this morning. Tt woke me up, and when I was preparing to come here one of the men told me what had happened. I came here and a number of men followed. We went to work to straighten out the wreck and were at the job when the second ex- plosion took place. It demolished the washing house, overturned some of the “I was in my room in bed at the time. The explosion woke me up. 1 sleep in the laboratory about 2000 feet away. I rose hastily and dressed my- self, first taking the precaution to open all the windows. That is a precaution which we always take under those cir- cumstances. I looked at the clock and found it was twenty-filve minutes to 2 o'clock. I took my lamp and went to the nitro glycerine works and found the top part gone. We started to clear ADVERTISEMENTS. Hale's Clearing days at Hale’s. Cleaning up the odd lots. Closing out the sum- mer lines. Many lots at less than cost—the ends of popular pieces, odd sizes of staple garments, broken color lines, etc. Every piece seems desirable for some-= thing. This is a medley full of good- ness. Here’s a few of the pricelets: plec Side combs, metal and shell tops, pair..5c| Rubber skirt facing, Fancy halr ornaments, each.. White « Bone and metal buttons (line 24) card Satinette Bone apd metal buttons (45 and 69) do Colored stlk coat binding, %-in., yard Linen finish thread. spool... Cabinet hair (60 assorted) pins, box Stewart’s linen thread, spoc 8-qt. retinned cake pan Colgat 9-qt. d 10-qt. Oblong retinned cake pan. s-qt. I Retinned jelly-cake tin. 4-qt. tin coffee pof Emboseed tin serving tr 5| 4-qt. tin oil can SHIRTING PRINTS FOR 3c—Neat as wax; mostly light colo; with pretty little dots and stripes; for children’s dresses, b waists, etc.; 3% width. The lot (7200 yards) to clos DIMITY AND LAWN—Two thousand yards in all; 28 to 31 inches wide; a big variety of patterns; the 81-3c kind; to be cleaned up at seseseseiisiesea... yard BLEACHED DALLAS MUSLIN—42 inches wide width); a fine pillow case muslin. On sale... (Not over 5 yards to a customer). (notice the seeeeyard TABLE OIL CLOTH FOR HOUSECLEANERS—Full wide; good durable quality in a big variety of light colors. On sale......... % 43 inchew and dark MEN’'S FLANNELETTE NIGHT SHIRTS—We bought 1 to get the price down; a good, warm, heavy, fleecy ette; double shonlders, gathered back; thoroughly wel A big buy made a little price. LADIES' WHITE PIQUE PUFF TIES—Large slze (length of puff 141% inches); 60 left to be closed out at.............. each LADIES' FANCY FRONTS—In light and dark shadings; very pretty and very popular at 98c each. The final chapter to- B o ohcve or navy. A decidedl the tables at. 26c. For & quick turnover.. % WIDTH FANCY MESH VEILING—Chenille dot, black, brown pretty effec LADIES' 2c¢ HANDKERCHIEFS—Scalloped and the last of a drummer's line of samples; Concert Saturday—Bruck’s Boston Elite Orchestra. 037-930-041-043-945-947 Market Street. 500 yards in all On seses yard embroidered; ought to be -»- each they 12c to work until the second explosion took place, and then they set to work to find the bodies and aid the wounded. “I was In a part of the structure about twenty-five feet from the mass of twisted timber. That is the effect of this kind of explosions. It twlists timbers and breaks them off just as {f they were given a heavy blow with a mighty hammer. "Ilgw yI escaped I do not know, but the force of the explosion seems to have gone in the direction opposite to the place in which I was at the time. The bodieg of the poor men were found on the hill side, all in nearly the same relative position. They were hor- ribly mangled.” Ps};’mck Murphy, one of the victims, went to the scene of the explosion ear- ly this morning much against the pleadings of his wife and family, who had a misgiving that he would not re- turn alive. The injured who were taken to St Mary's Hospital were all doing well last night, except R. Bredhoff, who is not considered out of danger. The four injured men taken to Fabiola Hospital on the special train from the explosion were John B. Rice, John Brunton, L. P. Evans and Edward Healy. L. P. Evans, the foreman of the acid department, sustained a bad frac- ture of his right arm and is badly bruised and swollen. John Berming- ham Rice, who suffered a fractured leg, graduated from Stanford with the class of '79 and has quite a record as a football player. These two are in the most critical condition. All depends upon the condition of their blood, and it will be & week before the danger of blood poisoning is entirely passed. They are terribly sore to-night. John Brun- ton has four ribs badly shattered, but {s'in a good way to recover. Edward Healy has a badly crushed ankle, but is the least injured of any. His wounds were dressed, and time only will tell whether he will ever be able to use his foot again. REMEMBER THE MAINE. 200,000 Gallant Tars and Soldiers Discharging Sacred Duty. 74,900,000 other Americans are going along in the usual way eating, drink- ing, sleeping, working or loafing—lick- ing Spain can divert only a small por- tion of this great Nation from its ordi- nary tasks. The walling prophets who have insisted that war must ruin busi- ness are already happily disappointed —business is going right on. Hundreds in San Francisco and throughout Cali- fornia are taking advantage of the wonderful opportunities to order one of Charles Lyons' suits at $17 50. He has an immense line of fine English cloths at that price, and he has just received from England an elegant assortment of fine English trouserings at $5 per pair, to order. Lyons' main store and whole- sale warehiouse is at 721 Market street, in the Bancroft building, and he has another store at 302 Kearny street, cor- ner of Bush. . —_——— The famous old JESSE MOORE WHISKY s recommended by physiclans for family and medicinal use becaue it is pure. —_——— Olympia Republicans. The Olympia Republican Club held a largely attended meeting last Tuesday evening at its headquarters, California Hall, 620 Bush street. J. D. Hart pre- sided. Judge J. G. Severance was the first speaker, and his remarks were en- thusiastically applauded. He was fol- lowed by G. W. Adams, M. R. Roberts Jr., Dr. A. D. McLean, A. P. Wagner, A. J. P. Regaudiat, Charles L. Benton and George R. Pidgeon. Benjamin Coonley, an adept on the xylophone, rendered a number of patriotic airs on that instru- ment. Mr, Brackett and W. C. R. Smith followed Mr. Coonley with recitations, and both were generously applauded. Captain Howe, a veteran of the Civil away the timbers. The men continued J ‘War, made an effective speech. 8-DAY SPECIALS! —— Only pure food products sold st our storss snd at such prices as cannot be duplicated elsewhers. @oods delivered promptly same day. TEAS—6 varieties—Ib. . - -..........40¢ Fresh and fragrant. Regular price ile. No advance at our stores on account of war tax. SWEET WINES . . .hot, 35¢, 3 bots. §1.00 Port, Sherry, Angelica, Muscatel and Tokay. Regular price 5oc. EASTERN SYRUP—agallon. . ........50c A superior quality— delictous for hot cakes. v Regular price 7oe. PUREE DE FOIES GRAS—ti. ... 20c best imported. Regular price 250. MUSHROOMS—Iarge tin...........20¢ F. Le Court, Paris. Regular price 25c. WE SELL THE IDEAL COFFEE POT. 21 STOCKTON ST., | 3253 FILLMORE ST., Near Market. Corner Lombard. Telephone Main 5522 Telophone West 152. Catalogue free. 0 ven to Country Orders. F 404040404040 404040404040% The secret of successful buying 1s knowing where to find what you want at the lowest prices, and on terms to sult your purse. Our prices, whether cash or little at a time, are lower than those of cash hous: ON SPECIAL SALE THIS WEEK 6-foot Extension Table, finished in antique... $2.75 J. NOONAN, Complete House-Furnisher, 1017 to 1023 MISSION ST, Above Sixth, & Phone South 14, Open Evenings. & 404040404040404040404040+ PAINLESS DENTISTRY 404040404040 40404040 404040404040 404+040404040 4040404040409 0409040404040004040404040404040 Full Set of Teeth extracting free $sooup Gold Crowns 22k §3s0up Fillings - - - 25cts.up Open Evenings & Sundavs VAN VROOM Electro Dental Parlors “8ixth and Market Dr. G W. Kleiser, Prope