NEWS BY MAIL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1437, 25 April 1905, Page 1

NEWS BY MAIL.

[Per R.M.S. Sonoma,, at Auckland.) San Franoisoo. April 6.

■ A horrible accident occurred at Brackton, Mass!, on March 21. A boiler in the shoe factory of Grover and Co. exploded. The dash of flame which followed oaused a four story building to collapse, burying in the ruins a large number oi men and women workers. Fifty nine bodies .were recovered later. Only fourteen of these were indontified. Forty five others were reported missing. More than fifty: persons wero buried or otherwise injured. A largo' number jumped ’ from windows. Most of these escaped with more or less serious injuries. A three story block, and many small wooden houses adjoining the factory were destroyed. There were the usual nets of heroism in rescue work. ', One man who had his legs pinioned by iron .beams oried out'that he could not be saved in time and that others must be. Hetthen reached out his arms and-raised several girls, one at a time, who were thus placed within reach of the rescuers.' The flames soon reaohed him. . The upper stories of the factory wore loaded with machinery, hence the explosion caused .thorn to oollapse. Scores of persons went down with their machines, having only time toiturn their heads to see what disaster was npon them. Many fire escapes were taken away by the explosion. The remaining stairways were inadequate. Those work-, ing near the supports survived the: first' crash, bat most were pinioned, by timbors and, shrieking to the last, were burned ,to death. Later despatches show that the visit of the German Emperor to Tangier was a failure. The official programme was tremendously out, the Emperor delaying landing for several hours, and finally remaining on shore only two hours. 1 The cause of this obange of programme is not announced, though it has been stateduhere were rumours of a French and anti-Ger-man demonstration. The German officials thought it; wiser not te stir up animosities or risk an embarassing outbreak: of raff airs. St. Petersburg, April 4. Seventy-five persons, ineluding i four' artillerymen and forty Chinese coolies, were killed by the explosion of a bomb in an artillery depot at Harbin. The; man who caused the explosion was also killed. The entire laboratory, a huge establishment, was wrecked, and 10,000 projectiles, destroyed. . i