GREAT DISASTER IN NEW YORK.

The entire financial district of New York was panic-stricken to-day by a tremendous explosion, the full effect of which is only partially apparent at the time of cabling. According to the first reports, which are still being investigated, a horse and wagon driven by a solitary man stopped in Wall Street between Messrs. Pierpont Morgan and Co.’s palatial offices and the U.S. Treasury and Mint, and a second afterwards was blown to atoms, presumably by the explosion of a load of dynamite or infernal machine.

Wall Street at the time was crowded with office workers out for lunch, and the havoc wrought amongst them was terrific. Wall Street became a shambles, mutilated bodies lying everywhere, together with mangled horses and overturned and blackened motor-cars. For miles around in the skyscraper district a veritable cascade of plate-glass from windows hundreds of feet above the streets poured down upon the crowded pavements, killing, wounding, and mutilating. The facade of the U.S. Mint was peppered with holes as if by shrapnel, and Messrs. Morgan’s offices were wrecked.

Business in the financial district was suspended, and hundreds of thousands of frightened men and women poured out into the streets. The offices of The Daily Telegraph, situated on the twelfth floor of a skyscraper within a hundred yards of the scene of the tragedy, narrowly escaped injury, but the occupants were thrown from their chairs and heavy bookcases were overturned.

Looking down into the street far below I beheld a wild scene. Hundreds of dazed and terror-stricken people were standing still, tying up their wounds with handkerchiefs. Some bodies were lying in a sea of broken glass, while half a dozen horses with gaping wounds and blood streaming ran hither and thither, completely beyond control. Above the buildings, and rising slowly into the air, was a huge canopy of black smoke and dust, which was clearly visible for half an hour.

Strangely enough, while the offices of The Daily Telegraph were uninjured, the New York Stock Exchange, which is immediately opposite, was so severely damaged that the bell was sounded and trading was suspended for the day.