Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1883-06-02
Similar Caldnities Likely to Occur
At Aay Time.

| lives. The narrOWneSS of the foOtWay
for passengers was the cause. About
4 O'Clock II long line of people foot
were on the center walk, going from
and coming to this city. The crowd
thickened, swelled and stopped in its
motion just at the stairway leading up
from the concrete roadway proper.
Strong men and feeble women, man.
hood and infancy, were wedged to-
gether in that jam by the fearful pres
sure of the crowd which extended
miles, one might say, on either side of
the line. 1t was a
REMoRS ELESs, FEARFlL, STUPID
force that held it's victims us the
stone foundations of the bridge itself.
The stOppage lasted nearly an hour
during which time scores of people
tainted. Torelieve the jam the bridge
officials removed some of the iron pa
ling few feet from the stairway on
the New York side. when, of course,
those unfortunate enough to he near
the opening, weak and f;linting at the
death as they were, Immediately fell
heller SHELTER, heels over head, down
Oh the jagged, gravelly road-a mass
of bruised, discOlored human flesh.
Scores were trampled upon instantly.
and to stumble was death. Men were
dragged out of that heap of helpless
humanity vito faces us blue as indigo,
and the life blood trickling out of their
nostrils, and children and women pale,
disheveled and dead. The roadway
on either side of the walk was
sTREwED WITH TIE DEAD
and dying-a pitiable sight, and yet,
it is said, no effort was made by the
bridge officials to stop the people COM
on the bridge. The dead or dying
were carried off in wagons, carts, etc.,
improvised for the service, and was a
long time before the police arrived and
anything like order restoed or ambu-
lanees appeared. Meanwhile teams
were rushing both ways a full gallop
oyer the roadways, threatening the
limbs and lives of those on foot who
were attempting to assist the unfortu-
nate victims. police shouting them
selves hOarse with Clear the way!'
wagons rafting over the rough stones,
men and women crying in all direc-
lions. made it a bedlam indeed. A
party of men in uniform did yeoman
service on the spot as volunteer police
to check the vulgar and the curious.
STATEMENTS OF EYE-WITNEssES
Il was walking along the bridge to-
wards the New York entrance" said
a man who held a young girl, was
crying bitterly, by the hands, when
/ heard shouting and screaming sud-
denly arise in front of me. Then /
saw hats. sticks and hands stretched
aloft, and with one scream the whole
dense mass surged and swayed to-
wards the gates. [ supposed they |
thought the bridge was coming down;
anyway they fought and screamed |
like demons. Children and women
were knocked down and trampled upon
and / was borne irresistibly out of the
entrance. There l found this little
girl who had lost her friends. and here
we are-safe, thank God The little |
girl, between her sobs, said her name |
was Flora Davies. % Lewis street..
81 went on the bridge" said Charles
Blight, SO Third street, Brooklyn, lat
about o'clock, and as l was approach
ing the river span found myself unable
W IlONC ClthCl UdCh " dIu VI 1Ol w ulu.-
Women and children commenced scream
ing, hundreds of men climbed with great
difficulty onto the beams running over
the railroads and made their way to the
carriage way. Many let themselves drop
through between the beams and were
caught by those beneath. A number of
women also escaped in this way. es-
capped in this way myself The police
and others helped to pull out the dead
and dying, and they ' ere laid on the
until ambulances came. The
shrieks of children on the pathway were
blood curdling. They cried, Help Save
me for Gods sake! but where we were
we could do nothing"
Universal comment this morning re-
Specting the bridge horror, is that the
same accident is liable to happen at any
lime, no matter what the police restric-
ions may be, unless the steps are abol-
shed, or at least divided for the two
streams of pedestrians. The superinten-
lent of the bridge, Martin, makes the
SIdICillCuI. uC lOoG !
PASS is certainly no safe place for such
crowds as pass over the bridge. 1t was
lot intended to accommodate any such
ravel as we are having. AS to the steps
had been decided to put railing up
md down the middle to divide the people
,oing one way from those going the other.
The railing would have been carried up
he same way beyond the top of the steps.
IF course we should carry it probably IA
hundred feet along. This was one of the
lterations we had already determined
Ipon, and is to be made at once. Then
We are going to place side ratings on the
teps a little further back. Some space
5 now. lost by them. Some further back
etwecn the cables, we can widen the
assage by placing the rails further apart |
nd against the cables. and this Is to be
one." .