The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-02-26 00:00:00

4' I: STOURBRIDGE OBSERVER,

were sent on to the banks of the Sarda, where the
camp was pitched, the Prince remaining with his suite
in the old camp until it was time to ride to the.a,p-
pointed rendezvous. Sir Jung Bahadoor crossed the
Sarda in the morning on horseback with his brother
and sous and 14 or 15 officers, a battery of Artillery,
and a regiment of Infantry. He pitched his camp on
the Sarda, outside the Prince's, and rode on a mile or so
to a clump of trees on the road, where be waited for the
Prince's arrival. His Royal Highness, with a small escort,
attended by his suite, came in sight about one o'clock.
Sir Jung B ihadoor advanced on foot to the Prince's
presence, and was presented by Mr. Girdlestone ; then
his sons were presented. After a delay of a couple of
minutes Sir Jueg mounted and rode beside the Prince,
the two suites riding together, all in plain clothes, to
the camps, where a guard of honour of the British
Third Ghoorkas and a Bengal Cavalry escort were
drawn up. Sir June took leave at the Prince's tent,
and after an intervaltreturned with his suite, all in full
dress, blazing with dismonds, to pay a formal vitit. A
diirbar was held in the mess tent, then, after the
Nepaulese bad returned to their own camp, a
hundred yards apart, the Prince, attended by his
suite, paid a return visit. At each durbar there
were presentations, so that each member of each
suite was twice introduced. The usual attar and pan
were distributed, and the servants brought in trays of
presents. _Outside were two tigers in cages, many wild
creatures, and a splendid collection of birds from the
Nepaulese mountains, which were offered to the Prince.
The despatch of these had given rise to absurd stories
respecting tigers being collected in jungles for the
Prince' it shooting.
"Sunday, after service in the camp by the Rev.
Julian Robinson, in the absence of Canon Duckworth,
who has gone to Peshawur with Sir Bartle Frere, the
Prince of Wales crossed the Sarda to a new camp at
the other side, and made his entry into Nepaul."

awful. Men and women were groaning, children
shrieking, and the gasps and gurgling sounds showed
that some were being trampled and smothered to death.
Several men from the street coming in to help, they
pulled out all they could, but the crowd seemed to
pile up as fast as they worked. There were at
least 150 people piled up in this way, with the crowd
behind rushing and pushing, but unable to remove
the obstruct;on. Two stalwart policemen broke into
the ticket office and in this way managed to get round
the obstruction, and by fighting their way through the
people, got to the inner doors and thrust the crowd
back into the house. This removed the pressure and
enabled the few in the vestibule who were not crazed
with fear to rescue the others. Had it not been for
tills the loss of life would have been much greater.
The vestibule was then cleared of the living and the
dead, and the crowd got to passing out in something
like Qrder. They found, however, a jammed street,
for the alarm, which had quickly spread, had brought
large numbers from all parts of Cincinnati. A strong
force of policemen had to be put on guard to keep any-
thing like order and to prevent the outsiders from
rushing into the building to ascertain the fate
of their friends inside. The crowds lingered
in the neighbourhood until late at night. There
were nine persons killed outright in this dis-
aster, five of them being cli'ldren ; seven others
were badly hurt, two having since died. There were at
least thirty more or less seriously injured. One lady
died in her seat from heart disease brought on by
fright. Another lady, badly hurt, jumped from the
gallery into the parquette. A party of little children
were in the gallery, one of them a little girl. A com-
panion says of her that when the people began to run,
they had run too, and the little girl was trying to get
over the back of a seat, 'when a big man rushed right
over her and crushed her on the buck of the bench and
killed her there.' Terrible tales like this make up the
sad story of this disaster, which has seldom been ex-
ceeded in the peculiarity of its horrors."