People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 November 1893 — CAUGHT IN THE ACT. [ARTICLE]

CAUGHT IN THE ACT.

Canadian Dynamiters Try to Destroy a Monument at Montreal. Montbeal, Can., Nov. 22. Henri Mercier, aged 20, an officer of the Sixtyfifth Canadian rifles, son of ex-Premier Mercier; Paul de Martigny, aged 19, son of a prominent physician; Oscar Pelland, 18, brother of L. O. Pelland, a prominent barrister, and Gaston Hughes, son of Lieut CoL Huges, chief of police, were arrested at an early hour Monday morning. They were caught red-handed in the act of attempting to blow up the Nelson monument on Jacques square, where, since 1808, it has stood to commemorate the victory of England’s great admiral over the combined fleets of France and Spain in the memorable battle of Trafalgar. While the police of Montreal congratulate themselves on the timely discovery of the plot the consummation of which possibly meant the loss of many lives, the affair has caused a tremendous sensation. For some weeks the French press has been agitating the removal of the monument from the famous French square, and incidentally have bitterly attacked the private life and personal character of Nelson, claiming him to have been a moral leper. This no doubt led to the conception of the plot. That the destruction of the monument had been carefully thought out was evident by the fact that a hole had been bored in the base to admit the dynamite cartridge. When the police seized him young Mercier was just placing the cartridge, and attached to it was a fuse 20 feet long. The city hall, the courthouse, the Jacques Cartier hotel and the Kiendieu hotel surround Jacques Cartier square, and the cartridge was large enough to have blown the entire block to atoms. The cartridge was 11 inches long and contained a pound and a half of dynamite