"JUNGLE" COLONY BLOWN UP.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10963, 4 May 1907, Page 3 (Supplement)

"JUNGLE" COLONY BLOWN UP.

MR. UPTON SINCLAIR'S NEW I COMMUNITY WRECKED. j "VICTIM OF TRUSTS." ' NEW YORK, March 15. Mr Upton Sinclair's co-operative com munity, established with the proceeds of his sensational novel, "The Jungle, ' literally went up m smoke yesterday morning when Helicon Hall, the headquarters of the colony at Englewood. New Jersey, was destroyed by fire, tollowing an explosion. The fifty-five "colonists" had thrilling escapes from being burnt alive, and.seve.. ral of them received serious injuries by jumping from secbndrfloor window*-. Both Mr and Mrs Sinclair were badly cut by flying glass. ' T ; •The origin of the fire is a mystery, but Mr Sinclair^ whose ! fight against public and corporate "graft has made him ■many bitter enemies, makes the sinister suggestion that it is the result of "trust incendiarism."

"Three weeks ago," said Mr Sinclair to-day, "while excavating for a new boiler, I found a stick of dynamite m a crevice of the cellar. The dynamite may have been* there twelve years, /iyhich is the ageof the -building, but I -doubt it.---"lido not wish to make' an unfounded charge, and the theory is so monstrous that I can scarcely belieye it, but the dynamite V/as there. . i : ; 3 ■ $■■ '•.?' '. A , A%FIDAvrT_riGAINST OFFICIALS "I had m my my possession many affidavits involving: high officials of the" Steel- Trust m all sorts of 'graft,' These affidavits enabled me to trace: the connectiori betweeii railway- wreteks and 'graf-v' at the head offices of the Steel Trust, and I wa* .'Writing a novel whereof the; affidavits' furnished the principal material; : "The fact 'remains „T that . there :,-w dynamite m theTcellar under HeUcon Hail and that the affidavits-were m my desk. The desk, of course, is .burnt, with all its ' content .*. T Whether they were stolen -or burnt I cannot say.'' '■".. The explosibriv occurrjEidYat; daybreak, apparently m the basement/ and the re- \ port wfcs dieajti aih_ile. ayra^ The !flre burrit v with extraordirijary rapidity. .The inmates of tithe building barely: had tme to escape m their nightclothes.^A; number of- children were tossed' oup; of tbe upper floor window, and caughtjin. blankets' below. --.-'"''' Briggs;,. the. colony -carpenter,..-.; -.was burnt;.. to death. Mi's ; Grace /MpGowari Cooker a well-known writer and one of, Mr assistants', was injvfedr--probably fatally— by jumping from an upper f100r... Professor Montague, .of Columbia Umversijy /was also injui^d.