Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1904 — DEADLY NEW POISON. [ARTICLE]

DEADLY NEW POISON.

THE VAPOR FROM THREE GRAINS WILL KILL THOUSANDS. Bnglish Chemist Tells of Awful Force of Strang;e«t Drnj Known to Science —Fire Destroys All Factories in Bay Mills, Mich. Prussic acid long has been supposed to be the most deadly poison, but now Lascelles Scott of Little Ilford, England, makes the startling statement that the substance known to scientists as di methyl arsine cyanide, or more shortly as cyanide of cacodyl, is hundreds, even thousands, of times more poisonous than pure prussic acid. Scott declares that a whiff of this deadly poison would kill a large room full of people, and the vapor from three grains diffused into the ~air of Drury I.ano Theater would suffice the—audience. “Fortunately ’ for mankind,” says Mr. Scott, “this poison is so-deadly that the criminal who attempted to use it would in all probability kill himself. It is a white powder which melts at 33 degrees and boils at 140 degrees. When exposed to air it gives off a slight vapor, to inhale which is death. Knowing its properties, I took every precaution to make my experiments in open air, yet in spite of my care, and I have been accustomed to dealing with such things all my life, some of the fumes must have escaped, for I was ill for a week after that experiment” PLANTS WORTH 5300,000 BURN. AU the Factories in Bay Mills, Mich., Destroyed by Fire. Fife started in one of the Hall & Munsou factories at Bay Mills, twelve miles west of Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., and spread to every factory in town. The value of the plants was $300,000, and nothing has been saved. The Hall & Munson plants were the largest of the kind in the upper peninsula, employing 300 men. The plants were insured, but it cannot be learned how heavily. The town has 1,200 inhabitants, all dependent on the factories. $400,000 fbr Naval Y. M. C. A. Rear Admiral H. C. Taylor, chief of bureau of navigation, has returned to Washington with news that John D. Rockefeller and others have begun a movement which will supply $400,000 for the establishment of a naval Y. M... C. A. in Philadelphia, similar to the institution in Brooklyn founded by Miss Helen M. Gould.

Six Blocks of Stores Burn. Fire destroyed six blocks of frame business houses at Sour Lake, Texas, and got into the Cannon tract in the oil fields, doing considerable damage. The loss is. placed at $200,000. The fire was got under control with the assistance of aid from Beaumont. Indictment for Kansas Senator. United States Senator Joseph R. Burton has been indicted by a Federal grand jury in St. Louis on a charge of accepting $2,500 from the Rialto Grain and Securities Company for Intercession before postofflce officials when it was in trouble. Savings Are Swept Away. Collapse of the Indiana National Bank at Elkhart, Iffil., has proved the ruin of many depositors, whose savings have been swept away. Only $50,000 is found 'in the bank to pay over $300,000 de■jfeAaAarfiMS .:. ——. ......... J''/.-! VLM Mother of Murdered Girl Is Freed. In Allentown, Pa., the jury in the case of Mrs. Catherine Bechtel, accused as an accessory after the fact to the murder of her daughter, Mabel, returned a verdict ottpot.guilty. Four-Master Crashes to Pieces. Eight lives were lost in the wreck off Quogue, Long Island, of the four-masted schdbner Augustus Hunt, bound for Boston from Norfolk, Va. Of the erfew of nine only two men were saved. Col. Lynch la Freed. Col. Arthur Lynch, former leader of the Irish brigade in the Boer war and convicted of treason, has been released from prison by command of King Edward. Two Regiments Vaccinated. The presence of smallpox among the troops at Jefferson Barracks. St. Louis, has resulted in the vaccination of all the men in the Fourth and Eighth regiments of cavalry. * Soap Plant Destroyed by Fire. The plant of the Wiehle Soap Company in Ironton, Ohio, was totally destroyed by fire. Loss $30,000; insurance $20,000. The owners claim that the fire was of incendiary origin. Verdict Againet Automobitist. A Hamilton, Ohio, jury hns returned li verdict.,of SI,OOO for killing a boy with his automobile against Col. Ball, the Brooklyn automobile manufacturer.

Schooner Sinks with Nineteen Men. Fishermen arriving from the banks reported that the Gloucester fishing schooner Oregon, with nineteenfenen had been sunk on the Georges. Fire Destroys Anlesund, Norway. The fishing town of Aalesuud, Norway, wns destroyed by fire and 14,000 people are left homeless. Vanderbilt Girl Baby Born. Mrs. Reginald ..Vanderbilt gave birth to a baby girl at the Vanderbilt home in New York. Fire in Chicago Masonic Temple. Fire in the Masonic Temple in Chicago caused a property loss of $20,000 nnd induced thousands of persons tv flee from the great building; elevator operators re nialned on duty, and a crowd cheered the firenfen ► Empty Care Kill Men. Three 81av coal miners in the Rouse tnlqe, ten miles from Walsenburg, Colo., were killed and two others badly injured by being kun down by a string of empty coal cars on an incline tunnel 1,000 feet