THE POWDER MAGAZINE AT SALT LAKE CITY BLOWN UP.

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 121, 7 June 1876, Page 3

THE POWDER MAGAZINE AT SALT LAKE CITY BLOWN UP.

(prom A-SAX' FRANCISCO PAPER.) 'Ogden, April 6.-— Three distinct reports followed each other in such quick succession that the people had merely time to get out of their houses. The windows in nearly every building in the city were 'simultaneously shaken out and chimneys fell in. Many teams in the streets ran away. Everybody and everything for a few minutes seemed terror-stricken. . .Dense columns of smoke rose with wonderful velocity at each successive explosion and spread out grandly into a cloud that stretched nearly across the valley. When the people recovered their equilibrium great crowds on foot and by other conveyances started for the immediate scene of the explosion. On arriving there they found that where four magazines had stood, four holes were left, and the ground was strewn with small fragments of the buildings, an iron door being the only whole thing from the wreck. For half a mile around had fallen a perfect shower of stones of all sizes, pieces of boards, powder cans, , and a few" mangled fragments of the unfortunate man or men who were blown into eternity by the terrible explosion. A portion of a human scalp, with hair on it, was first found, then the foot and i a portion of one leg, nearly to the knee, was picked up. Finally, another foot and leg, to above the knee, with a boot and some fragments of a pair of pantaloons on it. Other small portions of flesh and clothing were found strewn promiscuously along the fresh earth and stones —not enough picked up altogether to weigh twenty pounds. The buildings in City Creek Caffon, immediately below the magazines, are almost completely demolished. Brigham Young’s Empire Flour Mill was blown to ruins. The hill, from the explosion down to the creek, in the canon, was thickly strewn with the fragments of wood, while on the west side nothing hut rooks fell. At the time of the explosion thirty boys wore playing ball on the Deseret baseball grounds, behind the old city wall, down the hill, westerly from the magazines They say that two or three boys were noticed at the magazines a short time before the occurrence. Their attention was directed that way by the firing of a gun, which was immediately followed by the first explosion, the concussion of which knocked them down. About the time they were picking themselves up to run to a place of safety the second explosion occurred, knocking them down again and showering about rocks ot all sizes. Some of these hoys say the shot heard immediately preceding the explosion was fired at a flock of wild geese that happened to be flying over. The appearance of the city after the explosion bore strong testimony to the power of forty-five tons of powder, there being scarcely a house not more or less damaged by the shocks. The windows of the Emporium Buildings are all more or less shattered. The Exchange Building, Deseret National Bank, Colder and Careless’, Dwyer’s, W. F, Raybould’s, Wasatch Drug Store, and the Co-operative Store, each lost'from one to three large lights of plate-glass by the shocks. The city presented a worse appearance than it would if it had been shelled by veterans of the war. The loss on the powder buildings is estimated at 26,000 dols,, while the damage done to the buildings in the city cannot be calculated. Five lives are known to be lost, and possibly more. Two boys were blown to pieces—Mrs Yannetta’a little hoy, Raddon, and a babe. Joseph Raddon, aged five or six years, a son of James Raddon, of the 20th Ward, was sitting jn his father’s back yard playing, when a stone weighing four or five pounds struck him, passing through his chest, and cutting out his heart and lungs, killing him instantly.- A boulder weighins: fifty pounds struck the roof of Major Little’s new house, and passed through three floors. A rock went flying through the roof of George Saville’s house, in the 20th Ward, and knocked the chimney down. Matthiesson and Johnson’s wagon depot on First East-street, near the theatre, was visited by a ten-pound rock, which went crashing threugh the roof. Mary Jane Vanetta was struck by a boulder, and instantly killed. In one of the upper wards a baby was killed in its mother’s arms by a falling rock. In Camp Douglas, four miles distant from the explosion, the buildings were terribly shaken; no damage done. Pieces of human flesh, resembling inked sponge, were brought to the “ Tribune” office last evening. One of Brigham Young’s daughters was sitting near a hay window at the time of the concussion. The glass was shattered, and a piece fell on her head, inflicting a severe scalp .wound. Heber P. Kimball’s house, Main-street, had a close call from a hundred-pound boulder, which passed through the roof and floor into the cellar. Most of these are over a mile .from the exploded magazine. . Yesterday, Archie Hill,'aged 16 years with a companion, hunting on the beach, failed to put in an appearance. Both were seen at one of the magazines shortly before the explosion. It is supposed that one fired a ball, which passing through the door of the building, penetrated a keg of powder, and through its heated condition ignited it, thus causing the explosion. Salt Lake, April 6.—The fragments •of the human bodies found show the horrible effects.of the explosion of the magazines recently. A woman was cut in two at a pump. A child’s head was blown off, a mile away, Four men are

supposed to be lost. Two bootis and one shoe were found, and the fragments of legs ahdering to them. Many women are in a critical condition, from terror. Boulders were thrown two miles throughout the city, penetrating the roofs to the basement. The damage to property is over 100,000 dols. The supposed-cause of the explosion was the firing of bullets through the iron doors. By the doors were stored packages of powder of all kinds, aggregating five tons, exclusive of the Giant and Hercules . powder. The distance of the magazines from the heart of the city is one mile.