The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-01-29 00:00:00

AWFUL CATASTROPHE IN LIVERPOOL.

Fir FEE N PERSONS TIMIPLED Ti) DE MI.
The mieslon" of the '-'Peaelontst lathe's" at St Joseph's
Rican Coliolfc Church, Orneveno••street. Liverpool, which
'wino on the not autiliey of the ye .r and was concluded last
Sunday night, terminated in a nage. y as grim and awful in
Its nod., as any ever recorded by the newspaper chronicler.
Great efforts had been made to render the" minion" a sue-
cess, and immense crowds,,! eager pars ns—men, women,
and children responded ti the I &red "extraordinary
grace," and Sunday n'ghts the congregations have been
ex. eading'y large, numbering from 2,000 to 3 OCO Persons
In several instaloses the attendence has been so great that
extra nerving have been held In the schoolroom under the
chapel. Even with this add itt m the building was inadequate
to accomm da e ti,, milli ivies seeking adminion, and hun-
dreds were turned back. The church is situate In a locality
noted alike for its overcrowded and en lona character. It la
computed that the Roman Catholic population of St.
Joseph's parish number* 17,000, the large proportion of
whom belong to the lowest class if society. Among this
dense man the mission seems to have exercised a great
power ; Indeed, it Is regarded by the fathers as one of the
most successful ever held In the town. Sunday being the last
day, says the Lieeeto.l Ceierier, the congregations were all
enormongly bog, in the efternonn some 3,,b0 Fdldren
were gathered together In the chapel. But the prawn° was
greater than aver on the opening of the doors at half-past Rix
on Sunday night, and alter the chspel bad been crammed to
its utniost twitchy part of the over/I,w was admitted into
the schoolroom, where the service was conducted by the
R-v. Alphonsue O'Neil,' one of the father;; Father Raphael
ea mating lathe chapel.
The sides of the building run parallel With Grosvenor.
street. Ills a plain, unpretentious, brick structure, ordi-
molly intended to accommodme &Dont 2,00 persons The
Central portion of the body .1 th- chs pet I. 'n-wed, but there
te alvo stand inz room I. t several htindiede outer the three
galleries, which run round the 51.1a5 and the west end.
Underneath the chapel is the schoolroom, which will hold
from 600 to STO persons. There are only two modes of
Ingress or egress, one at the northern and the other at the
southern end, and both fronting Grosvenor-street. The
youth doorway is the larger of the two but neither
is notch larger than the dimenvions of an ordinary
house tloid, It was at the north entrance where the
te Hide struggle for life took place, and as showing
the defective conitruetfon, it is necessary to be more ruin lite
II Its description. On entering the dlewway there is a small
ending, only three or fur yards sunsre, immediately to the
right of wh ch the vivitor descends by four or five steps Into
the echoolroom, the chapel being reached by an ascent of six
steps front the same landing. Titus in the event of any mid-
den rush out of the building the contending streams toot the
chapel and schoolroom would have to fight their way over a ,
narrow space, in which probably not more than three persons ,
could ordinarily walk abreast, and this was what actually
octowred.

al Idle the service In the schoolroom was progressing
about half-past seven, a drunken man, who hod staggered
Into the place, shouted out to the preacher, .• I hare lii.
tamed to you long enough." Thisi ',decent interruption
was immediately followed by cries of Turn him out
One or two persons rise from their seats apparently for
that purpose ; the service was stopped, the confusion rapidly
grew worse, • crash of glen was heard at the lower end of
the room, nearest the door, followed by the screaming of
children, and when the excitement was at its height the
cry of °Fire" was raised by moue one. Then there ape,
screams from every part of the room, accompanied by •
terrible scramble by those nearest the stairs to get out. The
alarni rapidly extended to the occupants of the chapel, both
to the lo 401 the Mititling SIA the galleries, and in a mm-nt
the wildest excitement sueneded the religions fervour pre-
aliinly prevailing. A terrific rush tele piece, and in !teatime
than It takes to tell the sad story at le-sat fifteen people were
thrown down on the stain and lauding and trampled to
death Many others have received serious injuries. The
Rev. Father O'llonovan one of the resident priesta'. who
fortunately was standing near the open door, immediately
put forth the mrat strenuous talons to stop the frightful
panic. In the chapel, finding his exhortations to the
People to be of comparatively little avail, Father staiihael
a via out the hymn commencing Jesus, my God," the
• ii.ing of which was specoily joi .ed in by the congregation.
and tel ded greatly to restore order. All the Lichen and
priests in the chapel, about • dozen in number exerted them-
selves to the utmost to keep the people in their places, other-
se6e tbe loss of life noun have been fearfully aggravated.
Both in the schoolrmon and chapel the service went on,
priests slot reople (icing mostly ignorant i.l the fatal character
which the panic had assumed. It is supposed that the rush
from the building tmak place about • wiener te eight o'clm it.
News of the catastrophe almost immediately reached the
Rose-hill Police-station, dtatent only a couple of hundred
yards. it being stated that • false alarm of lire had leen given
in ihe chapel. The superintendents of police and other
authorities were immediately telegraphed for. Superinten-
dent Hammond art ived in • few minutes with a PO.< of con.
stalk's and dispatched messenger, for surgeona, and ordered
tile attendance of number of ears to take away the
wounded. In a abort period sixteen or seventeen poor
creatures were taken into the street dead or dying,
anot the heartrending ecreatns of the spectators. As
the bodies were brought out thee were taken to the Ron-hill
Station, and shortly 15 were laid on the It nr in whom life
Was prunouncei quite extinct. bloat were dead or insensible
on icing taken out of the chapel, but • few just 'oreathed.
Most of them presented a perfec-ly pallid appearsn.e,
death evidently resulting from suffocation. lathe, had
diet apparently from internal injuries, which, of course,
hot loft no outward marks of silence The upper clothing
of one man hail been entirely torn off, and many were without
shoes Wilt st ceilings. The bodies were seemingly those of
persons of humble social position they were all poorly clad,
and the eh le of the women were without head-tress. Chief
miperinterident Roe and other °Biters of the constabulary
were nu the scene of the calamity very von after it happened,
and about nine ck the mayor, accemp inted by Major
Oren, also visited the spot, and rendered what assistance
they could to the resterati in of order and confidence, The
wounded were removed in cabs to the Northern llospital,
where their injuries were examined and attended to, The
strains were not completed till after nine o'clock, most of .
the people being tlp to that time in entire Ignorance of the
app Mims accident which had occurred. Immense crowds
bad In this time been attracted to the neighbourhood, re. •
pulling the constant exertions of a strong hotly of pollee to .
maintain order

ine theory of the origin of the alarm of fire Is, that the
eardies home by almost everyone of the congregation caused
an unusual binge of light In the building as to convey
the Impression to per,ons outelde that the edifice was in
fl imes. luther quarter, the burning incense is held Ile, ma-
aid- for the calamity.
At the dormouse, at the south end of the Prince's Met,
to which thirteen of the killed had been removed, there were
C utititsetly doting the night ecenes of the most heartrending
description. The 'exiles comprised those of nix men, six
0, men, :ind one Mrl. When they were placed In the dee '-
house several hundreds of people gathered ill front of the
buibbeg anti Inspector Kerrie and the constables had con.
snit rabic &faculty in maintaining something like order at !bet
Tie guts was kept closed, and snout half • dosen people were
solrni.ted at • time, and allowed to pasa in front of the bodies
wi.n • view to their identification With the exception co one
Man, none of the c,.rpses gave the slightest Intl cation of the
death etriggle in which the marortutiate decanted hat been
so • ly engased. With the single exception of this
woman, whom suffocation had turned black In the face, all
the deeessed at peered to be lit. phicid sleep, and in sonic
cases of identification it was .I.lllcult to ccevince relatites
ghat those lylrg before them were dead. In the case of a
g.rl named Winifred Connor, her brother, who identified her
b...1y, had some difgctilty in believing that she was not
asleep When the bodies were Identified, and the friends
Were bronght to e' reprehend their bereavement, there were
Boßie heartrending !Cell., many of the people berg extra.
v•gent in their demonstration, of grief, and their cries
being he .rd for • considerable distence
. . - . .

A.-the Northern Ibmpital flee pentium who had been lo-
wed etre received, namely, four men and one woman, the
latter tart, g abut twenty-one years or age. ally one of the
',Wats, a man named Brien, abut forty years of age, who
lives In Bent-street, was CODS riMIS. None 14 them had ens-
tabled fractures of the limbs, but ware suffering from the
shock and the affects of the crush. One of the men, aged
allow illy, and anther about twenty-one years of are are
stated to te the only two who are seriously injured, and the
cth•rs are progressing favourably
Ina building at which thia terrible calamity has occurred
was originally a tennis court, and was In I i',ol converted into
a place • t wnrship capable of accommodating 2,6 0 persons,
and called All 0 tints' Church. The fast minister was the
Rev. Robert Winoirer, whom Mr. ll•oighton had intended for
Christ Church, which was built in 1/9I A d %agreement, how-
ever, oectored between Mr. Houghton, tie Bishop of Chester,
and the Rev. Mr. Raider, which caused the latter to wa-
rtime the Grosvenor-street tennis Court, and he opened it as
*hose stated and ministered In it till shortly before his death,
which -oared •bont 10 years after. Tie bishop licensed
the edince In 1831, and the Hey. John Lyons officiated at it
for a number of yeas, and the Incumbency was sulmeouently
held by the Rev Mr. MlConkey. In the building waa
pure!, teed by the Woman Catholics, by whom it was dedicated
to a Joseph.
Another account says
-

When the space immediately in front of the church was
cleared, there commenced the dismal task of removing the
dead and injured I; win fearful to see the poor wretches,
with their pie and mangled faces, being carried by their
friends through the crowd to the police-station. On the
way they would he stopped by some relative, who, on recog
Milne in the dead some dear friend, would raise • touching
Co. of lamentat on. Women wIY, had sone or husbands lathe
Church knelt In the street, and in loud, wailing voices, prayed to
the Almighty end the saints for their safety. One prior woman
forced her way through the line of policemen, rushed to the
door of the church, and beeeechet those who were guarding
It to admit her. clasping her hands, she exclaims I, In terribly
bulling accents, "I), gentlemen, let me in ; My boy is
In•ite ; he'. an orphan he's my on'y h. 1p ; " and "ii, If be's
killed, what will I do ? • The to or woman was assured
that there was ack danger to be apprehended to those inside ;
hut she remained crying near the door tu.til the congrega-
tion were diepersed, when, to her delight, the boy came out
ed.
While this scene wu going on outside, the demeanour of
thee' nuegatlon within the church promoted a marked con-
trast to the excitement of the crowd In the street At the
Instil log of the priests the vast asseaddy, numben lig at least
2,14.f0, remained in the pews calm, and attentive to the cere-
mony. Front without c mld be heard the cries of the excited
multitude, while within the chapel the offlciatmg priest was
Impressing upon his hearers the lesson cootaio ed In the life
of OWe Lord. The whole of the service Wan conducted and
Completed without any hurry, and the congregation was
quietly dinnieud at a quarter to nine o'clock.
fhe neighbourhood of ttoseplams was iluring the whole of
aundu evening In • state of pall ful excitem. nt, occuloned
by the infinities of poor people after missing relatives,
squalled only by the agonising cries of the afflicted creatures
an, in the bine row of bodies laid upon the benches of the
death lye, Prince's tick, they discovered a father or
mother, a sister or brother. Up to midnight ten of the
thirteen bridle. deposited In the deadhouse had been identi-
fied. nhortly before one o'clock on Slooday morning it
was found necessary to close the dead house for the night.

The totsl number of lives lost Is now known to he fifteen,
and at the interment, which 10. k place on Wednesday, it is
stated that three thongs/id pemons were prment At the
ftineini servi, e the onimsting priest Paid the accident was
roused solely by the alsturbasce created by the drunken
inam