Lou’s View – Jan. 29, 2015
Boom!
by Lou Bernard
Never mess with dynamite. It’s not all that hard a lesson to learn—I remember being taught that as a kid. We lived about half a mile from a blasting pit, and we would occasionally feel the house shake. My parents always told me never to go near any dynamite up there, though I don’t recall ever actually seeing any. Now that I think of it, I have to wonder exactly what my parents thought about me that they had to stress this so much. Even as a kid, though, I got the idea—I knew it would be a bad move to go messing with dynamite. And as a kid, I used to go deliberately searching for vicious animals, so what does that tell you?
Well, in 1886, there was this incident….
On March 7, 1886, several young boys were playing out in the forests of Salona. Typical Sunday afternoon. This day was a bit different, however—Out near a lime kiln, the boys found three sticks of dynamite.
The boys had two options: They could safely walk away and tell an adult, or they could carry them into town and show off their new find. Being young boys, of course they chose to grab the stuff and show everybody.
In their travels, they came across John Houtz. An adult, of course he knew the dangers of playing around with dynamite. The stuff could go off unpredictably at any moment! But, he reasoned, these boys had been carrying it all over the place. Young boys are not exactly naturally gentle and cautious, so the dynamite couldn’t possibly be active. No way it was going to go off.
Still, Houtz thought, best to make sure. It was probably safe enough. He decided to test it by the scientific method of poking it with a stick. Yep, no harm done there—Obviously, the dynamite wasn’t much of a BOOM!!!!
Okay, that probably lost some of its impact in print, but you get the idea.
Headline of the Clinton Democrat, March 11, 1886: “It Was Loaded.”
Houtz didn’t get killed, but he did get badly injured. The boys ran for help and came back with Doctor Luther Holloway. Holloway was a Civil War veteran who had treated a lot of injured soldiers, so it’s safe to say that this was probably not the first explosion-related injury he’d ever dealt with.
“It exploded with painful results,” reported the Clinton Democrat. “Mr. Houtz had his thumb and index finger of his left hand blown off, also half the second finger of the same hand and his right eye so badly hurt that he will lose the sight of if not the entire eye. He was also badly cut on the head.”
Holloway treated Houtz, as best he could, and made sure he made it to the hospital. Houtz was actually fairly lucky (Not that he felt so lucky, I’m sure) that it wasn’t much worse—Dynamite is demonstrably unpredictable, and Houtz could have easily been headed for the cemetery instead of the hospital.
Nobody ever did figure out where the dynamite had come from in the first place. Probably one of the local quarries, though nobody ever came forward and reported any dynamite missing. Maybe it was out of fear of being sued.
“The injured man has suffered much pain and has the sympathy of all,” reported the Democrat. “How the cartridges came to be where they were found is a mystery, and how it happened that the boys did not, boylike, investigate them is another mystery.”
Houtz survived, though badly injured, and the boys didn’t seem to see much of a downside to the incident at all—It was probably the most exciting thing to happen in Salona in 1886. The boys had a blast. (Rim shot.)
So, presumably, all was well in Salona after that. If you take anything from this article, however, remember that it is important to keep safety in mind—If you find some dynamite, or any other hazardous material, don’t mess around with it. It’s best to keep clear, and notify the authorities, even if you think it’s harmless. That way, you won’t put yourself in danger or cause any problems for BOOM!!!!!
