A DASTARDLY OUTRAGE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXI, Issue 72, 26 March 1887, Page 4

A DASTARDLY OUTRAGE.

- Adelina Pattie wns singing at the San Francisco Opera-house on the night of February 9, and had jusc left the stage, after .captivating the large audience by her unapproachable singing in " Luoia," when the occupants of the theatre were shocked by a deafening explosion from the right side of the gallery. Simultaneously pieces of burning material, apparently ootton, flew outward and downward towards the orchestra, and falling among the oooupants of that pirfc of the ; theatre, oaused, a momentary excitement- that threatened a panic ; but the persistent manner in which the npper gallery occupant', thinking that .tbe hoodlum* bad attempted some cracker diversions, yelled out "sit down," convinced the bulk of the audience tbat it w»s wisest to remain in their seats. When the pieces of burning cotton were stamped out, and the smoke and dust had cleared away, there was seen for a momenc only, standing over the gallery rail, a hatless, bleeding, and powder-burned old man, who appeared to be bereft o£| his sens s, and a short distance from, him was a young woman in a state of great nervous excitement. Patti then appeared on the stage to sing " Home, sweet. Home," and her calmness restored thar. of the audieuce. The police officers on du'y in the building at once proceeded upstair, to investigate the cause of the explofion ; but their progress "was somewhat delayed from finding one of the doors leading to the gallery looked On the second landing one of the police and a reporter came across a man whose appearance was thus described : — " His face, which was covered with tlood, was begrimed with smoke ; he wore no bat, ana it could be seen that his iron grey hair was burned from the forehead halfway back on the skull, while his whiskers were also singed and burned ; his nose, which had evidently been ssruck by what had exploded, was bleeding profusely, and Mb general appearance was that of one who had received the full force of the explosive." He refused at first to give a name, and expressed great anxiety to be taken to his home, which was near the theatre. He said he had been hurt by an explosion of gas, but was not seriously injured ; but the policeman insisted on taking him to the receiving hospital, where it was found that he was badly burned on the arms, head, face, and forehead, and he made the following statement : — •• I was sitting in one of the front seats of the gallery, when I accidentally dropped my hat and Btick. Beaching down to get them, my hands came in contact with an odd-shaped package or parcel. I picked it up, but no sooner had I done so than it exploded. How the bomb or whatever it was came to be under my seat I cannot explain. All I know is that lam fearfully burned and suffering terribly. loannot imagine who placed it under my seat or for what purpose it was placed there. Here I am, a poor old man, under a frightful accusation ; but I am innocent. Tbis will be proved by my old age and honorable standing in the community for twenty-five years." The best and most succinct account of what happened in the gallery was supplied by Miss C. Dreyfus, who sat but one seat from that occupied by the would-be incendiary. She said: "I was dressed for the opera, and my lady companion said to me 'You should have worn a different' dress for this part of the house ; see how dirty the floor is.' I naturally looked at the fioor in front of the row of seats as I raised my skirts from it. It was not dark. I saw the wnple floor. There was no package lying -there, positive there was nothing on the floor — except a good deal of dirt. Presently the man came back and sat down in No. 294, showing us his seat check as he did so, and explaining that he had been mistaken in the number. That broke the ice, and we had some other conversation with him. He had his overcoat buttoned up, but he did not appear as stated in the papers, dirty and disreputable. He spoke pleasantly and courteously. He did not say anything disparaging of Patti, nor say that she would never sing again, and I never made any such statement. There was a good deal of noise and confusion, and complaints that the seating capacity had been sold several times over. - The man said it was a shame. He said ha had bought a seat for Monday evening, but had been unable to get it. We loaned him oar opera-glass, but he hardly seemed to know how to use it. When Lucia came out he asked ' Is that Ophelia ?' being evidently unfamiliar with the opera. I explained to him that Ophelia was not a character in an opera, and gave him an outline of Lucia's part in the opera. He seemed enraptured over Patti. She had just gone off the stage, and the audience were loudly encoring. I think she was entirely off the stage when the explosion occurred. The man held up his hat above his knee, as if he were concealing something. I was leaning toward him, speaking to my friend, who was between me and him. I did not see him light a match, but I distinctly heard the sound as he lighted it on the railing in front of him. I thought it -might be a fire-cracker which he had fired off to add to the noise of the encore and signify bis delight at Patti's singing. In an instant there was a general hubbub. The man darted away. My hair was scorched by the flaßh and my arm was covered with blood. I did not shout, though I was very muoh exoited, and, by the way, I did not sleep at all last night ; in fact I have hardly got over it now. I looked at the seat where the man had sat, and picked up the bottle of fluid, which the officers took away." Under the seat occupied by Hodges were found a broken powder flask and a corked oil bottle. The flask, judging from what was left of it, had been evidently an ordinary pound flask, which had contained either heavy blasting powder or giant powder. The bottle was full of turpentine. The bottle had been wrapped in cotton or wool.

The bottle and flask are believed to have been originally joined, so as to make an infernal machine, and had either dropped from the miscreant's pocket or fallen from his hand.

The bottle which was picked up on his seat after the explosion contained about a quart of similar liquid mixed with varnish or some resinous substance, wrapped in cloth. In the bottle -were fifteen or twenty pine sticks, about two inches long, and a number of corks. It is supposed his expectation was that tbis bottle would explode from the heat produced by the burning of the turpentine saturated cloth in which it was wrapped, and that the corks and pine sticks would be sent blazing all over the building. The Chronicle says : — "If tbe infernal machine had been thrown at the chandelier and put out the lights, if it had exploded among the audience, if it had struck a box or the stage, or even if it had ended its existence in mid-air, no power on earth could have saved hundreds of lives from destruction; and such a death, to be trampled under foot, crushed out of all resemblance to humanity, and in a moment to be transformed from animal life to repulsive, senseless clay. The theatre was packed; the people were so close and so thick that locomotion at a snail-like pace was almost impossible. Terrible would have been the resnlt if all those thousands of happy people had been suddenly transformed into a shrieking, howling mob battling for life. The scenes of the Vienna Opera-house would have been re-enacted."

As .James 1 Hodge (for such is the name of the man in custody) was heard to exclaim, as :he raised the bomb, " I am going to blow up 'Flood and other tyrants," a good many people think that he is a " crank," but the heads of the Police Department consider him an anarchist, and believe bis design was to spread death and destruction around, and that his mention of Flood' 3 name was purely .accidental, Flood being a typical wealthy citizen of California, Hodges, however, declares that he didn't know Flood was present, and has no feeling whatever against him. He denies that he brought the bomb into the theatre, or that he is a member of any political or socialistic organisation.