Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-01-12
THE DISASTER AT LAWRENCE.
Additional Particular

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tional particulars of the terrible disaster at
Lawrence, which has moved everybody, wher-
ever the news has been circulated. In Boston
it affected the ordinary course of business, and
was almost the only topic that could get atten-
ton. The feeling, here, was profound and ao-
sorbing; and SO it was everywhere,
WHAT CAUSED THE DISASTER.
1t is said that the foundations of the building
we're insecure that the walls, originally
weak, had been made weaker by cutting them
for new windows; and that, lately, the struc-
ture has been made to carry heavier load OF
machinery and operatives than ever before.
The Courier's reporter says:
"The foundation appears to have settled last
week when the frost was coming out OF the
ground as workmen were engaged In placing
supporters under it. One Of the operatives
named Margaret Hamilton, who was fatally
injured at the falling, stated, after she was ia
ken to the City Hall, that one OF the men en-
gagged in the building told her on Monday that
the mills were unsafe, as the foundation was
giving way The building was constructed In
such manner as to admit as much hight as
possible for the use of tho operatives, and III
SN0SN~~--N-N-
The Journals reporter says
zone man, mason, said he had long be-
ieved the building unsafe. Another learns
that the building was pronounced unsafe by
the architect, and that afterwards additional
windows had been made in the walls, danger
ously weakening them. Others pronounced
the building unsafe, and now place in the same
class other factories in Lawrence. 1t is I'M
derstood that the inquest will be thorough and
searching, and it is to be hoped that at so
fearful an expense valuable lesson will be
learned"
The Pemberton Mill was erected about seven
years ago, and cost over 100000, the princi-
pal owners being John Lowell, S. R. Putnam,
Lawrence, Stone, & Co., and others. After
the failure of Lawrence, Stone, & Co., it was
sold to George Howe and David Nevens for
S325000. They have owned it between two
and three years. 1t was $50 feet long by 70
feet wide, with an L As feet square on the west
side. 1t ran $1,000 spndles, and employed
$50 operatives. About half of the operatives
were Irish and German, and the rest Ameri-
can. A majority of them were females
THE FALL OF THE MILL DESCRIBED.
The most graphic description of the fall of
the building was given by one of the opera
tives to the Couriers reporter: cry to
imagine a building, two hundred and eighty
feet in length, seventy feet in width, having
height of five stories, suddenly falling-as one
of the workmen said, Just in the place where
it stood, fiat in its own tracks, neither falling
out nor falling in, but right down." A por.
ton of the operatives were at supper; but it
is certain that nearly 700 persons were in the
factory at the time. One of them, John Ward,
who was on the second floor, in the card
room, gives the following account of his ex-
perience of the disaster. We find it in the
Traveller =:
81 was in the carding room with the second
overseer, lighting up. 1t was five or ten min
utes before five o'clock, and we had got but
few burners lighted Suddenly, l heard
noise-it sounded like a loud, laundering
crash over my head, and looking up, saw the
shafting coming down upon us, all over the
ROOM could not account for it, and was ter
riied stood nailed to the spot, and could
not seem to have power to move, although |
knew the building was coming on me. Then
! heard the overseer shout, and tried to Jump
out of the rubbish, but something struck me,
and was thrown senseless.
did not remain so long, but when l came
to, found myself buried in the rubbish, and
didn't expect to get out alive. ] was all COW
cred overwith blood, from wounds on my face.
finally crawled up, and got to the top, and
found lot of ruins hanging over me, which
like to have taken my life. But succeeded
in getting out. passed by dead girl on my
way, and two other mangled bodies before l
got out. When | was first knocked down, l
fell beneath large grinding stone, which was
too heavy to give way to the weight above,
and this saved my life. When l fell under
there saw the walls over me all falling, and
the floor giving way all around me"
Ward found his wife at the City Hall, where
she had been conveyed, after being extricated,
and neither were much injured. Both were
at work in the mill. Here is another incident
as related in the Journal
"Miss Olive Bridges, of Calais, Me-, who
worked in the fifth story, seized the hosting
chain of the elevator, and went safely down
five stories to the ground, and escaped from
the building without injury. Through the
whole night she was at the City Hail. passing
like an angel of mercy among the couches of
the sufferers, anticipating every want, reliev-
ing every pain, and breathing words of COM
fort and consolation to the wounded and dy-
dying"
All the goods, stock and machinery are de.
stroyed with the mill, and even the books were
not saved, such was the suddenness of the
alarm, and the excitement it occasioned.
NUMBER OF THE KILLED AND WOUNDED.
There were nearly 700 persons in the build
ing, and there is nothing to show that half of
them had haen accountad for ,osto.d,u
few escaped. Some had been recovered either
dead or wounded. But more than half Of
them may have been still in the ruins. A let
letter in the Courier last evening, said:
LAWRENCE, Wednesday Noon.
Those who are best qualified to give an esti-
mate of the number killed, differ widely in
their suggestions as to the number of those
who were buried beneath the ruins. Men are
now at work canvassing the city to ascertain
what operatives are missing from their homes
When this canvass is completed, a very nearly
correct list of the killed and wounded will be
obtained. The number of killed is varously
estimated at from 100 to 500, but no definite
information can be obtained until the result of
the canvassing is made known. The canvass
will probably be completed today. The pay
roll is locked up in the safe of the building and
cannot be got at at present, so that the aid it
might afford in compiling list of the missing,
is lost.
The whole population of Lawrence appear
70 be out of doors this morning surrounding
the smoking ruins of the mill or in the streets
adjacent to the City Hail. in which the dead
bodies are temporarily laid. A general gloom
pervaaes all classes of the community. None
OF the mills are in operation. and no business
is doing.
The fire engines are still playing upon the