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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 17, 1920)
28 Are Killed Explosion That Wrecks Wall St. Mysterious Blast Causes Havoc In World's Greatest Street Of Finance Shortly After The Noon Hour. (Conttnned From rc One.) De Nemours company. The firm re ports that none of its wagons was in the vicinity of Broad and . Wall streets at the time of the explosion. Pieces of the truck found a con siderable distance from the scene of ' the explosion are said by men em ployed on the excavation for the; Stock Exchange annex to resemble wreckage such as would come from the type of truck which conveys ex plosives. New York, Sept. 16. Two hours after the disastrous, mysterious ex plosion in Wall street today it was authoritatively stated that the dis aster did not take the lives of any prominent financiers, although many of them were in their offices in Vall street at the time,. ; William Joyce, thd first Inari iden tified1, was an employe of the Mor gan firm in the securities depart ment. He was a son of P. W. Joyce 0 vhp has been employed fey the firm , in an executive Capacity for many years, and who "was injured -slightly. Ulysses S. Grant, deputy sub treasurer, who was sitting at his desk in the sub-treasury waslight ly injured by flying giass. Morgan is ih Europe. ' , J. P. Morgan, himself, h in Europe, but at the time of -the blast, Thomas W. Lamont Eliot C Bacon, Dwight C. Morrow and George Whitney, -all directors of the com pany, were in consultation. Police Commissioner Enright said that after conferring with members of the firm- he had .learned that, Mr. Bacon was slightly injured and' also Junius Spencer Morgan, another of ficial of the company. Several em ployes were injured and one killed. Mr. Enright quoted firm members as stating the blast assuredly came from the street. and not from within the building. v " I ., . . The spectaemlar explosion ripped windows from the sub-treasury . 1 M. t t - atiuss uic street iroin uic morgan office and within a short . time sol diers from Governors Island and all the police reserves that could be as sembled were placed around the government building, in which was stored more than a billion dollars in metal and notes. Banking houses , also were placed under heavy guard and United States regulars with fixed bayonets were patrolling the streets. - ' Explosion at Noon. The explosion came at a time when the canyons of Lower New York' were thronged with hustling 1 office workers intent only in crowd ing their way into lunch rooms near by. . There was a roar that was heard Far up Manhattan island and hun dreds of persons were hurled to the pavement. Cries . arose and on Wall ttreet, paved with broken ' glass, there gushed forth streams of blood 'rabre- fit for a battlefield than Amer ica's financial center. ' One man was seen to sit up, brush his hand over his eyes and then topple over dead into the gutter. Near .him were found the bodies of three women" and further otf more bodies, lying siie by side with the carcasses of horses. Rescue Work Hindered. Hardly had the roar of the ex plosion ended, when a rush for the financial district was made from all parts of the city. Thousands came moved only by curiosity, but there were others inspired by other mo tives physicians and nurses bent on missions of mercy, and police, secret service men and Soldiers ordered to protect property and run down bomb plotters, if bomb plotters there were The first thing that occupied the attention of the investigators were wrecks of a truck aud automobile at the spot from which the blast was believed to have. come. Federal investigators summoned from Washington centered their at tention on these wrecks. , , Believe Bomb Plot Other investigators sought to, run j down reports that a bomb had been exploded in front of the Morgan building. Assistant District Attorney Tally, v after visiting the scene, announced his belief that the explosion could ' not have been due to an accident. - He. announced also that his staff would question all witnesses of the explosion.1 He said that one thing that led him to the conspiracy tha- . i . -. - . i i 'j ory was ine time oi ine explosion This was fixed hy a clock in the sub- treasury building, which stopped at 12:01. "The factors that lead me to this belief," said Mr. Tally,, "are that the time of the explosion was at 12:01 p. m., when probably, the greatest damage could have been done,' and the location of the explosion was midway betwern the Morgan offices and the new United States treasury building. Working oh the conspiracy the ory, the police picked up ail renr nants of the wrecked automobile and wagon, even going so far as to re move the shoes from a dead horse in order to establish the identity of the vehicles and their owners. ' ) Bodies Were Mutilated. (The financial district was roped off and placed under heavy guard while the work of identifying victims , was under way. Some bodies were V so 'mutilated that hope, of identify . ing them virtually has been aban- doited. At the Broad street hospi tal alone from 150 to 200 persons were admitted, and one interne stat ed that six of these had died from injuries. So crowded was the hos pital that the injured ,were laid on floors and in hallways. Two and one-half hours after the ' explosion the streets outside the po- lice lines were black with people, and windows were filled with on lookers. Bits of jagged glass con tinued to fall, injuring those on the 'streets. There were 500 polfcemeir in the district and three companies of United States infantrymen. The Consolidated Stock exchange ' was offered for emergency purposes when hospitals were filled. , Although it was impossible this afternoon to estimate the property damage accurately, it was believed the figure would reach $2,500,000. The new United States assay Lbuilding also was damaged. ' Small Hole Found. In cleaning up the debris detec tives found in the street close to the sidewalk in front of the entrance to the new subtreasury building a hole, about 10 inches deep and three in diameter.' The theory was advanced that this hole might have marked the exact location where thje explosion' occurred. The entrance to the subtreasury, as well as the lobby into which the door opens was wrecked. Not only was the iron door framing torn out, but great sections 'of the stone fenc ing were splintered and cracked. T; great columns, of granite which ornament the front of the old treas ury building, between which stands the statue of eorge, Washington, were scarred and dented iy pieces Of flying debris or metal. The terrific downpour of broken glass contributed chiefly to the casualties. When the explosion oc curred the throngs in the , streets nearby made a frantic effort to es cape, fearing a second blast The wildest hysteria prevailed, women fainting and men plunging onward in a precipitovis rush to safety. Those who were not cut by falling glass 'were trampled upon in the general stampede. ' Messenger Finds $42,000. A messenger employed by Bl(tk, Maloney & Co.. found near the scene of the explosion' $42,000 in negotia ble bonds and three one-dollar bills. The latter were scorched.: Mayor Hylan, who soon arrived on the scene, declined to give his opinion of whether the explosion was due to accident or plot. He directed Police Commissioner En right, however, to issue the ollow- mg statement: "All persons in the vicinity of the scene of the explosion who can, give any information, no matter how slight, regarding any of the details, especially regarding vehicles in' the street, which might have caused the explosion, or the presence of any suspicious peersons at the time of the explosion should communicate such information to the police, at once. . Dr. Wood of the Broad 'Street hos pital gave a Statement to newspaper men, in which he said one of the in jured, a man with both lgs .burned, told him he saw a powder wagon bearing a red flag collide with an automobile near thevcurb outside the Morgan building just before the blast. i Excitement is Great. Never in its history has lower Man hattan witnessed such excitement as prevailed today. Fire apparatus and ambulances dashed through e nar row, crooked streets of the financial district, on which lay a covering of shattered glass and the broken re mains of men 'and horses. ' Among the bodies were those of three girls, terribly mutilated. A policeucordon was hastily ' thrown around the entire district, ' when thousands, hearihff the exolosion. flocked there. Guard Subtreasury. The United States subtreasury. immediately opposite the scene of the explosion, was placed under heavy, police guard to protect its millions of dollars in gold, silver and paper money. ' Heads ot the fire department, how ever, on reaching the scene directed fheif efforts toward ascertaining the cause ana location oi the explosion. The latter was difficult because of the shattered appearance of build ings near the Morgan office, but the authorities were inclined to abandon their theory that the explosion had occurred either in thi Morgan office itself or the stock exchange. Con? sensus of opinion at 12:45 was that the blowup had occurred in the street Crowds Hinder Police. . Police, histily assembled, found difficulty in coping with the crowd of many thousand persons who tried to press themselves into Wall street. Telephone service was shut off from many public booths in the vicinity and all banking offices were placed under extraordinarily heavy guard. Ine call for soldiers from Gov ernor's Island was sent by Martin VogeU assistant secretary of the treasury, who has charge of the sub- treasury. With all the windows blasted out, Colonel William Wiegel, chief of staff at the military post, announced that 200 infantrymen would patrol the financial district with fixed bayonets day and night witji orders to allow ho one to ap proach government property. The financial district after the ex plosion presented a scene of demoli tion. J , In addition to the bodies of human beings and horses scattered over tfie pavement, great blotches of blood appeared on the white walls of Wall f trcet'g office buildings. Almost every pane of glass in the vicinity was shattered, and beside a mantle of broken crystal the streets were coVered with fragments of brick and Stone blasted from the base walls of the skyscrapers. Several persons were hurt in these office buildings when missiles hurtled through win dows. Buildings Are Damaged. The front of the Morgan building was demolished and the subtreasury a'so was badly damap-ed. The damagejo the Morgan build ing alone was estimated at 5500,000, Minor damage to -hundreds of other buildings, it was expected, would total a least $500,000 more. French Surgeon Says He Can Restore Life After Heart Stops ' Paris, Sept.16. Resurrect$n from the dead is no longer merely a Bib lical legend, but an authenticated fact, according to the celebrated French surgeon Tuffler, who asserts that a heart which has stopped beat ing can be reanimated. "Injections of andrenalin ' in the cardical cavity," says Dr. Tuffler, "may restore life to a heart already dead. The heart may also be kept beating artifically for a certain length of time by means of massage or certain chemical excitants. Dr. Tuffler's statements have ere ated a great sensation in Paris, where medical circles are discussing the possibilities of saving lives by artifi cial heart stimulation just as is now practiced by artificial breathing. Dr. Tuffler also claims that a man can live for years with a bullet in his heart. In fact, says the eminent sur geon, the heart is far from being the fragile organ it is generally supposed to be. Delicate operations, he claims, can be performed in the heart tissues Without mortal effect, Alleged Slayer Of Woman Found In Trunk Held Man Suspected to Be Eugene Leroy Taken From Vessel at Uruguayan Port at Re- : . quest of U. S. . ' Montevideo, " Sept. 16. Morris Fox, who ' was recently arrested aboard the British freighter Dryden because of his resemblance to Eugene Leroy, alleged to be the per petrator of the Detroit and New York "trunk murder," was detained tor identification yesterday by the Uruguayan police when the Dryden arrived from Rio Janeiro. The action was at the request of . the' United States authorities. Fox declared to The Associated Press that he could produce a Store of witnesses to prove that he was in New York when the murder was committed and that he never was in Detroit , " . Wants to Return. "Why donit they let me go back to the United State immediately?" he asked. "I can show in a minute where I have been." Fox produced a certificate from Toronto naturalization authorities showing that he is the son of Max Fox. a naturalized Russian Jew, and that he was born in Russia. Fox says he worked at the garment trade in New York until he shipped aboard the Dryden. He went to sea, he. said, because it was an off-season in garment making and he was pressed for money. Knows No Spanish. The Uruguayan police authorities questioned the Spanish-speaking membefa of the Dryden crew. They said Fox neither spoke nor under stood Spanish, a knowledge Leroy is said to. have possessed. Later when rox was questioned bv the nolice he appeared to have no comprehen sion of Spanish. box declared he had several op portunities to escape from the vessel and that if he were Leroy he natu rally would have taken advantage of tnem. Fox was arrested on Aueust 25 last when the Dryden arrived at Rio Janeiro,: but in the absence of an ex tradition treaty between the United states and Brazil he was detained oh bUariLthe vessel until it proceeded to this port. Says G.O.P. Victory In Ohio Is Assured Stock Buyer From Buckeye State Asserts Republicans Are Solid for Harding. "Warren G. Hardinsr. candidate for president on the republican ticket, will carry Ohio by the great est plurality ever known In the his tory of the state, said Frank Roberts- of Marion, O.," visitor at the stock (yards ."Democratic campaign managers are - spreading the report that Lox.. defeated the republican presidential candidate for governor once, but such is not a fact. A man named Harding ran on the pro gressive ticket and so split the vote that Cox defeated Frank Willis for governor. Warren G. Hardinsr never' ran for governor of Ohio," continued Mr. .Roberts, but was elected lieu tenant-governor eight years ago and six vears aeo was elected' United States senator. Mr., Harding served several terms in the state legisla ture. , Cox was elected governor three times, but each time there was a split in the republican ranks and three or more candidates in the par ty filed.' Every time "Cox was elected, it was only by small plur alities.' "This year. Ohio republicans are banded together as ohe man and the greatest harmony prevails. You can count on Uhio getting into the republican column strong." Mr. Roberts was a visitor at the stock yards to look over the pros pects of buying a large number of feeders for Ohio stock farms. He was accompanied by H. W. Wilson of Delaware and the two men will stay over until after the close of the Ak-Sar-Ben festivities. "Ohio will not only produce a bis record croft of votes for Harding, but with a continuation of the pres ent warm Weather, - the Buckeye state-will produce the largest corn crop the state has ever grown. Ohio s in the market for a big lot of feeders to consume the expected im mense corn crop and other feed raised this year. - - Gets Rid of Lions, But Can't Lose His Pigeons Newark, N. J., Sept.-16. C. Wag iht- has been - given one week to teach his homing pigeons to keep away from the perches to which they have been trained to return from all points of the compass, Neighbors protested that the pig- tons are a nuisance. A ciy ordi nance was invoked had a v week's no"ice given by the board of health that' the pigeons must be disposed of. At the end of the week Wag ner came into the-court and told the magistrate that he has sold the pigeons twice during the last week, but that they had returned both times. Wagner is a professional trainer of wild and domestic animate. He said that he had disposed of lions, bears, pigs and other animals as re quired by the board of health, but that he couldn't think of any way to break the regular habits of the homing pigeons. Britain's Best Business v Woman Is to Be Married London. Sent 16. Described as Britain's best business woman, after Viscountess Rhondda, the Hon. Elaine Jenkins, daughter of the late Lord Glentawe,- is to marry Thomas Cooper-Smith, a schoolmaster, next month. Miss Jenkins is .. president of Welsh railroads and tinplate con cerns., She dresses very quietly, and is a vigorous opponent of the free and easy ideas of the modern British girl. ' IJpTntng Fixtures Burgess-Gran-den Co. AdY THE BEE: OMAHA, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1920. Suicide Screen Star Wanted to 0it Movie Life Olite Thomas Expressed De . sire for Home and Children In Last Interview Before Death. By Tnivcrsal Service. London, Sept. 12. "I am tired of movie life. My dearest ambition is to retire, to establish a home and to have 10 children." The above is the last remark of Olive Thomas intended for publica tion. It was part of an interview given to Maud Thomas just a few hours before the party which pre ceded the swallowing of the alco holic solution of bichloride of mer cury. Jack Pickford will go to Paris by airplane Thursday to make, arrange ments to take Olive's body back to New York. The funeral party will go to the United States Saturday on the Mauretania. The services will be held in the Church of St. Francis Xavier and the burial will be . in Woodlawn cemetery. Mary to Meet Owen. The party will be mef at New York by Jack's mother, Mrs. Smith, his sister, Mary Pickford Fairbanks and Thomas Meigham. Owen Moore, the former husband of Mary, is com ing home with Jack. At New York he will meet his former wife for the first time in years. Discussing his plans today Pick lord said:' , "I am going to California for a long rest. I want to forget it all. I may resume making pictures to keep my mind occupied." Many Addicts in Movies. San Francisco, Sept. 16. The death of Olive Thomas in Paris and of Gladys Goulding in Los Angeles, with the subsequent revelations of that world which lives just beneath the visible surface of life in every large city, has aroused a new inter est in a problem which is by no means foreign to San Francisco. - There are, according to physicians who are dealing'especially with such cases, many Olive Thomases and Gladys Gouldings in . this city. Caught up by the gay whirl of arti ficial pleasure, liying beyond their normal strength, looking first to one stimulant and then .another to keep them from falling out of the strug gle for preferment, the most viva cious and attractive women are said to be turning more and more to drugs. Drug Craze Grows. Drugs have crept insidiously into movie circles where the fascination of a life lived at full speed and un der the glamour of a theatrcal en vironment has doubled the tempta tion. Drugs have lurked insistently in the wings and green rooms of the theater where women and men daily face the necessity of rising to a high pitch of nervous tension and nerve control to step out betore calm and unimpassioned audiences whom they must arouse to one emo- tion or another. The opinion of" those who are de manding that something be done to stop this social tragedy, coming out into public view only., upon the oc casion ofan untimely death or mys terious crime, is that the present legal prohibition of drugs is not stopping the use of drugs. . Wduld Cure Addicts. x Justus Wardell, collector of in ternal revenue in San Francisco, has supervision ' of all narcotics legally dispensed through physicians here. tit has a squad ot men detailed to prevent illegal traffic in drugs, still the drug peddler plies his trade and the drug addict gets his "dope." Wardell has a plan which he has constantly advocated as being the only practical method of checking the. spread of the drug habit and bring the use of drugs under con trol. He proposes a clinic and a government institution where habit LOR the rare entertainment it H affords OR the cultural and refining influence it exerts OR the bright, happy home atmosphere it creates and for the vast benefit it is to your children, con sider now The PIANOLA as the next vital addition to your home life - . . Steinway, Steele, Stroud Aeolian and renowned Weber Pianolas, priced from $795.00 Moderate . monthly payments; , is07 F.rnam j J" KjliU OMAHA ual drug users may either be curedl or taken care of. Louis Zeh, secretary of the state board of pharmacy, said today there was no question but that the use of drugs has gained a tremendous hold in the movie camps of southern Cali fornia. The records of the board show that with all of the prosecu tions of drug users and drug sellers, there has been little improvement in the state. ' ' Addicts Are Many. "The situation relative to narcotic addicts and the drug habit," he said, "is virtually unchanged from a year ago. "Records in our office show that Los Angeles has more than twice as many registered addicts as the rest of the state combined. "This is due, we believe, to the fact that large quantities of drugs are smuggled across the Mexican border. "Of the more than 2,000 registered cases in Los Angeles, it is safe to say that about 25 per cent are con nected with the motiour picture in dustry. "San Francisco today has more than 500 cases of registered addicts, who because of incurable diseases or the fact that they are addicted to the habit, require treatment" League of Nations Again in Session First Matter Discussed Is Con flict Between Sweden and Finland Over Islands. Paris, Sept. .16. The council of the league of nations, which was ex pected to begin its ninth session here on Saturday, met this morning, the first matter discussed being the conflict between Sweden and Fin land relative to trie Aaland islands. Poland and Lithuania have been ssked to send delegates to Paris for the purpose of attending a session of the council. This step was taken at the instance of the Polish govern ment, which asked that the frontier controversy which has threatened serious consequences- there be con sidered the council. Approval of the purchase of the National hotel in Geneva as the seat of the secretariat of the league, for the sum of 5,500,000 francs, also was to be asked of the council today. Op tions, on adjoining property also have been secured and were to come before the council. Reds' Troops Near Lemberg Are Defeated Decisively -.Warsaw, Sept. 16. Polish opera tons against soviet forces along the upper reacshes of the Bug river have been completely successful, and sov iet troops which had been concen trated for an attack in the direction of Lemberg have been defeated, ac cording to reports reaching this city. The Poles have captured 3,000 pris oners, 26 cannon, five airplanes, two armored trains and 50 machine guns, it is officially announced. Hungarian Budget for ! Year Shows Huge Deficit Budapest, Sept 16. Hungary's budget, which was submitted to the national assembly here today by M. Laranyi, j minister of finance, shows a deficit ' of 10,000,000,000 kroner, with expenditures: at , 20,000,000,000. The deficit will be met by a levy on capital and a foreign loan. Greater economy is said by the minister to be imperative. The Hungarian bud get prior to the war never exceeded 2,000,000,000 kroner. , Man Must Die for Murder. Pendleton, Ore., Sept. 16. Em met Bancroft, also known as Neil Hart, was sentenced yesterday to be hanged-November 5, for the mur der of Sheriff Will laylor in a jail delivery here August 20. He plead ed guilty to a charge of murder in the first degree and is the first man to receive a death sentence since capital punishment was restored in Oregon. ( ' Ask Troope in Alabama After Mine Head Is Killed ' Jasper, Ala., Sept. 16. L. M. Ad lf general manager of the Corona Coal company, was shot from am bush and killed while riding in an automobile." Deputy Sheriff Earl Edge who was in the car with him I 1 II 9 n They. 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