AN APPALLING CALAMITY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9384, 10 March 1898, Page 2

AN APPALLING CALAMITY.

(Home Paper.) Ottawa, January 4.

The appalling calamity which occurred last night in London, Ontaiio, and which has drawn me°sage3 of condolence from tho Queen, is without parallel in the History of Canada. A large number of electors had gathered in the City Hall to hear speeches from the successful candidates in the municipal contest, which had just concluded. They were crowded around the platform at the north-east end of the hall, and were stamping wildly upon the floor, when suddenly a part of the flooring gave way, and upwards of 200 were precipitated with gieat violence to the storey below. To add to the horror of the tituation, an iron safo and a large coil of Bteam piping foil in upon the struggling mass. A scene of teiror and frantic struggling immediately followed. There were 1000 people in the hall, and behoving that the building was on the point of collapsing, they roDGiir nFSPrnATEiA for rjonrss. Happily no ono was killed in this crushing : everyone not in the hole got out alive. Efforts were quickly begun for the extraction of those who woie piled in a funnelshaped hole some 18ft below, whence shrieks and groans and prayers were mingled in an awful medley. At the end of an hour and a half all had been taken out, when it was found that 21 were dead and a lingo number terribly injured. The news spread with great rapidity, and, not knowing who was killed or wounded, men and women fought like fiends to reach the spot wheie the bodies woie being taken out. Many were injuied more or less seriously in this way. The immediato cause of the accident was the breaking of a beam beneath the floor which had been substituted for a brick wall a few years ago. AN HE-WITNFSI of the catastiopho says : There was the gres,t noise as the breaking of many timbers!, mingled with the shouts of the people caught in the homble ttieck and going down with it. The sea of falling humanity could be seen going down, down, down. The floor gave way at the middle of the portion which fell in, and thus all who weie caught wore thrown in tho mass together, piled 20, 30, and 40 deep. And then came the final crash. The lepoit was like the explosion of a gieat gun. Immediately as the mass of men and timbeis alighted on the floor of tlio engineer's office beneath a gieat cloud of white dust shot up. It came fiom the bioken plaster and filled tho whole hall. Tho chandeliers still burned brightly, but tho dust obscured them from view. For I several minutes it was impossible to see one's hand close to the eye. There was now no noise f lorn within tbe hall. Only occasionally did a shriek or groan come from the fearful pitful of humanity beneath. And then the clnst cleaied away gradually. The crowd in the hall who escaped had stood dumbfounded for a moment, and few lealised what had happened. It was impossible to loaliso the awfulness of it all. Men stood affrighted and bewildeied. But whon the dust had cleared away thoie was almost A STAMPmu. Policemen who weie in ths hall and other men of steady nerves shouted to the crowd and held them back as much as possible, so that all escaped uninjured. Theie was grave danger fiom this for a time, however. Several ladies were in the hall also, but none weie injured. The windows at the market side of the hall off the Council Chamber were kicked out, and quite a number escappd by this means, with tho aid of ladders put up to tho windows from the outside, And thus the hall was cleared. The cloud of dust was not clispulled so as to make \ision across the hall possible for several minutes, And then was presented tho picture in all its glmstliness. Men were olambermg up from below, using the broken timbers by means of which to regain the City Hall floor. As they neared the top they were assisted by willing hands. One of the first to clamber up was Aid. Neil Cooper. His face was coveiod with blood, his clothes were torn and lagged, he was white with dust, and ho gioancd witli the internal pain he was suffeuiig. Others followed quickly, yet slowly. Nothing but shoar excitement made it possible for some of the men to escape this way, their faces besmeared with blood, hatless auJ terror-stricken. Till; SCKNE IN THE PIT cannot readily be described. Men wero piled in a beoming inextiicable mass. Thpsp. on top, wlio were visible, struggled with, one another to get out. The heavy timber which had broken in two, and was, the cause of tlie wrepk, Jay across a number of bodies. An old safe, weighing probably 10001 b, and which had stood for years, in the north-east corner of the hall lollei] d.qwn upon the maw of mon, and had crushed t}je l(fo out of many. The heavy steam ooil, which stood beside the window, had likewise fallen in, and, going the distance it did, had attained a velocity that when bronght sntidenly to a stop crushed and maimed some poor fellow, A water pips burst, and dronohed a few of tlio half ohoked men buried in the ruins. Tim woiik of hesccu was. begun as soon after the accident a* the men had collected their senses. The work of can yiug out the dead and injured was then quickly pushed ahead. An awful woik it was. The lescueis seemed to hesitate momentarily, overcome by the awful scene. Then buoyed up by the shouts of others and the need of prompt action, they would plungo forward again. Body after body was earned out, some living some already dead. " A ropa and tackle were attached to the safe and strong arms raised it. When a nian was, se.en to crawl apparently from beneath the safe a cheer went up,. How a human being cquld have lived beneath so great a weight was a marvel, and there seernecihope then, after all. B,ut the poor fellow had only miraculously escaped the weight resjting upon liim. Tlje first body t.q ho found bquaath tho safo was that of Benj. J. Nash. There was no mark upon his face. His clothes were not so much as disarranged. But death had come with awful suddenness to him. " Stalwart policemen olambered in and raised the ends oi the broken beam, Ab they did so horrible groans aroso from thoso beneath the ruin, And while the policemen hold up tho beam others pulled out the maimed and dying. A young boy criod piteously as rescuers carried him out on their shoulders. His brain suffered from a blow, and when tbe doctors saw him they said he could not live. Kind hands and arms earned him to Callard's drug store, and a young woman, a trained nurse, assisted the doctors. His father came in, and the scene was affecting. As ho recosnisjed his b&£ t),o stalwart man dropped on lila knees and kissed tlia lad as ho lay on the floor. ■Anbfchei: . boy was carried out, dead! yetheiooked the picture of life. There was rosy flush on his cheek a smile on his lips. Like almost ever one of tup (f-ad, tjiei'e was 'nothing in the out' ward aprteai&'nco of fhu bdfijss t,Q tsjl what had caused death. ' Many were tree jof marks altogether. Theve had been aa (*wfuf crush —that was a 11.,'