Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 February 1889 — HURLED TO DEATH. [ARTICLE]

HURLED TO DEATH .

A Terrible Catastrophe at Plymouth, Pa. A terrible disaster occurred at Plymouth, Pa., Monday, by which the souls of ten girls and one man ware hurled into eternity. Back of the Gaylord shaft stood the factory of John Powell, used for the manufacture of squibs, used by the miners for looseningcoal in the pines. The factory employed eighty-four girls, ranging from twelve to twenty years in age, and several male workmen. Wnile the majority of the girls were at their homes eating dinner the people were startled by the deafening thunders of a terrific explosion. They rushed terror-stricken to their doors and windows and in the distance saw clouds of smoke ascending from the squib factory. Soon a large crowd gathered around it, and women .began wringing their hands and men turned away from the sight presented when the charred body of a young girl was seen lying in one of the rooms, and the fact became known that many persons were in the building At the time of the explosion, eating their noonday lunch. The scene was fraught with terror, as the girls, some of them bleeding, others gasping for a few breaths of fresh air, rushed to the windows and screamed frantically for help. About this time a dozen miners from the adjoining colliery came upon the scene, and as soon as they saw the bleeding forms of the girls, called for aid and rushed toward the building in a body, but A fate prevented their proffered sficcor. As scon as they stenped near the door another terrific explosion took place andthe entire building collapsed, burying ini the mins the forms that a moment before Stood crying for assistance. The braver of the men, when the smoke ana-flying debris had settled rushed among the ruins and one by one the bodies were found and taken out, charred beyond recognition, bleeding; and mangled. As mothers saw and recognized some familiar token or piece of dress by which they could tell their loved ones, the scene was one that represented the extreme throes of sorrow and destruction. The bodies, as fast as they were taken out, were removed to an undertaking establishment and placed in a row. Their features were so badly mutilated that they were scarcely recosmizable. The cause of the explosion is a mystery. Powell says the squibs piled in a box must have exploded from spontaneous combustion. He says he never allowed any large quantities of powder in the building. When powder was wanted it was taken from the magazine slj()O yards away. Experts, however, claim that there must have been powder in the building or the force of the explosion would not have been ,so great. There were three stoves in the building. It is stated that on several oecasions the girls, in order to have a lite tie fun, would place powder on a stoves “just to see it shoot off.”