Gilmore Dynamiting

EXPLOSION STORY TOLD BY GILMORE

Some Workman With Imaginary Grievance Blamed for Attempt on Life.

NOISE BRINGS QUICK AID

Wife of Logging Camp Superintendent Still Confined in Hospital From Injury Received When Home is Blown to Pieces.

VANCOUVER, Wash.  April 19 (Special)---"Some man working at the camp, who had an imaginary grievance against me must have been the one who put the dynamite under my bed and attempted to blow my wife, two children and myself into eternity," said J. A. Gilmore, superintendent of the Nehalem Timber & Logging Company, at Chapman, Or.

Mrs. Gilmore, who was the worst injured of the family, did not have a good day today and doctors believe she may have several ribs fractured.  She will recover, however, unless complications set in.

Mrs. Gilmore was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital, in this city, last night and Mr. Gilmore arrived about midnight. 

In reviewing the events of the past 24 hours, Mr. Gilmore today said:  My family and I had been out visiting earlier in the evening.  My wife returned to the house and I went to the commissary car, a few feet from the house and was working there until after 3 o'clock.  My wife could look out of the window and see me in the commissary.  She looked out several times and one time saw a man watching me through the window.  He backed away, but my wife did not tell me this until after the explosion.

Wife Awakens, Puts on Rings

Finally I went into the house, sat down and smoked for a while and we went to bed about 10 o'clock.  In a little while Mrs. Gilmore got up and put on her rings, which she had forgotten and left on the dresser.

When we were both sound asleep a terrific explosion awakened us.  We were thrown high in the air and dropped back again covered with debris, glass and splinters.  My wife called to me, "I've had an awful nightmare, where are we?"

"You're not hurt, but lie still, don't move," I cautioned her as I was expecting to be shot by the man who had put the explosive under our bed.  I thought he was on a hill nearby, and if I lighted a match, or lamp, he would take a shot at me.

My wife, in a few seconds, began to rub her body and feeling the blood pouring from the gash in her back, could not be restrained from moving.  "I've been shot" she cried.

Trained Nurse Arrives.

In a short time the night watchman, who had been past my house at 12:40 o'clock on his 30-minute trip, arrived with a lantern, and it was not long before a dozen people, in their night clothes, came to our assistance.  Mrs. George Graham, a graduate nurse, who has a small farm nearby, was the first aid to the injured, and her assistance was most welcome.

Going into the next room after I had extricated myself and wife from the debris over our wrecked bed.  I limped into the next room to look for our children.  Robert, 13, the older boy, had been dazed and was standing in the kitchen, his eyes closed.  Henry, only 5, was not awakened, but lay so still that I thought he was dead.  Glass, splinters and pieces of furniture were all over the bed, but he escaped without a scratch.

Later, I examined the mattress on our bed, which, by the way, was exceptionally heavy.  I found that a piece of the floor was forced through it, and it was this that penetrated my wife's back.

Two Previous Attempts Made

Two attempts had been made before to injure me, once on March 27, when coal oil was thrown on the front and back doors and porches and set on fire.  It just so happened that my next door neighbor had a sick baby, and was up at the time, 2 o'clock in the morning, caring for it, when he noticed the fire.

I am going back and investigate this to the very bottom.  I have never had a quarrel with any of the men.  If they had tried to kill me only I would not have cared so much, but when they tried to get the whole family, I cannot see the motive.

The clock in the office, 200 feet distant from the Gilmore home was stopped by the concussion at a minute and a half after 1 o'clock.  But the alarm clock in the house that was wrecked was carried from the dresser and landed right side up on  a chair and did not stop running.

SECRET WATCHERS PLACED

Deputy Sheriff Lake Hopes to Unravel Dynamite Mystery.

ST. HELENS, Or., April 19 -- (Special.)  Secret watchers were placed in lumber camps of Columbia County today by Deputy Sheriff Lake, who is making every effort to capture the man or men responsible for the destruction of the Gilmore home by dynamite Friday night. 

A close security of the movements of all suspects will be maintained by Deputy Sheriff Lake, and his men.  Bloodhounds were again unable to lend any assistance in solving the mystery, and tonight the dogs  were returned to Clatskanie.

Deputy Lake believes the dynamite plot was the work of discharged workmen.