Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 July 1895 — JOY TURNER TO WOE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

JOY TURNER TO WOE.

MANY ACCIDENTS ON THE NATION’S BIRTHDAY. £ , A Score Are Dead and Others Will Die —Toy Pistol and Crackers Reap a Harvest—Four Hundred Fall with a Bridge, Celebration Costs Lives. Press telegrams indicate that the national holiday was generally observed throughout the country, and attendant to the celebration were the usual number of fatalities and accidents. The pistol of commerce and the toy pistol got in it 9 work in the death list, many in the roll being victims of this deadly machine. Firecrackers came next in the list, with a number to their credit. Then came stray bullets, persons being hit at various times and places by shots from instruments held by cheerful idiots who shut their eyes and blazed away. Torpedoes hurt few persons, while the rocket list is small.

Five persons dead and thirty-three injured was the record in Chicago. The dead were not all killed on the day itself, however. Three were victims of the day before, and one fell dead, presumably from ’heart disease, while watching the celebration, and one man was drowned. At Marion, Ind., while firing a cannon at the Soldiers’ Home John Haupt, an old artilleryman and a soldier in the regular army for seventeen years, was killed by a permature discharge. During the progress of~a ball game at Hinckley, 111.. Peter Anderson’s G-year-old daughter wa9 struck in the stomach by a foul ball, causing her death. At Kangley, 111., a man named Mozener had one leg taken off by the explosion of a small cannon. In Ease St. Louis, two serious accidents happened on account of the celebration, and both will probably result fatally. Eddie Laumann and Willie Strathman, sons of prominent citizens, attempted to fire off a can of powder with a short fuse. In firing a'salute at Milwaukee a cannon exploded and an old soldier was killed at the Old Soldiers’ Home. A shotgun in the

hands of Charles A. Hull, a son of Silas Hull, a prominent farmer residing near Attica, Ohio, was accidentally discharged, fatally injuring his mother arid his 11-year-old sister. William Boiler, 7 y&ira old, of Tiffin, had both eyes put out by the explosion of a toy cannon. A Sioux Falls cannon improvised from a piece of gas-pipe exploded, breaking $2,000 worth of plate glnss and dangerously injuring Richard Peterson, a boy who happened to be standing near by. At Dubuque, Henry Hilderbrand lost three fingers by the explosion of a torpedo, and William Callahan, 17 years old, had part of his face torn off by a cannon cracker.

FIFTY ARK INJURKD.

Three Hundred Persons Break Down a Bridge at Bristol, Ind.

At Bristol, Ind., while about 300 of the population were gathered on a bridge spanning the St. Joseph River watching a tub race, 100 feet of the sidewalk of the bridge went down, carrying with it 100 persons. The fall was about thirty feet and the iron fell on many. As the racers got into their tubs and prepared for the race the immense crowd on the bridge grew wildly enthusiastic. As the crowd surged up against the railing there came a fearful crash and roar. The whole side of the bridge gave way. slowly at first, and then with frightful speed, carrying the panic-stricken and shrieking crowd down forty feet to the river. For a moment there was almost absolute silence before the horrified crowd on the banks could realize what had occurred. Then as the cries and groans of those who had struggled out of the water were heard the farmers and their wives rushed to the rescue. The water is only five feet deep at this season and the rescuers hurried into the river with boards, tubs, and anything that would help the wounded to keep afloat. As rapidly as possible they were carried to the Shore, while those who escaped injury scrambled out and assisted in the work. Messengers were hurried away for doctors and surgeons and every house in the town of Bristol was turned into a hospital. When the surgeons made a hurried examination they found thirty-eight people laid out along the shore and in the residences, many of them insensible. Broken legs and arms, hands smashed, and serious bruises were found to be the injuries in the majority of cases. The bridge which gave way has been used for years. Only last spring it was repaired, and considered able to bear any strain that might be put upon it.

Thugs on a Picnic Train.

In an attempt to murder the crew of a Santa Fe picnic train as i| pulled out of Chicago by eight members of the “Henry street gang” a conductor was wounded and two of the thuga bruised and beaten seriously. Over twenty shots were fired by members of the gang and the passengers were terrorized and several women fainted.

Many Are Hurt at Buffalo*

While the riders were taking the track of the five-mile handicap in the bicycle, races at the Buffalo, N. Y., driving park a section of the gr/ind stand fell in. It caved from the very center of the stand, taking with it a section stairway, two .private boxes and about sixty people.

CELEBRATING.