The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-06-27
THE LAST HORROR.
ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS OF THE CATASTROPHE
IN A SYRACUSE CHURCH.

The telegraph has briefly informed us of the
falling in Of the the floor and roof of Baptist
church in Syracuse, n. T., during the cele-
bration on the evening of the 23d inst, of a
strawberry festival, at which about three hun
bred ladies and children We're present. By
the latest accounts, nineteen persons (all
young) were killed, and one hundred wound
ed, OF whom twenty are seriously injured:
At the moment Of the falling Of the floor,
the scene within the parlor was one of enjoy
ment. While all were pleasantly engaged
without single sign of warning, the floor
suddenly sank beneath them, and in an in
slant all We're buried in of struggling
humanity, internixed with falling timbers
furniture ETC., and in utter darkness, the gas
having been extinguished by the breaking of
the gas pipes An instant after the fearful
descent had been made all was silent as the
grave, but Immediately after heartrending APP
peals for help were to be heard from hundreds
OF those who We're in agony. Immediately
after persons were seen issuing from the doors
and windows which were smashed out by the
frightened people, and,an alarm was sounded.
The uninjured from within the church who
were able to free themselves from a mass be-
gan at once to assist in rescuing Others.
The tiremen and police were quickly at hand
and labored nobly in the rescue. The scene
within the building was terrible in its details
and that without the ediice heartrending in
deed. Fathers and mothers searching for
their children, husbands looking for wives,
wives inquiring for husbands, brothers for
sisters, and children for their parents of whose
fate all were uncertain and i'll dread. Quietly
but rapidly the work of extricating the people
was carried ON by the aid Of lanterns. As
fast as the living and dead were rescued, they
we're passed out through windows and doors,
where ready hands assisted to carry the dam
gerously injured and dead to physicians
offices and neighboring houses The excite
nent without the church was terrible, and as
each body was being carried to adjoining
houses, the mass surged back and FORTH all
terribly anxious to ascertain who it was, or
whether dead or alive At the height of the
excitement not less than ten thousand people
were crowded into Montgomery and Jefferson
streets and in adjoining premises.
Various theories of the cause of the acct
dent are advanced. The floor which fell was
suspended by iron rods from a wooden truss
under the roof These rods went through the
lower, but not through the upper chord of the
truss The lower chord had been spliced
wrong side up, and that point was the first to
give way. The floor, having no props be-
meath it, sunk in a form of the letter ''V."
Most of the deaths were caused by the fall
ing timbers of the truss; some, however, were
smothered by the plastering. The floors of
the church were supported originally by iron
pillars. A short time ago the church building
committee, with the consent, as they say, ofthe
removed the iron pillars The truss
was very imperfectly constructed, besides be-
ing spliced. The most prominent builders in
the city declared that it was rotten; that it was
put in green and has the dry rot.