A NEW YORK INFERNO.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8896, 16 August 1907, Page 1

A NEW YORK INFERNO.

I A terrifying spectacle de?-''m--3 slralcd to New Yorkers !j sm; a New York correspondent, HiO possibilities of destruction iu- | i l !icreut iu high power currents for 3 running electric trains. For some cause, as vet unexplained, the enr--5 rout which drives the New York J Central and Hudson River lino short I circuited on the viaduct at 12(!th- ? street, charging the steal beams and columns of the, elevated railway over a distance of half a mile with electricity enough to kill anyone coming iu contact with them. The catastrophe started with a deafening report like that of a cannon. Gigantic dames leapt from the cable. darting upward and downward “with lightning rapidity in each direction for j the length of two streets, displaying | iu blinding fury all the colours of j the rainbow. A moment later | streams of molten leoppoi and iron poured down into the, streets, and 3 lieavv iron pipes, wires, aud steel molted into a white-hot fluid as if made of wax. For halt an hour the demoniac current raged unchecked, bespattering the pavement, with liquid metal, aud all the while a rapid suc vssiou of explosions resembling the roar of a Gatling gun caused frenzied excitement. Panic--1 stricken women shrieked aud fainted. Horses became utterly unmanageable, wldle the firemen stared helplessly, not daring to use their hoses lest the water, should act as and cause them to bo electrocuted. The stream of molten metal iu the streets grew' in volume, lighting the whole 1 surface with a weird, terrifying glow. 'When at length the current was turned off, as by magic the ‘ox--plosions ceased, aud the flames disappeared, aud the glowing metal became dull. Hero aud there oven the immense steed beams supporting the viaduct had yielded to the fury of: the flames.