Villagers Turn To Prayer After School Tragedy Every Family Feels Tragic Blow Of Madman's Terrible Revenge. By Margrete Panky Of the Blade Staff. Bath, Mich., May 19 - Bleeding and torn, this little tragedy-swept Michigan town Thursday prayed for its many injured while it made plans to bury its youthful dead. Like fingerprints from the hand of death, wreaths and sprays were tacked on the doors of many homes in Bath and surrounding territory. Behind closed doors and darkened windows women and men cried out the heartbreak of cheated parenthood. Or sat and stared through a daze of unbelief. Never to hear the happy voice that said "goodbye" for the last time Wednesday morning. Never to hear again those dancing steps leading from home to the nearby school. In the center of the town it stands, the Bath Consolidated school where more than 35 school children and a few teachers lost their lives and an equal number were injured following a dynamite explosion, caused by a maniac Wednesday morning. Pride of Town. Yesterday it was the pride of the town. Today it stands - death trap that claimed two-score lives. A tomb where other bodies may be still held. Ropes marked it off Wednesday evening when thousands of people from Lansing, Leslie, Jackson and other Michigan towns circled this monument to dead students - this wrecked pile of brick and stone and wood. There were few people from Bath near the school Wednesday night. The tragedy was too new, too horrible - too intimate. There were too many children from Bath homes for the parents to care to see how it happened. Grim reminders of the horror greeted the eye everywhere. Bed-clothing, blankets and sheets were stretched out in piles of wood or the ground, showing the imprint of tiny forms. Buckets with rags soaking, showed that first aid had been given the little victims by those who rushed to their rescue. Coats and caps, shoes and hose were strewn about the yard. One room torn completely open at the end, showed coats and hats neatly hung in the cloak room, and a row of lunch baskets above. "Whoever touches this studies at his own risk", was written in the jaunty hand of a sixth grader in his book. Its torn message greeted the tear filled eye. The blood-stained coat and hat of a little girl who arrived late for class, but tragically in time for the explosion, was hung from the limb of a tree. A catcher's mitt was flung on the ground. How the hills and forests about Bath must have rung with the cries of pain from the victims and the cries of agony from their mothers immediately after the explosion! Eye-witnesses say those screams are the thing they will never forget. Three high school youths who escaped without a scratch, almost broke into tears as they described the tragedy. Clare Gates, 16, junior, who lives 3 1/2 miles north of Bath, looked at his watch at 8:45 A.M. central time. He was in the manual training room and was to take a test. Two minutes later there was a terrific roar, and the entire building shook. Head first, Clare was pitched out of a window into the schol yard. He ran for half a mile from the school before he stopped. Then he looked back and saw what had happend. He ran back just as fast as he could to aid in the rescue. So did Sylvester Barnard, 15, sophomore, who was pitched through another window from the manual training room. But Sylvester was unable to aid in the resuce. When he saw his little school friends writhing in agony, dying, or wounded, he fainted. Howard Cushman, 16, sophomore, who was to take a test at 10 A.M. was standing in front of the school talking to a classmate when the explosion occurred. He saw the building shake, crumble and clouds of dust rise. Then the cries of wounded children reached him. He and young Gates aided in the rescue of more than ten children. One little fellow they knew well was pulled out with one leg cut off. Cushman said he saw Kehoe enter his machine and talk to the school superintendent just before the explosions. W.M. Klock, deputy sheriff, who lives two miles from Bath, aided in the rescue work. He heard the explosion and drove at once to the school. He told of attempting to lift a small boy caught under the ruins, just as an avalanche of brick crushed out the young life. Again he tried to pull a little girl from under a pile of debris and found he had only her foot in his hand. Her foot had been crushed from her body. Klock says he believes Kehoe had been laying the dynmaite in the school for several weeks. More than 500 pounds that had not exploded were found in the coal bin, boiler and in between the rafters. All of it was wired, he said. Enough dynamite to blow up the entire town was hidden in the school, he said. Neighbors say that Kehoe who was school board treasurer, had always bemoaned the erection of the modern large school. He is believed to have brooded on the expense of the building. Frank Flory, instructor of manual training, and athletic coach, was standing just inside the doorway of the school. He dashed from the building and aided in the rescue work. Tears filled his eyes as he reluctantly told of finding children and fellow teachers mangled or dedad. Belief that the body of Kehoe's invalid wife is still in the ruins of his own home which was dynamited before the school was blasted, was expressed by many. Kehoe is said to have recently brought her home from a sanitarium. Spectators told of a father who dug frantically in the ruins and found his own son dead. A little girl was searching through the crowd of children when her two little brothers were found lifeless. In many homes two or more children were killed or wounded.