Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-06-22
HUNDREDS OF LITTLE CHILDREN
CRUSHED,
End Ofa COnjurcr's Entertainment ut
Sunderland, England.

End ola COnjurcr's Entertainment ut
sunderland. England.
LONDON, June 17.-At the conclusion of
the chldrcn's conjuring entertainment in
| Victoria Hall at Sunderland yesterday after
| noon, terrible calamity occurred. The
gallery exit became jammed midway on the
stairs and hundreds OF children seeking egress
became panic stricken and made rush which
threw those before them down in heaps eight
feet deep rear the foot of the flight. The
crowd following crushed and tramplcd those
ahead 20 death. The dead thus fur number
1888 and about an equal number have been
injured in serious ways.
Victoria Hall has been surround
ed to day by distressed and excited
crowds. The stairway, from the gallery at
the top landing Of which occurred the pres
sure which led to the accident, was from five
to six feet wide and through the gallery door
the children were allowed to pass only one at
time, which circumstance is regarded as the
direct cause of the calamity. The door was
fitted with Il bolt which lodged in hole in
the floor, thus narrowing the passage way for
tn, purpose of facilitating ticket-taking
WHEN the audience was entering the hall
The janitor says the scene behind the gal
lery door was fearful. Some of the children
were fixed upright in a heap and actually
gasplDg for breath, SO great was the pressure
OF the crowd behind them, The majority of
the children IN the hall were under l2 years
of age. When the disaster happened the
janitor and wife and several hastily summon
ed bystanders went to work Immediately to
give the sufferers relief. They first sent out
of the building by another exit the little ones
who were still in the hail. by this means
| avcrting tie fears of further crush. Those
who went TO rescue the unfortunate sufferers
found the work of removing the heap of
bruised, crushed and suiTocated bodies no
| easy task. wohundrcd children were rescued
| from the pile who were practically uniniurcd.
Many others were found in an unconscious
condition, but of these number were re-
| stored and Immediately taken TO their homes.
| Nearly all those who were dead, with num-
Der whose wounds were regarded as fatal,
were laid out in the main hall, where the
| local doctors in attendance used every effort
| to restore those in whom a spark OF life could
| be detected One eye witness states that he
saw lying on the flag stones short distance
from the bottom of the stairs the dead bodies
| of seven children.
One Of the persons who responded immc-
diately to the call for help says many who
volunteered to assist in rescuing the children
sickcned at the spectacle and fled, Mortified,
from the distressing scene. The rescuers'
first efforts were directed towards reaching
the children who were apparently alive, but
so tightly were the victims jammed together
that it was regarded as dangerous to drag
them out of the helpless mass, lest the effort
should result in pulling of the limbs of
living children as well as mutlating the
dead. They therefore proceeded steadily
and Systematically to lift of the topmost. A
few of those who were beneath had survived,
and their meanings and low cries of pair
could be distinctly heard amid the excite
| mont md prips oF tho hnrpavp1 parpDts and
| friends who were thronging the adjacent
streets.
The disaster was referred to in all thu
4 churches in Sunderland today and by many
of the preachers in London, and prayers wer'
a offered for the parents and friends of the vic
Tins.
4 Both the audience and officials who wer'
| IN the hall at the time Of the disaster wer
+ unaware for some considerable time of tn
d terrible tragedy that was being enacted at tn
;, door. They were not Informed un
G til Graham Hall, keeper, who wa
= sroling near by the scene OF til
d calamity was attracted by the groans an
gave the alarm. Fay who gave the entertain
ment was busy in packing up his apparatu
to depart when man rushed up and inform
ed him of the disaster and Immediately fel
down speeches. in fit. Some OF the fam
10 lies whose homes were so suddenly darkene
lOSt over three cnluren.
e. One man and his wife pushed their wa
W into the hall in which lay the bodies of til
Y, victims and without betraying any cmotio
4 began to scan the faces of the dead. Reco.
&c nizing the face of one of his children III
a father pointing with his finger exclaimed
IN "Thars one" Passing on again he reco!
to nized another and then third. Staggcrr
g. in fit Of agony he cried, MY God, all m
at children gone" AID overwhelmed with gri
r. sank to the floor. In some homes there we
en- five children dead.
he One Sunday school loses thirty scholars
it. the catastrophe. Many of the survivors hi
OF their arms broken in the crush. Others a
I'D suffering from broken ribs or rupture OF Il
ho internal organs. Graham Hall, the keept
ed says children who were not 20 yards fro
OF the door came pressing forward unaware
re the tragedy, thus making matters ten tim
nd worse than before.
The scene inside the hall during the idle
tifcation of the bodies battles description, al
was painful in the extreme The faces
the dead children were almost in every ca
let black and swollen from suirocation fro
nr which many died. Lips were cracked IA
parchcd and noses bleeding, and parel
-ge rushing wildly about would fall upon
in bodies of their children and with loud wa
y a ing and weeping clasp the unconscious forl
aid in their arms, vainly endeavoring TO note a
his sign of life. Many poor mothers swoon
not away at the first sight of the dead, VIII
nat others were wild and almost violent In hl
Inc tcrcal grief. The act of removing the de
ion from the hall today was the occasion for
W. newed lamentation and confusion.
to One of the witnesses OF the calamity stat
~. to day that for the first five minutes of
Try accident there was great lack of assistant
ct. and from this cause alone there were certa
ua Iu n hnn1rnl
in warm and the passageway very Close so il
ing short time after the catastrophe horri
nts sickening stencil came from the pile
he corpses. The latest reports tonight figl
md up 1888 dead, and gravest fears are felt Il
lld the number will yet be shown to have rea'
ys, ed at least 200.