BLOWN UP WITH DYNAMITE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1088, 29 March 1883, Page 3

BLOWN UP WITH DYNAMITE.

A. very peculiar accident occurred at Belleview, near Pittsburgh, Pa., on November 24. About a quarter of a mile below the coa! mines of Gumbert and Huey, on the Monongahela River, ia the home of Adam Forsyth, one of the employees, which was blown to pieces under the following circumstances —Some miners emplojed in Walton’s mines came to visit Forsyth, and during their stay proposed to go fishing. They did not like the old slow method of capturing one fish at a time, with hook and line, but told Forsyth they knew a much belter plan, which was to use dynamite, The miners had some of the explosive ma-

fceriul with them, and usid it quite successfully, killing about five hundred pounds of fish. Some of the people living in the neighborhood, who saw the wholesale slaughter ol fish, proteste' agaii st it, and threatened to prosecute the men; but, as they were poor, nothing j was done, Forsyth, determined to do' some fishing on his own account with the new bait, went to the quarry of Mr Fleming, on the Youghiogheny River, ; and asked if he could spare some dynamite. Fleming let Forsyth have four sticks of dynamite, weighiugin all about n pound. Ho saw that Forsyth was ignorant of the nature of the explosive, and also of the manner of handling it, and therefore told him that the stuff was frozen ami was useless in that condition. He explained to Forsyth that it the sticks of dynamite were placed near a fire they would thaw out and lie ready for use, and also told him that if proper care was given to the thawing process there was no danger of an ex plosion ; and Forsyth seemed to under stand the directions given him. About half-past five o’clock p.m. on November 24th he went home and told bis family about the dynamite, but none of them were alarmed, as they, too, were ignorant of its qualities. He took the sticks of dynamite out of his pockst and placed them in the oven of the kitchen stove, and then went off to the coal works. A quarter of an hour later he heard a loud report, and in a few minutes was told that there had been an explosion at his house, and that all his family had been killed. Half frantic at the news, lie ran to the house to realise the terrible consequent of his ignorance and folly. It appeared that after Forsyth left the house his wife and children sat down to supper at a table near the stove in which the dynamite was placed. While they were talking, and just as the children were laughing over some harmless joke, there was a frightful noise, the stove was blown into tiny fragments, and the entire end of the house, two storey frame, was wrecked, and the mother and her litt.e ones were hurled in different directions. The mother was seated with her back to the stove and the two younger, boys by her side. The eldest had risen to get a drink, and being near the stove received the full force of the explosion. He was thrown a distance of about 2lft, where he was found in a hole in the yard. He was horribly mangled, and died about two hours after the occurrence, Mrs Forsyth was cut and gashed in a most frightful manner. She had been sitting close to the stove, and thirty pieces of iron struck her in different parts of her body. She cannot possibly recover. Robert Forsyth, seven years old, was terribly cut about the head and body, while Willie, the youngest of the boys, escaped with slight cuts in the feet. Poor Forsyth is almost crazy about the affair, and constantly exclaims that he is to blame for the disaster. He attempted to commit suicide, but was prevented.