Like the awful cloud of smoke that hung for " quarter of an hour over the scene where the explosion took place outside the West Gate of Foochow on the 25th July, so uncertainty seemed to hang over the important details until recently. Everyone was prepared for extravagant accounts of the disaster and bad his grain of salt close at hand, The first report that went abroad was that upwards of twenty people had been killed and many more injured. This report soon assumed a rising scale and went up to 300 killed. The "next report—and the one now generally accepted as correct—seemed too good to be true. It put the number of killed at the almost incredibly low figure of four, and half-a-dozen wounded. One was tempted to suspect that those in possession of the facts wore keeping them from the public. Neverthele..s, this last report is now generally accepted as correct, incredible though, it seems.
'Che following details of the explosion may be of interest. Nearly two miles from the West Gate of the city is a hill, called Ff], which is crowned by somewhat furious temple consecrated to the three' great Honan Generals came to Foochow in the pf dyn At this temple a feast and theatre were in progress when the calamity occurred. The bowler magazine is located at the foot of this hill, just on the edge of a large village, but separated from it by a large fish-pond. The soldiers guard-in the magazine put one man in charge and sallied forth to see the theatre. Near the noon-day hour the watchmen's quarters adjoining the magazine were discovered on fire. The villagers, panic-stricken, began to move their valuables into the street ready for flight. When they discovered that there was no time for flight they all rushed back into their dwellings for refuge. The empty street immediately after the explosion gave rise to the report that 300 were killed. The soldier who had remained in charge was seen running away with the twenty muskets of the guard. Four bodies were found at the road-side. A rain of stones, tiles. and debris followed the shock, and the smoke and dust darkened the sky like heavy fog. The roofs of houses far and near were shattered and the walls either knocke ov-r or cracked. A native friend of your correspondent who was seated in a shop nearly two miles from the scene, felt the shock to such " degree that he rushed out of doors thinking the shop was collapsing. At this place the foot of a youth was found who was among the unfortunate four killed near the magazine. The other foot has wot been found. The remaining parts of the mangled corpse were found in a rice-field. All the fishing the pond were
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