The Butler Weekly Times

A Premature Blast Kills One Man and Dangerously Injures Another.

A scene which chilled the blood in the veins of a large crowd of spectators occurred at a tenement house, the property of W. F. Duvall near the west school building, in this city, Monday forenoon at about 11 o'clock.

The scene was a terrible accident which had just happened to John Dunn and Milton Moss, two men digging a well for Mr. Duvall, by the premature explosion of powder.

The two men were at work in the bottom of a well some 12 or 13 feet from the surface of the ground. They had drilled a hole in the rock into which they had poured a can of powder, and for tamping purposes a quantity of small flint rock was thrown in the hole on the powder. At the time of the accident Dunn was holding the tamping iron and Moss striking it with a sledge hammer. Moss had only struck a blow or so when the blast went off.

The only eye witness to the sad affair was Willie Nix, a little boy 13 or 14 years of age, who was sitting on the frame work of the windlass watching the men at work below. When the explosion occurred Moss ran up the ladder fastened to the side of the wall and going 15 or 20 feet from the well lay down on the ground. Calling the Nix boy he said, "Go tell mother, and telegraph Miss --- at Adrian," meaning his sweetheart. He never spoke again and died in a few minutes.

Dunn dropped where he was standing and was taken from the well by men who came quickly to render all the aid in their power.

Both men were terribly mangled by the blast. Moss was cut and bruised about the head and shoulders and pit of the stomach. It was the latter probably caused his death.

Dunn, besides being bruised about the body, had a large hole in his forehead from which about a tablespoonful of brains oozed out. The bone of the right arm below the elbow was badly crushed and the flesh was all lacerated and torn off. The arm was in such a condition that Dr. Renick, the attending physician, deemed a surgical operation necessary and the arm was amputated. In addition to the above terrible injuries the poor man's face is badly cut, bruised and swollen and it is thought his eyesight has been destroyed. The doctors have serious doubts as to his recovery.

The two men lived within a short distance of the scene of the accident and were taken home on stretchers. Moss was a single man and lived with his widowed mother.

Dunn has a wife and five small children. He is a very devout man, and occasionally preached in the holiness church. The family are very poor and will need help.

To see the unfortunate men as they lay on the ground their flesh torn and the blood streaming from numerous wounds in their bodies, was heartrending.