A Fearful Explosion

Feilding Star, Volume IX, Issue 131, 5 June 1888, Page 3

A Fearful Explosion

SEVENTY MEN TOSSED INTO . THE AIR An explosion occurred at Chicago on April 26, that pitched seventy people into the air, throwing one man fifty feet, wrecked seventeen large plate-glass windows, ruined 34,000d01s worth of clothing, damaged a building ito the extent of 150,000 dols? f and \ caused a stampede among hundreds 1 of people from the upper storeys of j the adjacent tall buildings. It occurred in the basement at State and Jackson-street. Queeriy enough, no ob 6 was killed, although two or three may be fatally injured. Two workmen were drilling a hole across the street from the basement to n>ake a conduit for electric wires, and accidentally punctured a gas main. They lighted a candle to see what was the matter, and the next instant they had seveuty odd clerks and customers in the clothing store overhead, the mas* sive plate-glass front, and great piles of ready made clothing all mixed up in an almost inextricable mass, with broken timbers and falling plaster, while people for blocks around, thought an earthquake had occurred, and rushed to the scene. The fire was quickly extinguished by the department. Two workmen in the basement were found very badly injured and three or four clerks in the store above are injured internally.