People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 October 1894 — A DISASTER IN RIO JANEIRO. [ARTICLE]

A DISASTER IN RIO JANEIRO.

Three Score Persons Killed by Careless Handling of Dynamite. Baltimore, Md., Oct. 24.—Capt. Hudgins, of the coffee bark Dom Pedro 11., now in port, gives a graphic description of a dynamite explosion that occurred in Rio Janeiro a few days prior to September 0, when his vessel sailed for Baltimore, whereby sixty persons were killed. A Brazilian soldier discovered, near the English cemetery, a subterranean magazine, in which the insurgents of the recent rebellion had concealed a large quantity of gunpowder, cartridges and dynamite shells, which they evidently intended using against the government. The soldier reported his find to the general commanding, and a rough cart, drawn by two mules, was sent to t'ne scene to remove the contents of the hidden magazine to a place of safety. A detachment of soldiers accompanied the cart and a curious crowd of citizens followed it to the little hill which had been dug out to hold the explosives. A quantity’ of the shells had been placed in the cart and a pile of others had been passed out close ■ behind it, when one of the soldiers while in the act of handling a shell dropped it among the others. The same second an explosion shook the earth. A sheet of flame shot upward, and a cloud of whitish smoke hid everything from view. The vessels in the harbor rocked at their moorings, and the entire city was thrown into wild excitement. More than a ton of dynamite bad exploded from the dropping of the shell. The I soldiers and mules were blown into fragments, and only the iron tires of the cart wheels were found. John Dreifke was thrown out of his wagon and killed at Baraboo, Wia.