[Illustration: EFFECTS OF DYNAMITE EXPLODED UNDER WATER.]

The greatest catastrophe in the records of powder-making came because a
man ignored such plain warning of his own fear. At least, the workmen at
the Dupont mills will tell you this if you can get them to break through
their usual reserve. The man was William Green, and, whatever his fault,
he paid the fullest price for it. Green was stationed in one of the
magazines, with the responsibility of sealing up hexagonal powder, a
very powerful kind used by the government in heavy guns. This powder
comes pressed into little six-sided cakes of reddish color, which are
packed in large wooden boxes lined with tin, and it was Green's duty to
solder the tin covers tight with a hot iron. In each box there was
enough of this powder to blow up a fortress, and it is no wonder the
occupation finally told on Green's nerves. He said to his wife that
sooner or later a speck of grit would touch his iron and make a spark,
and then-- The theory is that a spark is required to explode powder
which will only burn harmlessly at the touch of a hot iron or a flame.

However this may be (and I should add that the theory is disputed),
Green felt that he was in danger, and by that fact, say the powder-men,
if for no other reason, he _was_ in danger. And one day--it was October
7, 1890--the spark came; surely that was a most important spark, for it
caused the explosion of one hundred and fifty tons of gunpowder, the
instant death of thirteen men and one woman, and the serious or fatal
injury of twenty-two men and nine women.

Only an earthquake could have wrought such terrible destruction. The
city of Wilmington was shaken to its foundations. Great chasms were rent
in the solid rock under the exploding magazines. Trees were torn up by
the roots. Iron castings, weighing tons, were hurled clean across the
Brandywine. Iron columns thick as a man's waist were twisted and bent
like copper wire. Horses outside the yards were found with legs missing;
men were found stripped clean of their clothes, and this curious fact
was developed, that a man or a horse in the region of explosion would
have shoes blown from the feet (iron shoes or leather shoes) if the legs
were on the ground at the moment of shock, but would keep shoes on if
the legs were lifted. Thus poor Green was found with both feet shod, and
so identified, although his body had no other stitch of covering, and
the explanation was that he