Hammond Times, Volume 11, Number 6, Hammond, Lake County, 25 February 1922 — Page 1

THE WEATHER Cloudy wsnthsr with probably rm.ln r now in month portion Sunday and In xtrm portion Sanday and in xueuia south portion tonight. Cllmia y Carrera .n Eimoall and W. Kammond 50o per moBti o tracts and news stands. 3c per iopy.

TPTfTwr FTHT World's Sews by LN.S. Leased Wire 1 I 11 SATURDAY AND WEEKLY EDITION VOL. XI. XO. (. FEBRUARY 25, 1922. PAGES. 'LOS JON TERRIFIES CAL UMETREGION HI30T0NS0F LAYItl

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NOTED SLAYER SUBMITTED TO GULL0T1NEt

Dramatic Story of End of Henri Landru Whose Crimes Stirred Whole World BT WILLIAM COOK STAFF CORRESPONDENT I. N. SERVICE VERSAILLES, France, Feb. 23. In the mlsrty dawn, Henri Ijindru, France's arch-murderer was beheaded cin the guillotine before the gate of St. Pierre prison today. He had been found guilty on Not. SO of the murder of ten women to .-horn he had made love and offered marriage., and a boy the eon of one of his feminine victims. Landru protested hi innorence to the very en4. "1 will be brave' were the last words ie uttered Juit before the knife fell. JUKES 0 COM-BSSIOX. It -was about eight minutes after !x when Landru rolled from the execution Mock. He carried with him into the great beyond, his secret of the missing women he was convicted of sluying for their savings. A crowd or roorDioiy curious pvr- j .tons. Including numerous women had j gathered before the guillotine before j daybreak . Promptly at six. o'clock the bugler in th neighboring barracks began to blow tho reveille a tune known to the American doughboy by the words "I can't get 'em up." The sharp notes of the bngJe officially proclaimed it daybreak . The crowd stirred expectantly knowing that Landru soon would be led forth to his doom. RELATIVES NOT PRESENT. Landru had been awake in the prison snce four o'clock. When he was led lefore the gate he stared Into the crowd, but if he was looking for his real wife and his children, he was disappointed. They were not present. At 13 minutes after five a little group of prison officials entered Landru's cei: and told him to prepare for the end The condemned man's hands were t .ehl.nd his baxk and bis feet were - ly hobbled permitting him to shuffle down the stairs from the third cell row. Once Landru remarked to the executioner and Ms assistants -who were leading him to the guillotine: SIOTVS PRISON REGISTER. "Please don't hold my arms o tight." The doomed man spoke cheefully and pleasantly. As Is customary la France, Landru Mgned the prison register on his way oat. To speed the work of the execution- . - 1 ! V. nrtam V, , . T-T i T rr r nlgn power hso- -- a in tt prison court flooding the guillo tine with Us rays. ' Landru stopped short for a moment and his "body threw a hvy shadow across tho foot of the death scaffold. iAndru was pale but stood erect and appeared cool. His beard had been shaved off under the chin so that the ialr would not Interfero with the kntfe. For perhaps ten seconds Landru food etlll and silent facing the guillotine. DEATTT TNSTANTANEOT . While he hesitated the ohte? executioner and his assistants forced Landru forward bending his head upor. the eliding board. The instant the doomed mans head slid into the fateful aperture the kntfe dropped and Landru's head rolled Into a basket partly filled with sawdust. Tho whole thinfc took less than three minutes time. The alert assistants stood beside the guillotine with outstreched hands. Hardly had the murderer's head fallen into tho decapitation basket than they bsd crabbed It. Hardly bad the echoes I of the knife's thud died away before the body had b'-en placed in a coffin with the head Joined to the neck. Tho coffin nad stood in a cloyM wagon besld the guillotine. ETECl'TIONER. MAKES SPEF.CH. The men in the crowd bared their heads during the decapitation and a nni o-rn.tr o cavalrymen who were present to prevent dt?'.rdrr saluted j with their sabers. i The execution was described as "un- j usually clean." Only a few drops of; blood stained the sawdust . j -rb chief executioner made a little peech 'to the spectators apologizing to them and to the public prosecutor because there had teen about half a second's delay. This was rausod, he said, by poor adjustment of the board. Death should have neen .tnneous. tne executi ti-.t saw. I lie r-tr should hat-e fallen so quickly he VnwtaCM could hardH alien, t-itt un pee the head drop into the basket. Ijiter the body was taken to the Versailles cemetery for burial. Landru's last words were uttered as nis bodv was being forced upon the execution board. He apparently spoke to himself for the words were muttered. The scaffold was erected in Rue St. Plerro in front of the jail. t.,. i,fnri the ceremony the sol.t U . I. - - die s took charg- and massed tne spect ators into a rotigniy iori!i-i

square. .Some of trif women w or tires;.- XKW Y'UK. Fob. -"t ,noin"r itancl in evening clothes and appca-e.l to rtiri..y petition the third of the day have, left the ball room for the execu-1 ss fib d against Heatley. Kobles & tion. Men In evening clothes who had Smith, dealers in investment securities, enetit the night carousing in the Mont The petition placed liabilities at apMarte district of Paris escorted women proximately 2?,000 and assets at

THE RUMORS

WERE WILD AND VARIED Where were ycu at the time of the explosion ? Kvcry body's" asking it today. When the powder magazines at the McCook, III., stone crushing p'ant of i the Consumers blew up lasf night at, I : b ,rh.riitlnn shook the win- ! dows as far west as Gary and youth to Lowell. McCook lies almost due wst of Hammond, about thirty-two miles distant, The great wretches of open country between the scene of the explosion and ! immunities i" this vicinity allowed j the wave? to travel unhampered. Hundreds of calls were received at the Hammond police station and at the; Times office. , First reports had the explosion at the j Armour grain elevators at Irondale. the I scene of terrific explosion about one : year ago. IT. Weiss, accompanied by Council-, man William Schultc and Gus Simon, prohibition agent, made a hurried trip, to the Armour plant. Finding nothing! i-r.nc- thrrr. thrv rirc.lad to the Americ-i an Maize Products company, looked in j at the ThieiDumeia rireworus .o.. sped through Whiting and learning; that all was 'inlet in the oil works re- j turned to Hammond to hear the ex- ; plosion had occurred at the Corn Frod-i uctg company at Argo, 111. Tins re-, port later was found to be wrong. , How the news actually go through to! Chicago was this way. The Monon d'.s- j patcher at Dyer first learning about the explosion at McCook through railroad j employes there, wired Lafayette. There' the report wast nailed by a reporter who ! wlred h(s paper at Indianapolis. Soon j t-ne news services of that city queried j their Chicago offices for detal.s. And . in this way i. nicago nrsi jcameu v.nere ; the explosion occurred. Mayor Dan Brown. A- Murray Turner, ' H. E. Reiff and W. A. Beatty were in j conference at the city hall when the explosion rattled windows throughout the building. Everyone remained calm however and panic was averted. FAMOUS A. E. F. MUSICAL COMEDY "A Buck On Leave." the famous A. E. F. musical comedy which with its author and star, Sergt. Patrick Henry i Barnes has ju3t concluded a brilliant two weeks engagement at the Auditorium theatre. Chicago, and which will be presented in Hammond at the Parthenon theatre on March f, 10 and 11. has an interesting historv. The j play was written in France by Barnes j when he was a buck private. He con ceived the idea for the play when one of his "buddies.' ' a tall, gawky, slow spoken westerner, returned to his outfit after his first furlough which was spent at the beautiful French reeort. Aix-les-Bains where a wonderful hotel had been taken over by the well-far-i organizations for the entertainment of j the. weary doughboys. The returned j "buddy" had glowing tales to tell of j hla experiences. He told of the wonderful "eats" and of his e ntertainmen. in many ways. Thereupon the Idea of "A Buck On Teave" was born in the brain of "Pat" Barnes and he got busy at once and wrote the play. "A Buck on Leave" was first produced in a small way at Verneuil shorcly after the signing of the armistice, Barnes himself playing the title-role, portraying the character he had drawn from life. I he play was sucn a puc" cess that the powers that De oraere i Barnes to build up a soldier company and take the nlay on tour, and It played for six months over the A. E. F. circuit. It was while the show was) playing at. the Champ de Elysees theatre m i'aris tnsi n was uuodpu "The Winter Garden Fhow of tho A. E. F." When Ser Franco be f t. Barnes returned from o-icht he had said goodove to "A Buck Or? Penve" but s-

OR HAMMOND

numerous were the demands that hjWHr,.jnp ruts and counter cuts in

present the play in America tnat finally tried it cut for Toulon Post of hi? horn t!i American town. Sharon. I Pa., where it scored a Mr Kit as wen t - : . f. r n r, M St 1 sncce.es as beirg a great 'financial success. Since then the play has been given i with immense success in Pittsburgh. Cleveland. Washington. Detroit attd many other cities and its recent triumphant two weeks run at the great Aud.torium th'-.-jtro in Chicago has been given wi.I --spread publicity. Direct from its Chicago run. Sprgt . .

Barnes and "A Buck on Uav" will ; come to Hammond for threo nights at j SINCE Eric Pproat has had his picihn Parthenon theatre on March 9. 1" trs taken at Bodie's a number of and U under he usplces of Edward ) r,oop have called to see the first proof, H. Larsen Post No. 802. Ve'erans of ; anticipating a glance at the famous Foreisrn Wars and interest in the event I Mr1l, -Too bad." says Bodie, "he

is unusually keen. And it will he pr"sent d at the low price or oniy one I d II.t for rese ed 'eats. Pay "A B'leit" to A H ick. I'arties are being formed in many of he roun'ry towns and I.ow-eU. Crown Point. Hohart. Gary. East Chicago ana Whiting have purchased tickets for this Winter Gar-Jen Show of the A.E.F. NEW BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDINGS , f iNTf RNATICNA'- news servi.ii

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i

Did You Hear That

GEORGL ENGLEMAN, of the Simplex, movetf Into his new bungalow this week. HAMMOND has a number of serious pneumonia canes, the results of which .ontlnue In great doubt. THOMAS MFLVIHILU 77 Holmes st. tells police a vicious dog: at 103 Hohn.an street bit his eight year old boy. I I'XCLE JOttX BARGE, of the Sim- I . plex Is ill with pneumonia in Dixon, J j111 - anJ quite seriously so, according j , to report. j j , j j F.ETZ GIKLS are a lively bunch, re-j sides two basketball games this week, they pulled off a theater party in Chicago. j NOW that Major Neville w-on the loving cup what's he going to use it for? j All together, children, tell what he can't ! use it for. FACT for today: Hammond s population embraces foreign born from 22 j '..: vvith ynd ranking first,! ,.-.. .Austria third. ! . J . . . , ? . ! concerning the blast that rocked j office was besieged for ' information. JOHN' MrRVLL. 4 S I Morton avenue,; reported to police that th!ees entering . by a rear window lat night stole; cigarettes and candy from his store. ; COL. WALTER RILEY drops a post! . , , . ' card indicating his arrival January 31 , in Yokohama. Japan. He also sends a copy of the Tokahama daily newspaper. A GAF.T truck driver named Burke ifJ ,ejng- tried at Valparaiso today for runninsr nis motor truck into a school 1(U carry ing thirtv children near Wheeler. " THE Citizens National bank now has a. plentiful supply of the new peace dollars and those who failed to get one of the first batch may now have their wants supplied. cniNTT Sunt, of Schools Condon was one of the speakers this week at j the two-day conference of the county j school superintendents of the 10th dis trict at Rensselaer. F. SKETB LL championship of three tates will be determined Monday night at Lafayette gvm when the local Colniaia rct the Chieaeo Big Five Teaturing Paddy Driscoll. son of Mr. 1061 HohPAUL KRAMER KELLEY and Mrs. Michael J. Kelle.y, man St.. Hammond, is listed as winner i of the $200 prize for today in the Chi cago Tribune's horoscope contet. ROSCOE HEM STOCK, seen coming away from a church wedding this morning savs he got in bv mistake. He un- ., ' ". .v.. ,i or, oc..ntnnc was to be held there at that hour. THE three youngsters who ' commit-I ted the almost lootless robbery of the! Parthenon dressing rooms also ransack-I ed two houses In West Hammond and j are now duo for a round in the juvenile j court at Chicago. A HAMMOND young man who was! married a few weeks ago was com- j plaining o a friend about the cost or his wedding suit. "Wait until yo,i ; get the bill for your divorce." remarked i the unfeeling friend. BROOK trout have been introduced in a number of spring fed brooks in j northern Indiana. Some have been t caught, but none of great size. The closed season on them extends from April 1 to September 1. ' WJ-sY did Hugh Fehrman. P.o'arian. leave the convention at Indianapolis in snrn a hurry? In other words, is I-ake countv a corporate part of the Hoosier state? Yet, aKain. mask Doc Shanklin j could tell all about that. jr VMMNO man wants to know if rftmon,bPr .,vav back when the hoys use 1 to gather on. the corner when It was storming t watch the women I lift their okirts above their shoe top?" , as thv rrof..e.,, ttlP ,nuddy streets? j " . are j TAX I operators in Hammond rate are being made daily. The tatest to announce cheapest taxi service, in the ..it,. i is Bnmsdon. ow ner of the jrunjon TaxJ service at the Hammond I i Hotel. j rOES anyone reca.ll who it wa.i that ' wanted The Times to locnte Jop!i ' stoihef about a year aero? Joe has just i turned up at 1 ' Giirns-y ave., Joliet. 111., and a letter from him ; friends tell him someone is locate him. say that trying to only ordered a bust ricture and that s all I took." Fooled again. ALEX KAMINSKI, arrested by Ham mond and West Hammond police after j h(j hnd flre(1 a fhftt near the state line; and later found to have been implicated , in the robbery of some bunk cars, was j indicated yesterday by the grand jury j in Chicago and now awaits trial on a grand larceny charge. j ! WILLIAM COOFF.R. colored, snappy; '. flrcsser. with 11 cents in his pocket and' ft!"." in phoos. was arretted cst'-r-: : tiny iiM'V noon at th" Pctz plant when' 'lie n;tn tT'il there with a forged order, ' lor jiaroitifs. 'b from Chicago and is an ancgeu snow peoawr unions i"s j "hop beads" of the levee district. He was taken back to Chicago yesterday ry federal agents.

'NORTHWEST BLIZZARD A FURIOUS ONE i

Head of Great Lakes Region Still Isolated By Fury of the Storm. flNTrRN'TlONAL NEWS SERVICE CHICAGO, Felt. 2"i. YVl'h abatement of the fury of the storm that has raged through five states during the past four days .leaving virtually the entire northwest buried with snow, reports of damages suffered .and lives lost were slowly filtering into Chicago toaay. Reports this morning placed the death toll at 13. and losses that will aggregate millions, At Minneapolis, where thousands of dollars have been spent daiy, in a vain effort to keep the streets of that city cleared to permit traffic, an investlgaInto the wreck occurring on the - . xhrv.A- 14.. (n n'hlrh fl VO wprfl killed when a speeding passenger train ! crashed into a snow plow, was under way today. Blame for the accident, according to meagre reports available, has not yet been placed, j Fond Pu Lac. Wisconsin, buried al- j most i-ntr.nlftclv in the avalanche of I - "" flj'TA dav. Rail transportation there is at L Hundreds of passengers j , i,.in, ! II I (ti V M i ' i t v iiic pivi iu, ui v-i r 'for inhospitals. Tais and every other ! ; means of tra nsr l rtation are being j ; pressed Into fcrvh-o by the travelers j in an effort to reach Milwaukee. It was reported at Fond Du Lac that j a wreck occurred on the Soo line north of Fond Lu Lac this morning when two j passenger trains crashed. The reports , could not -bo verified, nor could any de- j tails be obtained for lack of ttlegra- ; phlc facilities. 1 Damage caused by f.ood in the resi- , dential section of that city will mount j into thousand of dollars, it was re- j Ported. Galena and Winslow, HI., are flooded : ! today, many families been forced to' (vacate their homes. ' ' I The head of the Great Lakes region, i reported hardest hit of all. Is still iso- ; ; lated entirely. No reports were obtain- I able today a, to the loss of life or; I'.t.t. tt. v . I In the rh-h farming sections of Iowa. j though reports ere meagre, it is be-; 1 lieved losses will near the fabulous. ' t Floods, caused by a heavy downpour ; cf rain and followed by a fierce sleet , storm, raised havoc, with farmers and j stock men, according to reports. With many towns in the path of the i I storm yet to be Heard from, it is tearea s j that the death list wm be greatly in- i ! creased and property losses doubled. i when telegraphic communication becomes possibly. Thousands of telephone and telegraph poles are down. and communication in the storm-swept area is paralyzed making an accurate estimate of damage and loss of life impossible, 111 1 L PROGRESSES I ! In order to Increase the interest of j Hammond Industrial high school stuI dents in orchestra work. Lawrence De Sw-arte. director of the high school nr- ; chestra announces that a publicity . carn pa jEt1 open March j The first week will be known as "Cornet and Clarinet Week." The student body will hear lectures on these Instruments and descriptive literature will be circulated. Mr. De Swarte will furnish the names of cornet and clarinet Instructors. In a similar manner other orchestra Instruments will be taken up week after week. It is hoped to interest more students i In the different instruments so that the srhool orchestra can be recruited up to a membership of at least fifty. , The orchestra furnished the j for the third number of the Lyceum I course at the Baptist church this week j when Harry .1. Loose was the speaker i -...,. .. v. 1 , . . . i I Much favorable comment on the work of the students was heard. Following was the program: 1. Star Spanjled Banner. '2. Apple blossoms by Kathleen j Uooborts; When Johnny Comes March- I ita Hoin": Yale's rtitola P.oola. '.. No. 5 Hungarian L'ance by John, j Brahms. j 4. For Liberty March by S. E. Mor- : r!f : We Wont' Get Home Until MorningReady to Help Crush Prohibition How popular is prohibition? In Gary's south side? Ask Abe Sheekman and Martin Rose. They're from Chicago, wear spats, know the psychological power of tradition and taste, and possess each a wheedling tongue. In two hours yesterday afternoon and at the rate of $1 a minute, they collected from $1 to i?,. from over 10 0 foreigners living in the south side of Gary. This fis subscrip tious to a tnasaxine which th-;. alleged would bring about the repeal of the prohibition laws. They were booked at the police station on a charge of obtaining money under false pretenses.

HIGH SCH DO

ORCHESTRA

COUNTY'S SUPPLY There's a long thirst ahead of Lake county's lovers of real beer who have been depending for their Illicit beverage upon the Atlasta Prewing Co.. of Laporte and the Zorn Products and Cold .Storage Co., of Michigan City. ake county's principal source of real beer was shut off yesterday when Gus Simons, field agent of the federal prohibition forces. Agent Ed Ilerwanger of Hammond and feveral downstate agents dumped thousands of gallons of bier In the sower at Laporte and Michigan City and staled up both plants. The action at Laporte followed the trial of litwis Keater, manager of the Atlasta brewery and G. H. Meyerhoff of West Hammond, a truck driver, arrested recently with a load of beer byAgent Ben anger while on his - aj to Gary. Keater, who is a Chi.-ago man, was fined $1,680 and given a thirty days jail sentence. Meyerhoff was fined $ln0 and costs for transporting liquor and an additional $500 was tacked on by the prohibition department. Worse yet. Deputy V. S. Marshal Wick' r took Meyerhoff into custody immediately on a federal warrant..

LAKE

GERMAN FILM BEAUTY COMES TO U. S. TO POSE FOR AMERICAN PICTURES

Vi tt ' 1 jael4K:

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(lennj Porten. Henny Porten. eaid be the most gifted and beautiful of German film stars, has signed a contract with an American film loncern. Sb will shortly arrive in the United States to take op ber work in American productions.

viz rsra

LATEST BULLETINS V

(BULLETIN) tlNTTRNATICNAL NEWS SERVICE PHILADELPHIA. Feb. 25. Boureau and Evans, members of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, today made a general assignment for the benefit of creditors, to J. Howard Patterson, according to a notice posted on the door of the firm. (BULLETIN) INTERNATIONAL NtWS SERVICE1 NEW YORK. Feb. 25. An incoluntary petition in bankruptcy was filed today in the United States District court by creditors against the brokerage h'rm of Rietze and Sullivan. The petition estimated liabilities of $25,000 and assets of $3,000. (BULLETIN) (INTERNATIONAL NEWS SERVICE1 DETROIT. Mich.. Feb. 25.-A movie actress of the Hollywood CI LI TAKEN TO JAIL 'SPECIAL TO THE TIMES! WHITING. IND.. Feb. 25 Leo Becker, Jim Tuhasz and Joseph Kish were taken to Crown Toint by Sergeant Cenak and Officer Wawezyniak. Recker was one of the two brought bark from i Chirp go ,ls having I-tii implicated in i the holdup of Jim MaUiMck's sa'"-il last De mibcr. he bfing heUl without Pond. Jim l uiiaz was nnea j-o."u anu costs for assault and battery, and John Kish was fined $25.00 and costs for disorderly conduct. In default of fine and costs, both were sent to Crown roint.

WHITING MEN ARE

BEER

IS SHUT OFF The federal agents then proceded to dump out S.OOii gallons of beer held at the Iaporte brewery. Vats were smashed and 'he property sealed up until the court decides what shall be done with the vioperty. At Michigan City the officers found 18.000 gallons of real beer at the Zorn Products and Cold Storage Co., pmin. Fred Vullman, president of the company and Herman Zerwcck. manager of the plant, were placed under arrest. A search warrant was obtained and the home of President Vullmann was visited. Twenty-four quarts of whiskey was found. The plant was eealed up and the men arrested were released under bonds. They have th."rty-four counts against them end in Laporte county, Prosecutor Earle Rowley sees to It that offenders are smacked on every count . These two bTeweries are known to have supplied much of the real beer which has been found In Lake court. y during recent months. It is said that much of the right put up by Lake county interests to have Agent Berwanger removed was duo to his persistent nabbing of truck loads of leer tnroute to Gary, Fast Chicago and other points in the county. t .tir A 0 colony not only was implicated in the murder of William Desmond Taylor, film director, but actually gave a signal to waiting gunmen that Taylor was alone and could be killed safely, according to the story told by Harry N. Fields, to authorities in the county jail today. (BULLETIN) INTERNATIONAL N5WS SERVICE! NEW YORK. Feb. 25. Declaring that his wife was soon to become a mother and that he was in desperate need of money, illiam J. Evans, a laborer, confessed today to the murder of Paul J. Gilman. Brooklyn druggist, who was found shot to death ' in his store Thursday night. Evans told the police that he and three others, including his brother, planned to rob the druggist. Evans said he shot Gilman when he refused to throw up his hands. SPECIAL TO THE TIMES CROWN POINT, I nd., Feb. Ben fchwochow, living on the Cedar Lake road, was q'lite b.idly hurt in a runaway on Thursday morning. He wa? uritii'g to Crow n Point when h.s horses became frightened and ho was thrown from the hay rack and l is hip broken. Medical aid was rumoned and he was taken to his home. The horses were caught on Court street.

f III X K a III

PARMER

NJURED

IN A RUNAWAY

DYNAMITE LET LOOSE

Every City in County Is Rocked by Tremendous Blast Which HayNotHaveBeenAccident nruETiM Hrport from -various rntrn In l.Ue County this morning lndlcnt- that evtry building, public and private rocked on Its foundations by the lerrlflr dynamite blast at Mrtnok lat night. People rosined ont Into th tre-t panic atrlcken believing all sort of tae wlldrM rumors. ' damage " n done from the bt Information obtainable, but the giant quiver threw a scare Into people from which aome of them yniil be a long: time recovering. BILLET1 fINTERNATIONAL NEWS SERVICE! CHICAGO, Feb. XT.. That the enlOHlon of approximately :tO tons dynamite atored In the mnBai.lne boose of the McCook atone quarry owned bj the Consumers' company, located about 18 mllea north-went of Chlcniro, win n ''touch-otr Job" -wan the theory advanced by Ste Fire Marshal H. H. Perbohner thin afternoon. Questioning of men in charge of work at the quarry revealed, arrordlnc to the Are marshal's statement, tha labor trouble U believed responsible for the blast. INTERNATIONAL NEWS SCTtVICE! CHICAGO, Feb. "id. Chicago's knees ouit shaking and its hair settled back on its scalp today fis it was learned that the explosion that shook almost the entire city and an area for fifty miles around, extending over '.tn Callil met region in Indiana, was not an oi.ibreak of bomb throwers' t rrt ri-:u. The explosion resulted when wvri'i tons of dynamite in the stone crush; n -. plant of the Consumers' company at McCook, southwest of the cil, lev .- Although the blast was ont- of the roost terrific over felt in this nectioii. so far as has been learned not one was killed and orty one man injured though the property damage will amount 1j hundreds of thousands of dollars. M4V HAVE BEEX PLANNED Officials of the Consumers' company declared that the explosion was accidental. Stories told by others, however, gave rise to the possibility that, the blast may have been touched off intentionally and a rigid investigation was launched today. Thousands of persons in McCook, Argo, La Grange and other suburbs and thousands more in Chicago were terror stricken by the explosion. Sqme feard that an earthquake had taken plat?--others thought bombs were being hurled by the whclesale and many feared that the "craok'o doom" had happened. It was more than an hour after tin: detonation was heard before even the police knew the cause of it and thou sands did not learn until this morning w hat had happened. MICH DtMlGlt IS DONE A near-panic occurred in a mo'icn picture theater at Argo where the crowd rushed the exits as bits of plaster and broken glass began' falling Part of a train on side track at McCook was raised from the roils and a. switch tower was shattered by "shrapnel." Street lights in Summit, two miles away, were put out: farm houses miles away were damaged by falling debris: telephone and telegraph lines were crippled; railway tracks were blocked by wreckage: trees were stripped of branches and banks of the Chicago drainage canal were damaged In many places. It was announced today that thirty tons of dynamite were stored In th rtot-HT- hm.SA wHr tbe enlftsion oe- ! curred. The buildings of the quarry Iwere blown to bits and rocks and timbers were scattered over a radius of a mile. Thousands cf windows were j smashed and hundreds of buildings in i Chicago and surrounding territory rocked with the force of the detonation. DENY LABOR THOl'BLES F. B. Dowd. foreman of the quarry, denied that labor troubles may have been to blame for the explosion. He said there had been no strike at the quarry. He asserted the explosion must have been an accident. Ludwig Huff, an employe of the Com ! Products company at Argo, an adjoinI ing Fiiburb, told a story, however, that j gave rise to the belief that the bla- t 'was not accidental. Ruse declared th.tl j he saw from the sixth floor of the j building where he was employed, ti 'streak of fire moving slowly along the j ground . After the. fire had crept about sixty feet, he paid, the explosion took place Although he was approximately half a mile away. Ruse said, the bi.i.-t hurled him frorrythe window and shattered thousands of pains of glass in the plant. ONE MAN' WAS III FIT The only man injured by tr- explos--ion, so far as has been learned, was Alfred Kendall, a crane operator, whose arm was broken. Had the explosion taken place a few moments earlier it undoubtedly would have resulted In an appalling tragedy. Ten minutes before the dynamite let go the "Missionary" one of the crack passenger trains of the, Santa Fe railroad passed within 150 feet of the powder house. WEATHER FOR WEEK. INTERNATIONAL MEWS SERVICE! WASHINGTON. Feb. 25. The weather bureau today issued the following weather outlook for nest week; Lakes Tempera : jres sovnetvt,.,) i,,. . low normal: considerable cl-tudines.-, local snows. Upper Mississippi and Lower Missouri Valleys Temperature below normal; snow or rain over South Portion at beginning of the week; rain jr snow pre kitty Thursday or Srid,-.

to the scene.