STAIRCASE DEATH TRAP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13683, 26 February 1908, Page 9

STAIRCASE DEATH TRAP.

BARNSLEY CATASTROPHE. SIXTEEN CHILDREN TRAMPLED TO DEATH. [FBOJi OVR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] London, January 17. Last Saturday afternoon a terrible disaster occurred at Barnsley, in Yorkshire, a manufacturing town of about 50,000 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 the area, accommodating about 800 people. A long, winding staircase leads up to the gallery, having 30 or 40 steps in all, broken up by several flat stages. Prices, having been lowered for the occasion of the entertainment, little ones from many parts of Yorkshire sought admission with or without their patents. In all probably nearly 3000 children had already secured admission to the building, while crowds were striving to get in. Suddenly an official at the top of the staircase declared that the gallery was full to its utmost capacity. Another official at the foot of the stairway invited the crowd on the steps to come back and go into the pit. In a moment there was a general and disastrous effort to be first in the rush down to the pit entrance. Unfortunately there were some at the bottom of the staircase

who only imperfectly understood wliat was required to be done, and these for a moment resisted the effort to drive them from the point they had arrived at. Irresistible as the pressure was from the top, the crowd might have got safely from tlie narrow staircase but for this obstacle. There one of the resisting little ones slipped and fell, with a scream of terror, at a iwiut in a sharp turn—most dangerous of all. Before she could regain her feet another, who had tried to puss 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 terrible weight of the packed little ones began to press and surge. Almost before those who had first fallen quite realised their imminent danger, others were trampling them to death, while the heap of fallen victims was added to at a terrible rate. In a few seednds from the first fall a heap of struggling, writhing, shrieking, and panic-stricken little ones, numbering 100 in all, had become piled up at the bottom of the staircase. For a moment the more fortunate failed to grasp the fact that those in the heap were in danger of any more serious consequences than a bruise or two. The groans and screams and wild cries revealed the catastrophe that was taking place, and the children in the immediate vicinity of the heap realised the awful truth. " Some, with blanched, horror-strick-en faces, tried to draw back, and to avoid treading on the prostrau- figures. But the pressure from behind was not to be with-

stood. Tho children had to go on, although pale, agonised faces looked upward at them appeal and reproachfully. Meanwhile had acted with praiseworthy prOTTp*titude, and hurried telephone messages were sent to the police and hospital. Eager helpers ran for medical aid in every direction. Police in uniform and in plain clothes responded, and in a few minutes a stream of ambulances from all parts of the town were hurried to the scene, accompanied by practically ail the doctors in the town.

A terrible 1 .sight was to be seen when the rescuers could get to the task of relieving the pressure and saving the dead and dying from further trampling. In addition to those who had first fallen, and by this time must have been dead, numbers had gone down after trampling over them, and had rolled down the remaining steps. Several of these required immediate attention. While these were being attended to, pitiful and heartrending aDueals could be heard from others who were in the heap who were suffering from their own injuries, and horri--fied at the contact with the crushed bodies of the doad below. For the time their appeals had to pass unheeded, for no relief could be offered those in the centre heap of injured until the pressure from above was relieved and the suffering at the bottom of the steps got out of the wav. Men ran by wav of the gallery, and half led and half carried tho frichtened little ones to safety from that end. Gradually the children recognised that they were not- in immediate danger, 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 short of 100 were involved in the struggling mass, beneath winch many Were lying suffocated and dead, while others were facing death in one of its most terrifying forms. Those who were siiil alive were taken to tho Beok?it Hospital or attended elsewhere by doctors. Medical men from other towns still flocked to the scene at the summons of messengers, who told the piteous story i'i broken whispers, and pleaded for immediate aid. While the dead and dying were being got away from the staircase the audience were fortunately unaware of the serious nature of the accident. The performance was timed to begin at three o'clock, and the catastrophe occurred five minutes before that hour. A series of pictures "Hie Nihilist, or the Revolt in Russia"— was promptly put on, and the performance was continued for a little while, in order to leave those engaged on the sad work of rescue unimpeded. Had the awful truth been told in the packed building there would almost inevitably have b.?en a second disaster.

The police guarding the building where the bodies were first laid, as well as those at the mortuary, to which they were taken later on, had a most painful duty to perform. Women struggled through the cn»\vd and fell fainting before, they could ask the question they had fought for the opportunity of putting. Others gasped out their inquiry, heard the pitying answer, and shrank back weeping rind moaning to the support of the wall. Mfcu weie scarcely less moved. All the while* the ambulances were carrying the victims to the mortuary and the hospital. In the former, a small, square-built, white brick edifice, attached to the hospital, there were four sljis, and on each of these lay four of the dead bodies. They had been laid out and dressed by the hospital authorities, and they bore their names, written on a small, white card, pinned on their bodies. All were robed alike, boys and gi.ls, in white. They w.-re covered with the red hospital flair, with a white cross. Theie were no limbs broken--no serious bruise* or wounds. Suffocation or shock ended their lives. Ad were identified.