Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-06-18
A PANIC IN A PLAY HOUSE
NEARLY TWO HUNDRED CHILD.
REN CRUSHED TO DEATH.

A Little Ones Fall on a Narrow Stair
way Springs the Death Trap-Heart
rending Scenes which far Guido the
Horror on the Bridge-Widespreat
Indignation.
LONDON, June 16.-An accident from a
crush occurred at children's entertain.
ment at Sunderland, Eng, this evening
and one hundred and seventy-eight of the
children were killed.
From the details thus far received it an.
pears that an entertainment had been
given in Victoria Hall by a coniuror
which was attended altogether by chill
dren, to the nuuber of several thousand
The accident occurred at the close of the
performance. The body of the hall had
been entirely cleared of it's occupants
when some 1,200 of the little ones came
rushing down the stairs from the gallery.
At the top of the first flight of stairs there
was door which opened only twenty
inches, and thus but one child could pass
through at a time.
AT this point while the mass OF children
were pushing forward one of them tell
and was unable to rise, OwiAg to the
others crowding upon it. The result was
that great number We're pushed down,
trampled ON and suffocated. %fSe scene
was terrible, and no effort could
stop the mad rush of affrighted child
ren. They came on pell nell,
though strangely quiet, without much
shouting. The bodies which were badly
mangled from .trampling, lay seven or
eight deep. Many of the victims and
others who were not killed, had their
clothing torn from their bodies. The ages
of 1IS children known to have been killed.
range from to IA.
The excitement in the town when the
news of the disaster spread was terrific.
Great crowds of people rushed to the
scene till at least 10000 persons sur
rounded the hall. The feeling was so in
tense that the authorities ordered out the
Sixth Infantry to preserve order. The
work of getting out the bodies of
the victims was begun Immediately
They were laid out in the hail. and the
parents of those killed were admitted for
the purpose of Identifying the bodies of
tho children. The most heartrending
scenes transpired while the work of iden-
tificatiOn was in progress.
A number of deaths have occurred since
the first report, and the fatal list is now
placed at 1856. One of the persons who
responded Immediately to the call for
help says that many who volunteered to
assist in rescuing the children sickened
at the spectacle and fled Mortified from
the distressing scenes. The rescuers first
efforts were directed toward reaching the
children who were apparently alive. but
so tightly were the victims jammed to-
gether that it was regarded as dangerous
to drag them out of the helpless mass lest
the effort should result in pulling off the
limbs of the living children as well as
mutilating the dead. They therefore pro-
ceeded steadily and Systematically
to lift off the tOpmost. A
few of those who were beneath had sur
vived, and their meanings and low cries
of pain could be distinctly heard amid
the excitement and the cries of the be-
reaved parents and friends who were
thrOnging the adjacent streets. The dis
aster was referred to in all the churches
in Sunderland to-day, and by many of
the preachers in London, and prayers
were offered for the parents and friends
of the victims.
EONDON, June 1.-THE terrible calam-
ity that occurred Saturday evening in
Victoria Hall, at Sunderland, is the sub
ject Of universal comment The hall has
been surrounded to-day by distressed and
excited crowds. The stairway from the
gallery at the top landing, on which Oc-
CURED the pressure which led to the acci-
dent, was from five to six feet wide,
and the gallery door through
which the children were allowed to pass
only one at time, which circumstance
is regarded as the direct cause of the ca
lamity, was filled with bolt which lodged
in hole in the floor, thus narrowing the
passageway for the purpose of facilitating
exit.
The janitor says that the scene behind
the gallery door was fearful. Some of the
children were fixed upright in the heap,
and actually gasping for breath, so great
was the pressure of the crowd behind
them. The majority of the children in the
hall were under II years of age.
When the accident happened the ijanitor
and his wife, and several hastily sum-
mOned bystanders, went to work imme-
diately to give the sufferers relief. They
first sent out of the building
by other exit was the little ones
who were still in the hall,
by this means averting fears of further
crush. Those who went to the rescue of
the unfortunate sufferers found the work of
removing the heap of bruised, crushed
and sutfOcated bodies no easy task. Two
hundred children were rescued from
pile, none of whom were seriously, if at all,
injured. Many others were found
in unconscious conditions, but of these a
number were restored and Immediately
taken to their homes. Nearly all of those
who were dead, with number
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
fiag-stones short distance from the bot
tom of the stairs, the dead bodies af seven
children. Many of those who came to as
sist in removing the dead and rescuing
the living, were utterly overcome by the
depressing sight of so many dead and
1xyi,, al;