A BANK-HOLIDAY TRAGEDYCRUSHED TO DEATH.

Evening Post, Volume XLIII, Issue 143, 18 June 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)

A BANK-HOLIDAY TRAGEDYCRUSHED TO DEATH.

•yjy , takes up a paper on the mor ' tfing a Bank -Holiday, it is alwr .th the feeling that somewJ#" amidst the mass of gossip concerning the pleasurea of the people, you will happen upon the saddening details of some fatality or other. It is seldom, however, the memory of a national merry-making is shadowed by such a dreadful calamity as occurred at Hampstead Station on Easter Monday, by which eight persons lost their lives, and many received grievous injury. The saddest part of it is that the dead and wounded are all women and children. „ Hampstead Heath ('Appy 'Ampstead as it is commonly called) is one of London's largest and most popular lungs. On, that vast expanse of green common you may see a hundred thousand souls desporting themselves on any fine Bank Holiday. Easter Monday was by no means a perfect day, but the weather was fine enough to tempt folks out of doors, and the Heath was resorted to by over eight thousand, a large number of whom had come thither by means of the North London railway. The day far spent, the clouds began to thicken in the east, and a chill wind sprang up, auguring of rain or snow About 6 o'clock a few rain drops caused the vast concourse to move slowly Btationwards, and in a few minutes the slowly- moving masses became an unseemly scamper. At the Btation the straggling rout massed densely, and the rush for the trains began. To attain the platform the crowd had to pass down a couple of narrow stairways. In a minute these restricted gangways were gorged with strong, hustling humanity, each individual with seemingly no other thought than. to get into the first train. As the crowd was debouching in confusion on to the platform, a woman tripped and fell at the foot of the stairs, and over her body dozens fell, till a pile of men, women, and children was formed. The screams filled everyone with terror. But what occurred for the next few minutes no pen can describe, nor can words convey the shameful scene. Men abandoned their manhood, and became as frantic beasts in a blazing menagerie, children shrieked as their bodies wore crushed and mangled, and wjomen fainted in scores. At length the panic was quelled, and then it was found that two women and eight children had been done to death in the selfish rush for shelter, whilst dozens had received cruel injury. As soon as possible the dead and injured were removed to the mortuary and hospitals. Many of the killed were fearfully disfigured by the trampling of scores of feet, and the scenes that occurred in cases of identification upon the spot were heartrending. Altogether the tale is a sad and hateful one, for there was no excuse for the crowd's behaviour. It simply amounts to this — that ten persons were 'killed because many wished to get home to tea and avoid a slight wetting.

A fierce fight has taken place between a sheriff's force of 150 men and a numerous baud of cattle thieves at Riverside, in Wyoming, in which 18 of the former and 28 of the latter were killed. During the football season-whichrecently-closed, there were 15 fatalities, and 100 other players received injury, 39 having legs broktn.