Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 December 1898 — NOT A MAN ESCAPES. [ARTICLE]

NOT A MAN ESCAPES.

Employes of n Missouri Powder Mill Killed in an Explosion. Ten thousand pounds of powder, which was being prepared for shipment in the packing house of the Hercules powder mill at Lamotte, Mo., situated on the St. Louis, Keokuk and Northern Railway, thirty miles south of Quincy, 111., exploded •at 8 o’clock Wednesday morning, tearing into shreds the bodies of six men, who were at work in the building at the time. Pieces of flesh and bone were found scattered over the ground a half-mile from tlie scene of the explosion. These were gathered up in buckets by the employes of the.niilljN.mt identification of any of the parts found was an utter impossibility. Several men working in the mill, which was some little distance from the packing house, were injured by broken glass and flying debris, but none was fatally injured. * The cause of the explosion will never he known; no eye-witness is left to tell the tale. There was always some loose powder on the floor of the packing room, and it is conjectured that some heavy article was accidentally dropped into it by one of the men, causing it to ignite.