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Show HEARS RUMOR THAT NAVAL MAGAZINE CAUSED DISASTER BOSTON. Dec. 7. A report that a naval magazine blew up, precipitating the Halifax Hali-fax disaster, and that the body of a German Ger-man was found near the magazine, was brought to this city tonight by A. J. Goldberg, Gold-berg, a merchant of New York, who was in the first party of refugees to reach here from the shattered ofty. Goldberg did not vouch for the report. He said the information was given him by a railroad otrlrhrt, who said he had it from a member of the municipal government gov-ernment of Halifax. According io this story, when the naval magazine exploded ships in the immediate vicinity cut loose their moorings and scurried out into the stream. In the fleet was a heavily laden munitions steamer. During the scramble for safety she was rammed by a freight steamer and blew up. Goldberg, in company with C'na rles J. Clark, a traveling salesman of Tntreal, was on a train bound from f-'t. Johns to Halifax. "We were eight miles out of Halifax." sa.id Goldberg, "when there was a alight explosion and t hen a terrible one. The train came to a sudden stop. Almost immediately im-mediately the Pullman car began to rock and the glass began to break. H was a clear morning find as we got. out of the car we could see a great cloud of smoke hanging low over Halifax in the distance. "When we got to Afrievilte the station platform was crowded with wounded peo-pie. peo-pie. mo?t of them children. Many of the children were groping about, their eyes fhied with bits of glass. I noticed, loo, that most of the children were cut about the neck. It seemed as if a ken-edged knife had slashed each little throat. "We took about 250 of the injured aboard and gave them what medical aid we could. The first one T treated was a little girl who had been blinded by glass. I got the glass out. but she could not see. The glass bad cut into her eyeballs. She was a brave little mite. She did not cry one bit. "Clark, who knows a little about medicine, medi-cine, treated fifty of the wounded. Two Dead Babies. "There was one mother with two babies in her arms. Her fare was covered with blood, but she kept wiping the blood from her eyes, hugging t he babies to her breast all the while. We took the babies ba-bies from her in order tha t we might dress her wounds with bandages that we made from the Pullman bed linen. The two babies were dead. We did not tell the mother, but put the little ones away In a berth. "After a while the train was started back to Truro with the wounded. Four children died on the way. "Two sailors on the train said they bad been blown off a tug in the narnor. They were soaked to the skin and were shivering shiv-ering from the cold. "On the way back to Truro we got a view of the harbor. T saw three Belgian relief ships and apparently they hadn't been damaged." Goldberg arrived on the first train to reach here from Halifax since the explosion. explo-sion. Other passengers were Miss Catherine Cath-erine White and Miss Dorothy McKenzIe, both of this city, who were students at St. Vincent's academy at Rockingham, a suburb of Halifax. Both girls were slightly injured and suffering from shock. Morning classes were in session at the academy when the explosion rocked the building and smashed the glass in the windows. The sisters in charge of the school succeeded in marching their pupils out of the building build-ing in good order, and gathered them together to-gether in a large field near the academy building. Soon men came running toward them and begged for bandages. livery piece of cloth in the school and everything every-thing the girls wore that could be used for bandages was given up for the relief . work. ! |