The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1883-06-20
THE SUNDERLAND HORROR.

The Number of Killed Swelied to tSG-rhe
Fatal Stairway-Rescuing the Little Ones
The JanitOr's Statement.
LONDON, June 1.-THE terrible calamity
Saturday evening is the subject of universal
comment. The hall has been surrounded to-
day by distressed snd excited crowds. The
stairway from the gallery at the top of the
landing where occurred the pressure which
led to the accident, was from five to SIX feet
wide, and the gallery door through which
the children were allowed to pass only one
at a time, which circumstance is regarded ss
the direct cause of the calamity, was fitted
with belt which lodged in q hole in the
floor, thus narrowing tae psss2gsway for the
purpose of facilitating ticket taking when
the audience was entering the hall. The
janitor says the scene behind the gallery
door was fearful. Some children were fixed
upright in d heap and actually gasping for
breath so great was the pressure OF the
crowd behind them. A majority of chill
dren IN the hall were snder twelve years of
age.
When the disaster happened, the janitor
AZ d wife and several hsstily-summoned by
stenders went to work Immediately TO give
the sufferers relief They first sent out OF
the buildiEg by other exit-ways the little
ones who we're still in the hall, by this means
avertiDg fears of further crush.
Those who vent to the rescue OF the suf-
feTers found the work of removing the heap
of bruised, crushed and suffsrenng bodies
no easy tack. Two hundred children were
rescued from the pile who were practically
uninjured. Many others were found in an
unconscious condition, but of these a num-
Der were restored and Immediately taken 70
their homes. Nearly all those who were
dead, with the number whose wounds were
regarded az fatal, were laid out in the main
hall. where tie local doctors in attendance
used every effort to restore those in
whom q spark of life could De detected.
One eyewitness states that be saw lying on
TIE fsgstones short distance from the bot
tom of the stairs the dead bodies of seven
children. Many of those who came to assist
in removing the dead and rescuing the living
were utterly overcome by the distressing
sight of so many dead and dying children.
A number of deaths have occurred since
the first report, and the fatal list is now
placed at 1S6.
One of the persons who responded imme-
diately to the call for help says many who
volunteered to assist in rescuing the children
sickened at the spectacle and fed hOrrifed
from the distressing scene. TIE rescuers'
first efforts were directed toward reaching
the children who were apparently alive. but
so tightly were the victims jammed together
that il was regarded as dangerous to draw
them out of the helpless mass lest the effort
would result in pulling off limbs of living
children as well as mutilated dead. They
therefore proceeded steadily and systemsti
cally 20 lift of the topmost. A few of tho5e
who were beneath had survived, and their
meanings and cries Of pain could be dis
tinctly heard amid the excitement and cries
Of bereaved parents and friends who were
tbronging the adjacent streets.
The disaster was referred TO in all Churches
in Sunderland to-day, ana by many Of the
p7tscheIs in London, and prayers we're
offered for the parents and friends of the
victims
The staircase from the gale ~ was a wind