The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 14, 1898, Page 1

This Paper not y 10 be taken from the Library.++++ —— VOLUME LXXXV.—N PRICE FIVE CENTS. 0. 14. NEW Y Collapse of the Largest Gas Tank in the World Causes a Great Tidal People Caught in the Away Like Straws and Several Are | Drowned. | Special Dispatch to The Calk EW YORK, Dec. 13.—The great steel gas tank of the Consoli- dated Gas Company at Avenue A and Twentieth street, the largest of its kind in the world, collapsed at 5:30 o’clock this afternoon. DISASTROUS FLOOD SWEEPS THROUGH TRAGEDY IN THE HILLS OF SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO Mrs. Selinger Found Horribly Mur- dered in the Kitchen of Her Home. ORK STREETS Wave. Suspicion Falls on Her Husband, Who Is Badly Injured and Will Make No Explanation. Swirling Water Carried authority of the island. Thus, in Havana, General Ludlow will be Governor of the city, but answerable to General Lee, the Governor of the province of Havana, who | in turn wlil be answerable to Major Gen- eral Brooke, the Governor of the island. |PLOT TO PREVENT | DREYFUS REACHING PARIS ! | Action of the French League of Pa- Mrs. Selinger was found lying dead on a lounge in the kitchen of her home, 38 Waterville street, South San Fran- cisco, with the back of her head blown thing further. It was the loud angry | voice of the man Selinger making the threat, “if you don’t shut up I'll kill | The downtown district suffered % you.” Then the defiant retort from the greatly on account of the accident, for triots May Lead to Some Very | off by a charee of buckshot. On the | woman, “I don’t care if you do.” This all the zas supplica by Hhe Chusoliaiies Vigorous Measures. back stoop of the house, but a few feet | was all he waited to hear. It Is an ot e T e spnsoliiated | - LONDON. iDac 8.6 * Delly ¢ News from the lounge on which Mrs. Selin- | ecrie locality at best and such words Compa in that part of the ¥ was | publishes this morning a startling story ger lay, sat her husband, Raimond, shut off. of an alleged plot of the French League of Patriots, numbering 300,000, under the bleeding from a great wound in his | forehead. aQ| | notorious -revisionist, M. P: 7 a great explosion. | ¥ . 0F sieke wf’”vbP o] dent respectively of the First National | \po 1ot mysterious tragedies which Bank of Neligh, Neb., have been arrested“ the police have been called upon to | deal with for a long time. It is mys- terfous not because of dark, hidden ording to the story of the correspon- | clai. in I { dent of the Daily News, the league ap- | Zurlinden, the Military Governor, will not proached various military officers of high | have the command. rank and this led to a discovery of the | e Masonry of granite blocks and bricks CHURCH IN AMERICA to the height of fifty feet fell like a | Bishop Tikhou Arrives at New York In which event General | on jndictments returned against them by the Federal Grand Jury. They are charg- ed with violations of the Federal banking child’s toy house of blocks and loosened En Route to the Pacific plot. laws. The cashier, who was indicted with 3 m bondage 8,000,000 gallons of water, Coast Pl e Freycinet, the French Minister of | Violated Federal Banking Laws. | them, has disappeared. The bank failed | Plots and secret whisperings, but from age §,000,000 & 8 s 2 = - | War, has decided, says the informant of | OMAHA, Dec. 13.—E. A. Reimers and | in October. the utter contradiction of things visi- NEW YORK, Dec. 13.—Among the = = ble and evident. The husband, faint, tidal wave carried death and destruc- gers arriving erday on th z = % weak and apparently wounded unto | =—— = — tion through the surrounding neighbor- | mu;]h‘h line steamship Champagne was death, tells a story which all the visible hood. It is not known how many were |, =38 Tikhou, the newly appointed evidences of the case seem to conspire killed and injured ead of the Russian church in America, | to contradict—a wild, almost impossible 11 - although nominally he is bishop of the | story, and then comes the usual gossip The dead so far recovered are: ANDREW WENDT, workman. JOHN GRAY, 76 years old. PIUS BAUM, engineer in adjacent leutian Islands and Alaska. | met at the pier by the Russian Consul | General and memb of the Russian | | colony in this city and escorted at once to the Russian church at Second | avenue, where in accordance with the | custom of his church he conduc | service of thanksgiving for his | arrival. He was of the neighbors. | | Waterville street is one of the ob- | scure little thoroughtares in the lone- some hills of South San Francisco, | hardly marked even by a wagon track. | There are few houses in the neighbor- : The numerous hollows among &3 | hood. the hills form the feeding place for [ | red. | _Bishop Tikhou will start for San| | Walker, dislocated shoulder. 1 isco on Thursday, but intends ‘nq, 00 ° | hundreds of wild duck and the crack of About fifteen others, so far as has | vt New York and other orthodox l l the hunter’s rifle is heard so often that J o3 fk S | parishes in the East again before leav. | y 9 little or no attention is paid to the been learned, were injured more or less |ing. His new diocese is sald to be the | s largest in the world, a = of North Am and com- about thirty with as many churches and seventy chapels. BROOKE IS MILITARY GOVERNOR OF CUBA Given a Post Similar to That Held by the Spanish Captains General. severely or almost drowned. it includes the Missing: George Brewer, timekeeper. George Winkie, 15 years old, son of Foreman Winkie. James O'Connor, foreman in Fuld- ner's factory, adjoining, and believed » have been in the basement with En- No. 38 is a brown, one-story cottage and in it lived until yesterday Raimond Selinger and his wife. The husband is & brewer by occupation, but for some time past has been out of employment, and according to the neighbors has been drunk a great deal. The couple were said to be very quarrelsome and passers by often heard voices pitched high in quarrel. The last person known to have seen to Closc Pending an Investigation' as fo Deaths. gineer Baum, who was killed, is miss ing. steeltank yap 178 et In diam- | wWASHINGTON. Dec. 13.—Major Gen-| UTTE, Mont., Dec. 13.—For nearly a week the smoke from the smelters here has been quite heavy, more % |Mrs. Selinger alive was a brewer named éter and 160 feet high. l»Xme out of | eral Brooke arrived in Washington from| ¥ so than usual, and resulted in a public meeting of citizens to-night at which the managers of the smel- ¥ |Miller. He called on the couple Mon- the ground to a height of fifty feet was | ;nr” ?llonrlo: tn-da)‘; and was closeted Ped ters were present to discyss and suggest means to abate the nuisance. The Butte Reduction Works, in & |day afternoon, took dinner with them a great circular wall of granite and \\"‘nhm l:crm‘.?‘r} \alnp nu]r( \m httvxus\nlt:x()r;xl | o response to a general request to all companies, shut down twenty-four hours ago, but the smoke is as & |and left at about 7 o'clock in the even- brick, many feet in thickness. This was | pany with '\l‘l‘f\l;fl.xft '1 '“,' :‘r“l"h!i‘r]x "F“:'{”‘ 2 thick as ever. It is possible the other smelters will have to follow the example of the Butte Reduction & |ing. All seemed to be well at that s 2 = S ) e ’ -| & Works. ¥ | time. filled with £,000,000 gallons of water. A |ceeded to the White House, and when he A : % 2 were at work under a |returned to the War Department it was | b Several deaths that have occurred since the smoke became bad are attributed to that cause. While it s ¥ The next ‘story comes from a boy o ; ; e | formally announced that the President| @ doubtless a fact that the deaths from pneumonia were hastened by the smoke-charged air, it is also a fact that & |named Russi, who delivers milk in the filing the pit with water to | had designated him to be Military Gov-| © on all occasions of this kind every death is attributed to the one cause. % | neighborhood, and it tends to throw first “water test. | Whioh carcies it it ioontolior o o | B The prevailing conditions have called for some very wild stories. The average death rate for this ¥ |some light on the mystery. He says came an awful crash. The |tary and eivil hr;“lp)"a of the island o fnrmlh S0 far as can be learned is very little larger than for the corresponding period of the three preced- ¥ |that he was passing the house Monday men belov scarcely ‘time o, fie | OLmorly CXeEC S_[d S '!‘.i;;mima,'.r'w‘g"g;: © ing months, when there was no smoke whatever. The present visitation has been heavier and longer con- ¥ |evening between 7 and 8 o'clock and | from ber the falling walls ere they | the six provinces will have its own Mill. | < tinued than for many years past. % | heard the couple quarreling. This was | ® A 3 ¢ roll | tary Governor, just as G al Wood ,5‘ o At the meeting of citizens and smelter men to-night a committee was appointed to look into the smoke & nothing unusual, but he stopped a mo- | were picked up by ;19 y‘m.; of rx 0l £|nz | ?;“Q'n\x{‘x]\l:n ,\'h‘i;n;‘]n‘m’r;r“;( el'lfill})rr?\éxa‘fc" ‘ © matter and report in ten days on some plan to abate the nuisance. < | ment out of boyish curiosity. What | vater and hurled hundreds of feet| iy ingtructions directly from Major | <. 55 L - { £ | he heard startled him so much that he away. Into the basement, the first and | General Brooke, who will be in supreme | OROOUOUOOVUUTOOVV U OO VOOV NSNS UV U OV UUS U U OU U N NGNS NHE UH | hurried away without waiting for any- second floors of factories and u—ne-' — e — e — _— — ments rushed the flood. | = Workmen were shot out of the fac- | tory fed a block or | more as if mere straws. Women were | washed out of the flats and almnst“ drowned. Mary Ann O’'Connell and her four-year-old Catherine, ed at the front window of the sec- and ca windows little were | sister, T ond floor of 33 Avenue A. Before they could turn to flee rush of water struck them hoth, smashing them door and carrying them Both were terri- through the half a block distant. bly injured, the little one perhaps fat- ally. | Henry Fuldner was taken up bodily | carried almost to Twenty-first street. His son was also carried dut of his office by the water, but was caught in the debris and but for the | timely arrival of some workmen with axes he would have been drowned. Andrew Wendt, one of the killed, was | near the base of the tank when it col- | lapsed. He was caught by the rush- | ing waters and borne ~lmost an incred- ible distance. His mangled and al- most naked bodv was found against an elevated raflroad pillar at Twenty-first street and First avenue, more than a | block away. [ W. J. Logan, of the Logan lrfln} Works, of Green Point, L. L, the con- tractor who was building the tank, ar- | rived on the scene within a few min- utes after the collapse and was placed under arrest. W. H. Bradley, chief engineer of the Consolidated Gas Company, and said to be jointly responsible for the work with Contractor Logan, was also placed under arrest. They were | charged with homicide and their bail was fixed at $10,000 each. | After the masonry of the tank col- lapsed the tank proper careened and fell in a battered heap to one side. The loss of the tank is said to be complete, $300,000. | The collapse of the tank caused and (Tl # - | i e i i ; the rupture of some of the great water mains which were| BUTTE, MONTANA. constructed to feed it, and for| A Viewr of the City of Butte, Montana, Looking From Little Butte Toward the South, and Showing the Relative Po- some time these poured their contents sition of Barrett’s Smeilters on the Left and Other Smelting Plants From Which the Suffocating and Poison- into the streets. Eventually they were are not likely to encourage any loiter- ing propensities in'a boy's bosom. He did just what was to be expected—took to his heels and ran. In the morning neighbors noticed that there were no signs of life about the place and became curious. Three or four women collected in front of the house, but none cared to venture in. H. M. Nutter, a miller living at 202 El- mira street, was attracted by the group and stepped over and asked what was the matter. “I think there’s something wrong in the house,” said one of the women. “Nobodv’'s been around all morning.” Nutter went up and knocked at the door. Selinger answered from inside and in reply to a query stated that everything was all right. Later in the day, Carl Dickman came to take the usual order for meat, but could get no response to repeated knocks and summoned the neighbors. A ladder was obtained and he climbed in the kitchen window. The sight in- side froze his blood with horror. On a lounge in one corner of the room lay Mrs. Selinger, cold and stiff in death. The hands were thrown out- ward, the head and body covered with clotted blood from a gaping wound in the back of the head. An empty shot- gun lay on the floor. There was a pool of blood at the foot of the lounge and another »near the door leading from the kitchen to the hall. The wall just over her head was perforated with shot and the upper jamb of the door was also blown to pieces from another charge. The room was in the great- est confusion. Everything breakable was broken and it was evident at a glance that there had been a hot bat- tle in the kitchen of the lonely little home. Just as the trembling boy emerged from the house Officer Ennis of the Fourteenth-street station arrived. He tells the story as follows: “At about 1:30 o'clock I was patrol- ling my district and noticed a crowd in front of the Selinger house. I went up and inquired, and in a few words the people informed me of the tragedy. I climbed “in through the window and found the body lying on the lounge. It was stiff and cold; blood had ceased to flow from the wound and death had evidently taken place some hours be- fore. The woman was partially dress- ed. I should judge she had been pre- paring to retire for the night when the fatal shot was fired. I noticed a man’s hat lying in a pool of blood under the door leading into the hall and the up- per part of the doorway was riddled with shot. It looked as though some person had stood under the door, shot himself and fallen on the floor. “I then passed into the hall and from there to the bedroom. The bed was disturbed on one side only, and it was evident that but one person slept in it. The pillow was covered with clotted blood. “I passed into the parlor, which had not been disturbed. It is a small room, scantily furnished. I then went around the house and found Selinger sitting on the back stoop, and such a sight I hope never to see again. He was clad only in his underclothing, and sat doubled up with his head resting on his hands There was a great wound in his head, from which blood was slowly oozing, and he was covered from head to foot with clotted blood. I asked him about his wife, and he denied that she was dead, but admitted that he knew she was hurt. “I don’t know who hit her or who hit me, but I'm hurt bad,” he said, and declined to talk any more. I wrapped him up in a blanket and took him to the hospital in my cart. “It looks to me as though the two had had a quarrel and Selinger shot the woman and then himself, but how he could murder his wife and then crawl into bed in the next room and stay there all night is a mystery to me. I am satisfied, however, that the deed was done early Monday evening, prob- ably about 8 o'clock. There must have been two shots fired, as one empty car- tridge was lying on the table, and there ‘was another empty one in the barrel of the gun. I do not believe there ‘was any third party in the case.” Selinger, when seen at the City and County Hospital, denied all knowledge of his wife's death, and pretended to scoff at the idea that there was any- thing wrong with her. He said: “I went home about half-past 5 last evening. I had drunk during the day seven or elght beers and two glasses of whisky. My wife had cooked pork chops for dinner and I quarreled with her for not cooking something else. We had our dinner and drank some wine, and our quarrel was contirued. Finally she took the key of the front door and closed q ous Sulphurous and Arsenical Fumes Are Causing Such Destruction of Life. said she was going to leave me and go