The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-06-01

til l was stopped by men who were climb
ing up from the footpath and letting
themselves down to the cross-ties of the rail-
raid track 1 dropped down, too, and ran
along the ties to the anchorage calling to
all the workmen | could see to follow me
and help tear up the railing. When | struck
the hard bed of the anchorage the crowd on
the steps was jammed tight Up to that time
nobody had been seriously hurt, only few
persons had been crushed against the railing
and tops OF the trusseS. Nick Mockler car
penter picked up hammer and with few
blows broke the light bolts that held the iron
railing on che north side of the concrete
walk, and another of my men (whom l don't
know did the same at the railing on the
south side and the lengths were down in an
instant. The crowd began to push through
the narrow space and jump from the
walk to the bed of the railroad before we
could get planks- for them to walk
on. All the while men and boys were
dropping like flies from the top of
the truss to the railroad and walking or
running along the ties or crossing over to
the carriage roadway. 1t was dangerous
business for them, for u misstep would have
cost them their lives. They would have
fallen through to the street below. We
finally pulled some planks from each road
bed to the edge of the anchorage and put
them across from the edge of the concrete
walk to the top of the granite wall that di-
vides the roadway from the railway At first
we had only two planks on each side, and we
feared every minute that they would break,
the weight was so great Fully 500 persons
escaped from the crush before anybody was
trampled on. Hundreds of men were crying,
Keep back! Don't crush too much' but l
never saw people act with so little Judgment.
After the first woman fell on the steps and
was trampled on, women and children began
to shrek, and you could hear men swearing
and crushing. Nobody would give way. l
climbed to the chord and again shouted For
Gods sake, keep back; people are dying un-
der FOOT and hundreds took up the cry, but
it seemed as if matters grew worse How many
were knocked down and trampled on don't
pretend to know but it was packed solid
with bodies. Most of those in the crush
were grown persons. l did not see more than
three children at the stairs. There was one
man among them VINO was perfect brute.
He was standing at the top of the steps, out
of harms reach, and he could have stood
there for some time, but as he could not go
back toward the tower, he started to go for
ward. Stepping on the back of one of those
knocked down, he doubled himself up into
ball and deliberately rolled down over the
dead and wounded to the foot of the steps.
shame, shame, came from all sides, but he
only smiled, and, picking up his hat, started
to cross the planks. A young fellow hit him
full in the face and knocked him off the
before anybody could catch him. He was a
powerful, heavy man. and could have taken
care of himself better than many of those
around him. By that time the policemen
had arrived and the pulling out of the bodies
was begun. OF course, everybody turned to
and helped, and in half an hour we had the
crowd under control"
Nicholas Mockler the carpenter who
knocked down a length of the railing on the
north side of the walk, was at work on the
cross-tes of the railroad at the time of the
crush. He heard Boss Dempsey order the
paen to the anchorage and was one OF the
quickest to take in the situation. "If people
had acted with any kind of sense" he SAID,
there would have been no trouble. We had
the railing down and the planks put across
the railroad before anybody was hurt, and if
the people had been little patient we would
have turned the crowd off to the roadway
without any trouble, but some young fellows
kept pushing and pushing, and of course as
sodn as one fell there was no telling what the
result might be-"