The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-03-09

THESE men seemed helpless ana 10 nave iost tpeir
Wits for they were looking inside and doing nothing
10 help anybody. All OF them began shouting and hal
loo,ng aud made SO much noise that l could
not distinguish wha. they saying. rlnc.ng that
these men aere OF no use, pushed my way through
the crowd TO sec for myself As as got into the
ves.bule | saw pile OF people In the passage, all
jammed together The pile at least feet high,
and the unfortunate women were damned together
in al. OF ways. Here head.
there leg arm, and the whole mass strug.
Cling together. each trying to got out OF the crush
You must imagine how they looked. for they were
piled up every which way, as 1t might DO said, all
struggling and screaming. AS soon as got in some o:
The women my uniform and began crying OUT
''Oh Officer, mo- save me. Oh. God. save
usn'
AS entered the vestlbue some OF the crowd outside
pushed IN after me and hcnmed me right in 50 that
could scarcely move. Then saw an old woman in
the jam, and she grabbed me by the buttons OF my
coat and another seized me by the shield The drst
old lady died afterward. ! understand. As these
two women caught hold Of me. | managed TO get hold
OF two little girls and pulled them out OF the crush.
As | did so a by whom knew
living 10 Sixth avenue and shouted out TO him
to run up 10 tho station house and give the
alarm. ! Then raped tho door with my club
to give the people notice that policeman was on
hand, and got my messenger safely on the sidewalk,
and US d.d this ordered the men VINO were standing
idle TO help me to pull the people out Win the
help Of these men | got the Jam broken and
wo cleared that part OF the vcstibue We
pulled woman after woman out, and each
got hold Of We passed her out to the people on the
sidewalk. knew that oficer Dun was there so felt
easy about the women VIC got rid OF
them. Dun was seeing that the work out
size was being done properly. by the time
Captain Williams Sergeant Dou pass arrived with
mad the ves,ibuis clear but there
OF course, lots OF people inside the church, and
was glad enough when l saw tho Captain and
our men. AZ the vestDule clear and
before our reserve down, l went into the
church, the ground floor, and found two three
thousand women and children there shouted out
10 thom that everybody must keep their seats
and SAID that there fire aud DANGER
Tho priest who at tho altar heard
me- and also spoke TO tho congregation
and implored them to keep quiet. went up to him
and asked him to say that II anybody wanted to go
out they could do So but that only q few at n time
must RISE While he telling this to those
In front went back toward tho door, and
said the thing then went to the door and kept
tho sidewalk clear; just then the Captain and
took command. and the ambulance drove up; / was
busy at tho door alter that aud saw tho people dis
pcrsc.
OFFICER DrFF's STATEMENT
James DuG an officer Of tho Twenty -ninth precinct
gave tho following deails:-I was post in sixtceuth
street tho the panic occurred and had reached
the corner OF Broadway when heard iro engine
and on looking around saw It stop IN
front Of the church. Surprising that the building
on fire. aud knowing that the church full Of people
| l was much alarmed, so ran down the street
fast as possibly could, and asked what the
trouble was. No answered me, for
|
peope come rushing out OF tho church. then asked
was there fire, and then man near me said:--
NO. there's no fire. but there Is panic among tho
women Tor they hnk the church is fire."
| Finding that the church members wero being
frightened to death, l at first tried to go inside,
md as | did SO saw Oficer Rydcr's hat in the
| ycstibulo. Several caught hold OF me- and
asked me Tor Gods sake to give the women
some reei saw that there was no use In trying to
DO anything by myself, 80 called out 10 the TO
help OGcer Ryder and then ran up to the station
house and gavc sergeant Carpenter tho alarm. He
teleeraphed for ambuances, and started back the
church, and found that OF the women
| who had got jammed In tho passage were
being taken out. kept the crowd outside in
| order for~ few minutes, when one ras-svc
came running down and we got things In shape,
whom | got back l found that four dead bodies
had been taken into the livery stables
near by, and that had been taken to
tho drug store in Sixth avonue, while two others
| were lying tho sidewalk. Tho ambuIances come
soon after, and the dead bodies taken to tho
station house. II was an awful sight, and the coniu.
sion was great and terrible.
| SERGEANT DOUGLASS STATEMENT.
Sergeant Joseph Douglass, Of the Twenty ninth pre-
c,nct thus describes he II Il was in
the station house, here in Threth street. at twenty
minutes to nine o'clock, just getting ready to
90 ON my round Of patrol As stood
at the desk speaking Sergeant Carpenter who was
in charge officer Dun came rushing IN, all out OF
| b.cath and told that there was some sort
| of u panic ut tho Church OF 81. Francis Xavier
| IN sixteenth street, and that men, women and
| children wcrc being crushed and trampcd to dca; IT,
Just then u in, and, with white face, be-
gan telling the same story. Sergeant Carpenter at
once pulled tho alarm bell. and | 10
the stars that leads to the mems dormitory
aud shouted out to them to tumble out and assemble
The heard the bell and my shout, and
they tumbing down stars pell NEIL
In less than three minutes mad tho
whole iortynve the reserve under
arms, and | gave the word. Forward" As soon us
we reached tho street shouted, double quick !" and
away We went toward Sixth avenue. Just
then Captain Williams came up, and VIC
all ran down the avenue as fast as
own legs could carry The people on tho side walk
jumped aside as we came, and every face saw wore q
| look OF wonder. With the reserve had Roundsmen
Waterman, Murphy and Donovan. When we reach ed
sixteenth street 5000 1000 people gathered
IN the ncighborhood of the church. Captain Williams
and myself dashed through the crowd and began
| forming a regular lire line As tho
| in huo they pushed the people back clear OF
the church doors and drove the fast increasing
crowd away far back as sixth and Fifth avenues
The dead were then picked up and carried into the
stables aud tho drug store When the ambulanccs
came wo sent the dead TO the station house for
Identification should say right here that
while the crowd were being driven back I saw
twenty or thirty who were either lmping away
or we're being assisted by others II impossible
al iho xkod