The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-11

the circular boxes, as he was In the act OF
escaping from the workshop, aud was found
dead jammed against the staircase q manner
still clenched in his right hand.
Mary Anne FearOn, little girl, one OF the C
leaders OF the ballet, who was on tue THURSDAY
night TO have peTfore1 crr.bea N a1d Se booS
almost severed in two Pentod, The door.Seeper
la superannuated clerk in the London Docks),
made desperate attempt to escape. His body
was found on the steps, with the head towards
the street. and the legs up yard.
The wall that fell in Wells street destroyed
two houses opposite public house, and
bakers, and IL also crushed passing dray and
two horses from Elliotps brewery. A gentleman
passing had q mass OF ruins fall on one of his
legs; but by a tremendous muscular effort,
drew out his foot, and left his boot behind.
poor old clothes man, named Levi, from Petit
coat Lane was reading playful on an opposite
wall and was crushed by the falling ruins. His
friends could only identity his body by the Table
OF Laws (a sort of Jewish talsman) which was
found attached to his breast next his skin. The
unhappy wife of this poor man became insane
from grief.
dent, and about twenty more were hurt and
wounded. The street rumor at first was that
one hundred performers had perished besides
one hundred spectators in the pit Had the
house fallen on the opening night, some three
thousand persons must have been slain.
Soon after this terrible affair happened,
party of laborers were sent by Mr.. HardWlck,
the architect, then constructing the 81. Cathe-
rine Docks, and he himself superintended their
jealous labors. They gradually cleared away
the immense mountain of bricks and broken
timber beneath which the sufferers cries could
still be heard at intervals. Towards night the
men became so exhausted that they had TO
discontinue their search, in spite of the
tears and entreaties of persons in the crowd
whose relations were still missing.
AT last, brave sailor thinking he heard some
one moaning III a specially dangerous part, pro-
cured a torch, forced an opening, and let him.
self down into the chasm. There was deep
solemn silence enforced during
rous search; but he found nothing. On Friday
more bodies were dug out; on Saturday the Dig
ging was relinquished; MI Hardwick himself
having searched the vaults beneath the orches-
ira, PIT, and stage. The ruin was singular in
appearance.
The boards of the stage pit, and stage boxes,
were cracked into pieces, and formed a sort of
rude arch. The iron roof lay like network
over the centre of the mass, and had entangled
itself with the timber. 1t was especially noticed
by the crowd that the walls were tall and slight,
and that the mortar, not yet dry, had scarcely
left q mark upon the bricks. The place was
visited on Friday by vast crowds, including the
Duke Of Argyle and many persons of distinction,
on whom the plckpockets made great havoc.
One Jew boy was heard to boast that he had
made forty handkerChieis that day.
The inquest on the bodies was held at the
Courthouse, in WellClOse Square, before ME-.
Maurice Thomas, the Coroner.
The evidence all went 10 prove the strange
iniatuatiOn with which the proprietors bliudlY
eager for reimbursement, had hurried forward
veyor, the architect, all knew that the roof was
settling down. The property man was so sure
of it that he had determined to quit the
theatre. A gentleman who came to the play
on the Tuesday, and found that the box-door
would not shut suspected danger, and left the
theatre. Another person, on seeing the front
wall bulge on the Tuesday, would not enter, bat
returned home. Only ON the Monday, the prin-
cipal carpenter OF Drury Lane Theatre bad pro-
nounced that the walls were not strong enough,
or the cement dry enough, TO support an iron
root weighing with its adjuncts, sixty tons.
The inquest continued till the first week in
April. The evidence of all the witnesses was
characterized by reCriminatons, pitiful eva
s9R snq 10 sa91 assh9ed The 9rchec @ @ was
pIletors; the surviving proprietor was desirOus
TO prove that he had never been properly
warned; the builders tried to convince the jury
that they had built the place firmly and well.
The Contradictions we're sometimes palpabe,
as when Mr. WhitWell declared he had never
been warned of the danger, whereas he him
self actually gave in evidence that he had been
up in the flies on the Monday night TO examine the
cause OF their sinking. Mr.. Carruthers, too, was
so nervously anxious about the flies, that he had
ordered them to be propped, aud yet had had no
surveyor to advise him as TO the safety Of the
roof.
The eventual verdict was, Accidental death
by the fall of the roof of the Brunswick Theatre,
which was ocCasioned in consequence of hang
ing heavy weights thereto; and the jdry are of
opinion that the propretors are highly repre-
hensible in allowing such weight 10 be so
tached. And we fine, i'll each OF the two cases,
a deodand OF forty shiIngs.n
A scientific writer of the day, reviewing the
causes of this accident says it was very
hazardous experiment to construct walls eighty
eight feet high, aud one hundred and seventeen
feet in length, unsupported by transverse ties,
and only two and half bricks in thickness.
During the building OF these walls, their Vibra.
tion, and that Of the scatfolding, had been so
great, that tie beams had to be thrown across
the building from wall to wall to keep them
steady. These ties, when the roof was laid on,
were sawn away, leaving q clear parslleogram
one hundred and seventeen feet by siXty-two
feet. II must be remembered, too in eXtenua-
were little used in 1928. Mr.. Carrdthers had
never seen one at all till Mr.. WhitWell had taken
him down to the Deptford Gas Works, and
showed him one, and there told him that, if the
building were ever burnt down, the roof would
be worth tWo.thirds of its original price. Some
years before an iron roof at Messrs. Naudsley's,
in the Westminster road, had broken down the
building, and this should have been a warning
| well known to Mr.. Whitwell as an architect :
This terrible accident occupied the public
mind so entirely, that for some time II etfaced
even the controversy as to the Justice or injus-
tice of the then recent battle of Navsrno. The
survivors published pamphlets, and poem was
| discovered passage in Tacitus which described
and IN which nifty thousand persons were either
! killed or maimed
|
Steel Rails for Railroads.
| II is now generally believed that at no distant
nf iTpT, 10