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Show A FOOL'S ACT. A Careless Hotel Clerk Nearly Wrecks a Building. CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind., Jan. 1. Special to Tribune. A terrific explosion occurred in the office of Robbinson's Hotel this morning, which shook the hotel to its foundation and wrecked one room, seriously injuring two persons and stunning several others. It was occasioned in a most peculiar manner, some days ago an employee found what appeared to be a gass [gas] pipe turned to a couple of points and the same has since been utilized as an ice pick and stove poker. Fred Miller, night clerk, was using it in the latter capacity when the explosion occurred, and while investigating the cause, thinking that it was from a dynamite catridge [cartridge] placed there with evil intent, the police happened upon a shattered stump of the pocker [poker] and were struck by its bomb like appearance. A further investigation followed, and the poker proved to be a whaling bomb, one of several that were purchased as relics at New Bedford, Mass., last summer by Crawfordsville tourists. They were filled with the most powerful explosives, and are intended to explode from a fuse but it is believed that Miller allowed it to get red hot, thereby causing an explosion. Miller's proximity to the stove saved him from instant death, but he received injuries which may yet prove fatal. Bob Thomas, the colored porter, was struck on the head by a flying fragment and badly injured. They were the only people present at the time, though several travelling [traveling] men had just stepped out. The large stove was blown into a thousand fragments, and the room had the appearance of having interviewed a Kansas cyclone. The hotel was begrimed with soot, and every window in the house was shattered. |
