A CATASTROPHE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 48, 26 February 1908, Page 3

A CATASTROPHE.

SACRIFICE OF SIXTEEN CHILDREN.

A STAIRCASE DEATH-TRAP. DISASTER AT AN ENTERTAINMENT. {From Our Own Correspondent, j ' LONDON, 17th January, 19C3. Last Saturday afternoon a terrible 'disaster occured at Barnsley, in Yorkshire, a manufacturing town of about 50,003 inhabitants. A kinematograph entertainment was to be given in a large public assembly-room of the town which includes a public hall with balcony around it, extending to each side of the stage. Behind the balcony the gallery stretches to the extensive limit of tho area, accommodating about 800 people. A long winding staircase leads up to the gallery, having thirty or forty steps in all. broken up by several fiat stages. Prices having been lowered for the, occasion of the entertainment, little ones from many parts of Yorkshire sought admission, with or without their parents. Crowds had lined up in the street, and in a yard adjoining, and a huge audience had already packed the cheaper parts of the house. The prices for admission were as low as a penny for the gallery, and twopence, threepence, fourpence for other parts. In all, probably nearly 3000 children — this being the whole seating capacity of the hall— -had already secured admission to the building, whilo crowds were striving to g?t in. Suddenly an official at tho top of the staircase declared that tho gallery was full to its utmost capacity. Another official at the foot of the stairway invited tho crowd on the steps lo come back and go into the pit. Tn a moment thero was a general and disastrous effort to be first 'in the rush down to tho pit entrance. Unfortunately there were soma at tho bottom of the staircase- who only imperfectly understood what was required to bo done, and these for a moment resisted the effort to drive them from tho point they had arrived at. Irresistible as the pressure was from the top the crowd might have got safely from the narrow staircaso, but for thi3 obstacle. A STRUGGLING MASS. There one of the resisting little ones slipped and fell, with a scream of tsri;or, at a point in a sharp turn — mosu dangerous of all. Before she covild regain her feet another, who had tried to pass without treading upon the prostrate body was also on the ground. The two bodies formed together a human barrier, against and over which the whole terriblo weight of the packed little ones began ro press and surge. Almost before those who had first fallen quite realised their imminent danger — and one would fain believe before they had time to feel the pain of theninjuries — others wero trampling them to death, while the heap of fallen victims wan added to at a terrible rato. In a few seconds from the first fall a heap of struggling, shrieking, and •panic-strickea littlo ones, numbering one hundred in all, had become giled up at the bottom of the staircase. For a moment the more fortunate failed to grasp the fact that thole in the heap were in danger of any_ more serious consequences than a ofuise or two. The groans and screams and wild cries to "get off me," revealed the catastrophe that was taking place, and the children in the immediate vicinity of tho heap realised the truth. Some tried to draw back, and to avoid trqading on the prostrate figures. But the pressure from bshind was not to be withstood. The children had to -go on, although pale, agonised faces looked upward at them appealingly and reproachfully. Meanwhile the attendants had acted with praiseworthy promptitude, and hurried telephone messages was sent to tho police and hospital. Eager helpers ran for medical aid in every direct-ion. Police in unifornl and in plain clothes responded,' and in a few minutes a stream of ambulances from all 'parts of th: town were hurried to the Gcene, accomp'nnied by practically all the doctors in tho town. PITIFUL APPEALS. A terrible sight was to bo seen when the rescuers could get to the task of lelieving the pressure and saving the dead and dying from further trampling In addition to those who had first fallen, find by this time ntus-t have been dead, number.* had gone down after trampling over them, and had rolled down tho regaining steps. , Several of these required immediate attention. While tlicse were being attended to, pitiful appeals could be heard from others who were in the heap who were suffering from their own inI juries nnd horrified at ihe contact with I the crushed bodies of tho dead below. For the time their- appeils had to pass unheeded, for no iclief could be oficred thosa in the centre heap of injured until tho pressure from above was relieved and the suffering at the bottom of the rtep<; i got out of the way. Men ran by •« ay i of the gallery, and half led and half enrrecl the frijhtcn n d littlo ones to sn'ety ,'from that ond. Gradually the children recognircd that they were not in immediate danfjer, and it became possible to reach the heap of moving, screaming forms at the lower level. At that appalling moment it was seen that not far fJiort of a hundred viere involved in the ftiugglinq i irn£?. ber.etuh which many were lying nifj fncat?d nnd dead, while others were facing death in one of its most terrifying form?. Never, piobably, did men wojk harder than the helpers who had by this time ai lived for the succouring of the sufferers. One man alone tenderly brought, out five tiny forms one nfter another, and carried Mhem to neighbouring houses. Alrao^t inarticulate with giiVf, lie gasped out that he feared all wero dead. Others ; took out two or three or moie of the I childrsn. Those who were s? ill nhvo j wore takrn to the Beckett Hospital, or attended eltev/herc by doctors. Medical ! men ft rim other towns still Hooked io the ! wene at the summons of mess 'iiqcrs, v:h'> J told the piteous flory in biokm u hirers | and pleaded for immediate a,d. Whilo iho dead and dying weie bring got away from the staircase tho audience wero fortunately unnwriro of tho s;riou3 nntnrc of the accident. Iho performance was timed to begri a t three o'clock, nnd tho catastrophe- or ciirred five minutes beforo .that hoin. ] A series of pictures — '"The Nihilist, or I the Revolt m Russia" — was promptly ' put on, and tho performance was conI tinned for a little while in order to J leave those engaged on tho sad work jof rescue unimpeded. Had the awful truth been told in the packed bnilcUng I there would almost inevitably have been a second disaster. But things could not bo ao hapjjily arranged outside thej building, and tho difficulty of the next few minutes, with the grief and nii^jish of stricken friends to follow, bned tho courage of the bravest. One or two ot tho children who escaped rnscnthed, rushfMl tenor-stricken to their Inrnc3, and in five minutes the streets of Barnsl*y were filled with parent* and friends, sympathisers and sufferers, all hurriedly making their way in the direction of the hall. It was not >n unfamiliar scone, for Barnsley hi.' experienced disaster before. But th' f-h of the children struck a note of - -oss that will thrill through the whnli w rd. Even the trams were stopped. In one m&ln nee o driver left h:: pel vgc* to ba of seivice.