Fatal Blast on the Great Northern Line
A railroad construction explosion kills two Italian laborers and injures a third near Martin Creek, nearly sparking an ethnic confrontation between work crews.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Last Saturday afternoon, a blast on the work of Strohm, Hoyt & Hull, railroad contractors, two miles east of Martin Creek, instantly killed two Italians and injured a third so severely that he cannot live. The Italians were working for Hamilton & Ostrander, whose work joins that of Strohm, Hoyt & Hull. It has been customary to set off blasts only at certain hours, and the men were supposed to look after their own safety, but the fatal blast was set off at a time when it was not expected by the men on an adjoining contract. The men were very much mutilated. The comrades of the dead men were much wrought up, and for a time it looked as if Hamilton & Ostrander's gang was going to declare war on the Swedish and Norwegian force of Strohm, Hoyt & Hull. However, wiser counsels prevailed, and peace was preferred.
“For a time it looked as if Hamilton & Ostrander's gang was going to declare war on the Swedish and Norwegian force of Strohm, Hoyt & Hull.”
Railroad construction in the Cascades was notoriously dangerous and often organized around segregated ethnic labor camps. This report captures the precarious conditions and underlying tensions that defined the 'work and pay' reality of 1890s infrastructure projects.
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