The following very melancholy accident lately happened at Elgin in Scotland: One Harvie, a journey-man dyer, having bought of William Fraser, merchant, some gun powder, Harvie, to try the powder, loaded a pistol in the shop, with an intention to fire it. At the very instant he was about to fire, one James Finlay came into the shop, and called out to him. to stop, as he knew a barrel of gun powder was just by them; but his alarm unhappily came too late; the pistol flashed in the pan, and a spark flew into the cask, which contained about forty pounds weight, and which instantly blew up, and brought down the whole tenement.
Finlay and Harvie were miraculously preserved, but Fraser the owner of the shop, was killed by the explosion, which burst out at the door and windows, and carried the lintel stones of both to the opposite side of the street.
The most shocking part of this fatal affair was, that Laurence Calder, merchant, James Bowie, maltman, James Grant, taylor, John Adam, and James Ross, being in the shade at the door of the shop, were carried off with such impetuosity, that Bowie and Grant were dashed to pieces, and killed against the walls of the houses on the opposite side of the street. They were found quite dead, and almost naked, their cloaths being almost entirely burnt off them.
Calder was found alive, in the most dismal condition, his head terribly bruised, one of his legs cut quite open, and the foot hanging by a ligament only; he expired in a few hours. Ross is yet alive, but his recovery uncertain.
It can hardly be accounted for, how Finlay and Harvie were preserved within the shop; but certain it is, they too likewise must have perished, had not the town's people, at the hazard of their lives, from the broken and tottering walls, dug them from beneath the rubbish, and in that manner saved their lives.
There is no other damage done to the adjoining or opposite houses, but some of the windows and casements broken.
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