The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1883-06-07


FrightfuI CatastroPhe-NIen, Women and
Children Hurled Down "A Stairway and
Trampled to Death.
NEW York, May 80.
There was a crush at the steps at the New
York approach of the Brooklyn Bridge this
afternoon. A panic followed and at least
fourteen persons were killed and many were
wounded. The crush began shortly before
four O'Clock. At that hour there were
thousands of people on the bridge, most of
them coming from Brooklyn. The air was
clear and brisk and people were walking
rapidly. As the crowd approached the
short flight of steps those in front pushed
back for fear they would be precipitated
over the steps distance of about six feet.
These people in drawing back from the
steps made the nucleus OF a jam, for the
thousands behind them pushed on unheed-
ing. Almost instantly people began to
shout "stand back" and ''give us ROOM. -
Meanwhile the crowd from New York
which was at the foot of the steps got
blocked. The men at the head of the New
York crowd fought their way back, leaving
a clear space at the foot of the steps.
The shouting and crowding from the
Brooklyn side increased. 1t was utterly in
explicable. People in the advance guard of
the Brooklyn throng were pushed in spite or
bhCulScANtS GOWdEu bue steps, 4uGy otGAlcLA
to have a horror of going over the steps
although the fight is only five or six feet
high. They locked arms and pushed
furiously back against the thousands
coming steadily over from Brooklyn. In
few minutes, at a point Just above tine
steps, there was a slow yielding to the
frightful pressure from behind, and the
front of the crowd was forced nearer and
nearer to the edge of the steps. Women
and children were screaming for help, and
ChOnfinu
parasols and canes were thrown over the
rails at the side by the people who needed
their hands to fight their way out of the
desperate crowd.
At last, with a single shrek that cut
through the clamor of thousands of voices,
a young girl, who lost her footing on the
perilous edge, fell headlong. She struck
the pathway at the foot of the steps, and
lay for a moment. She raised herself ON
her hands, and would have got up, but in
another moment she was buried four deep
under the bodies of others who fell over
the steps after her. She was dead when
they got her out, more than a half hour af
terward. The men sprang upon the rails
at the side and waved the crowds back from
both the New York and the Brooklyn sides,
but the people continued to crowd on to-
ward the steps. No police were in sight.
Every minute the excitement grew worse.
Men in the crowd lifted their children
above their heads to save them from the
crush. People were paying their pennies
people at the New York end Of the bridge
understood what was happening The
gates were closed and word was sent to
Brooklyn to close the gates there.
Messengers were sent to the police station
in Oak street, but before any outside help
came the bridge police, assisted by citi-
zens, impressed two grocer's wagons into
ambulance service. They were loaded up
with the dead and dying and driven of the
bridge, followed by crowds of distracted
men and women. As the wagons came out
on the street they were obliged to stop to
allow a brilliant uniformed band playing
gay music to pass up Chatham street.
1t was not until the dead wagons came
out that the public knew anything of the
catastrophe. The wagons were followed odt
the bridge by women crying for their chill
dren, and by men crying for their wives.
Several women were half naked, and many
had on only rags. One woman had had
both her shoes torn of, and almost all were
bareheaded. There were hundreds of them
dishevelled and crying. Their faces were
white, and in many instances were covered
with dust and dirt
The list of the dead and injured obtained
shortly before midnight from hospitals and
stations embraced twelve dead, eleven Of
whom had been identified, and twenty
eight injured, some badly, others less seri-
ously.
and perhaps some of the dead, were
driven straight to their homes when they
reached Chatham street, instead Of 60 the
City Hall Station. Inquiries are making
for many persons missing, and supposed TO
have been on the bridge at the time Of the
accident.
When the approach was cleared at last it
was literally covered with articles OF
clothing and personal property, abandoned
in the struggle. They were viewed with
aniazement by people coming over from
Brooklyn who had not heard of the disaster.
In the excitement of the crush a drunken
man deliberately jumped from the bridge
approach into William street, receiving
severe internal injuries and external
bruises. The place on the bridge whore
the accident occurred is the danger spot in
the structure.