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O. mg V A*7- «;i*‘Hr4''***'*•^r;i893if■•*'•..!.- tl ' ’•f'DYNAMITE!A Dark, Diabolical Outrage* *Perpetrated.Three Residences Wreckedat Muscatine.Postmaster John Mahin’sFirst Attacked.E. M. Kessenger's HouseBlown Up.*Attorney Rosenberger’s Cot-.tage a Total Wreck.Father, Mother and BabyOverwhelmed.Ricbie’s Residence has aNarrow Escape.Judge Brannan’s Home Saved by a Chance.Injunction Suits Thought tobe Responsible.Never in the history of the state has such a diabolical deed been committed as that of this morning, when the homes of John Mahin and E.3VL Kessinger and Attorney Rosenburger, ail prominent citizens of Muscatine, were badly wrecked by explosives. About 1:30 o'clock, and just as the electric street lamps were extinguished the quiet was broken by a terrific explosion which was closely followed by a second. Not a few of the neighbors were aroused by the roar which was louder and more terrific to those near the scenes of the different explosions than any thunder-clap, and soon the alarm of fire bell and whistle was given.It was reported at the telephone office that the handsome two-story frame residence of Mr. Mahin, editor of the Muscatine Journal was ablaze, but the brave firemen and others, who rushed to the rescue were horrified to find the fineHOME RENT AND WRECKEDrom cellar to garret with little fire visible, and then only it dawned on them that a fiendish deed had been perpretrated.A glance showed that giant powder, dynamite or some other equally powerful explosive had transformed the house into an utter wreck. There was not a wall but what was jarred from its foundation, not a window that was not shattered, while the floors on the ground floor were broken into kindling and everything in the shape of furniture and fixtures were reduced to fragments. The two bay windows on the east side of the house were wrenched from the house and hurled to the ground.The loud report awakened Mr. Mahin, who at first thought it was a peal of thunder, but not hearing the fall of the rain, attributed the noise to another cause and hurriedly walking out of the room reached the hall, where the odor of smoke and the sight of the wreck beneath caused the truth to flash over his mind. He immediately assisted his wife and three children, all of whose sleeping apartments were on the second floofi from the house and then summoned help. He experienced greatDIFFICULTY IN , GETTING OUT, ' *as the doors, were, Jammed so tight that it..was impossible to open the same and exit was effected through a broken window in the parlor. The family were taken to the home of Mr. Peter M. Musser, across the street, and all miraculously escaped injury, including the domestic Miss Anna Vennink.A small blaze, evidently caused by the exposure of an electric light wire, was quickly squelched before it made any headway in the ruins. A large wardrobe that stood in the apartment occupied bythetwodaughters, tottered when the explosion came and fell against the bed at an angle, but fortunately missed them. It is evident that the explosive, was placed in the cellar under the center of the house, as it was hereTHE MASS OF RUINwas most striking. That no lives were lost is doubtless due to the fact that the family slept on the second floor.Immediately following the first explosion wasA SECOND REPORTcoming from the residence of E. M. Kessenger, corner Fiflh and Orange. Here a scene of the wildest confusion was presented. Frightened occu-tiacc1t5sar1tsstctrx:sIaatt.vlirpants of wrecked homes were hurrying about and a,crowd was collecting from all directions. The bomb that had done the mischief had been thrown in a lower window on the west side of the house, completely demolishing the interior, tearing u floors and blowing out windows an doors. Costly furniture, fine pictures and handsome draperies were piled up and tangled together in a chaotic mass of hopeless ruin. The hall and parlor floors were torn from the joists, a handsome piano lay on its side, and countless articles of bric-a-brac were scattered about. The fact that all occupants of the house slept on the second floor accounts forTHEIR MIRACULOUS .ESCAPE.for it would have been impossible to escape death on the lower floor.Guards were placed at the door ways immediately after the situation was realized, and no one was allowed to enter the house. Hundreds of people who had heard the reports and conflicting rumors regarding the result rushed to the scene of the disaster, and the streets were crowded for hours after the explosions.A THIRD OUTRAGE.Attorney Rosenburger whose house j was also wrecked, is another temper-ence leader in Muscatine county. He is the attorney in the injunction cases referred of President Harvey of the Temperance Alliance.Mr. Rosen burgers residence, which was a six room frame cottage suffered the most from the effect of the explosion. The dynamite bombs exploded underneath the room in which Mr. Rosenburger, wife and baby were sleeping and the floor was rent in twain, letting them all down into the debris which crashed into the cellar. All were seriously injured and it was rumored this morning that they might not survive their injuries. Two daughters were sleeping in the second story and they also went down in the crash, but rolled outside the ruin, thus escaping being buried in the wreck. The Rosenburger house, being frame, could not withstand the force of the explosion as well as the others, and was therefore tot all v wrecked.y,AIIIN AND KESSINGER.John Mahin, whose house was the first wrecked, is a strong Prohibitionist and the editor of the Muscatine j: Journal which has been the leading s exponent of the Prohibition wing of flt; the Republican party in Eastern t Iowa. E. M. Kessinger is another u prominent citizen ot Muscatine and cl has been mixed up with the injunc- fi lion suits brought against local viola- s tors of the prohibitory law,*at the in- j: stigation of J. A. Harvej', president t of the Iowa State Temperance Alii- v ance. cYesterday afternoou four of Har- c vey’s injunction suits were on trial e before Judge Wolfe, now holding t court at Muscatine, and injunctions g were granted m two eases and action t deferred in the others. Iin j unct roN s r i ts . 1The whole tiffin of the district s court in session at Muscatine yester- e day was devoted to the hearing of t suits brought against local saloonkeepers, E. M. Kessinger was the t plaintiff in the last suit, tried and in which an injunction was granted as s prayed. Ever since these suits have } been filed there has been consider- \ able ill-feeling against their instigators, and in some quarters a belief is i expressed that this ill-feeling was at t the bottom of the dynamite outrages, jAN ATTEMPT THAT FAILED. CRumors of several other meditated | outrages that failed are rife. The s house of Mr. Richie, who was the € plaintiff in another one of the injunc- a tion suits tried yesterday afternoon, c was also marked for destruction, t During the night Mr. Richie was r awakened by a loud and hurried 1 rapping and on going to the door \ some one called out: “Oh, Mr.‘ iRichie, go and see what's in the 1 cellar. He went and was horrified to t see a dynamite, bomb there with t the fuse burning. He quickly extinguished the fire in the wet earth i t in the bottom of the cellar. Whether the person who gave the warning was 1 one of the conspirators who weak- 1 ened at the last moment, or one that 1 wanted him to go into the cellar in the expectation that he would thus be surer to be killed by the explosion is not known.JUDGE brannan’s CASE.It is also claimed that Judge Bran-nan’s house was one of those marked 11 for destruction, oh the supposition that Judge' Wolfe, who granted the injunctions yesterday, was a guest there. ' Children playing in the after-1 ] noon had tied a string from one of the cellar windows to a chair inside I lt;and left it there. In the’night the chair in the cellar was heard to fall and Mrs. Brannan went to in vesti-1 ate. This evidently scared off the ynamiters and a neighbor claims to have seen a man running out of the yard about the time the evidence referred to took place.A rumor regarding the presence of lt;a mysterious acting stranger about iAttorney Carskaddam’s house is also t in circulation.Ii is not known who the perpretra- i tors of these diabolical crimes are, 3 but nothing should be left undone to ] ferret out the guilty parties and bring them to the bar of justice.1Iit1flt;\IsrJcIs3lt;
Newspaper Details
Davenport Daily Leader
Davenport, Iowa, US
Thu, May 11, 1893
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Musser P.
IA, USA 11 Jul 2022
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