Connecticut western news., 1883-06-06
ON THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE.
The Terrible Calamity that Took Place on
 Decoration Day.

on Decoration Day. The crowds over the bridge that day were large-both of people going from New York to Brooklyn and of those going from Brooklyn tv New York. Jams in the narrow footway were continually occurring, and it required every effort of the bridge police force to prevent trouble.
 One of these jams formed at o'clock shfRt distance above the flight of steps on the New York anchorage.
 The crowd from Brooklyn met the crowd from New York, and damned again at the foot of the stairs. The Brooklyn crowd completely covered the footpath above the stone steps, and the New York crowd covered it below the steps. The former attempted to push down and the latter to push up. Those behind pressed for ward and the weakest-the women and children-were thrust against the iron railing of the steps and against the iron trestle work which surrounds the rail road track, and which begins at the head of the steps. They screamed with pain and terror.
 Somebody shouted out that there was danger, and the impression prevailed that the bridge was giving way beneath the crowd. At that the crowd on the board walk above the steps pressed on toward New York more furiously, while those below who were on the asphalt knew they were in no danger, and did not move.
 The bridge men fearing danger re- moved a section of iron fence that was nearest the steps in order to turn the crowd into the carriage ways.
 6nZQn h.1 D men punched themselves together some three hundred feet above the stairs They laid their hands on each other sholders and forced themselves like a wedge into the crowd ahead. They ahouted out "The-Association can make its way through anything"
 In few minutes, at the point just above the steps, there was slow yield ing 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 men were shout ing confusedly. Umbrellas parcels and canes were thrown over the rails at the sides by people who needed their hands to fight their way out of the desperate crash.
 At last, with @ single shriek that cut through the clamor of the thousands of voices, young girl lost her footing, and fell down the lower flight of steps. She lay for moment, and then raised her self on her hands, and would have got up. But in another moment she was buried under the bodies of others who fell over the steps after her. She was dead when they got her out more than half an hour afterward. Men sprang upon the rails at the side and waved the crowds back from both the New York and Bro klyn sides. But the people continued to crowd on toward the steps. No police were in sight. Men in the crowd lifted their children above their heads to save them from the crush. People were still paying their pennies at | both gates and swarming in.
 It took some time to show the panic stricken crowd that they were pushing people to death, and then the police and company of the 18th New York infan- try went to work at the pit. Twenty-Five people seemed to be nearly dead. They were laid along on the north and south sides of the pathway, and the people from Brooklyn passed on between them. Men and women turned faint at the sight of the swollen and blood-stained faces of the dead. Four men, lad, six women, and girl of fifteen were quite dead, or died in few moments. They had been found at the bottom of the heap.
 The police stopped grocers' wagons coming from Brooklyn, and, carrying the bodies of the wounded and dying down the blanks to the railroad, laid them in the wagons, and told the drivers to hurry to the Chambers Street Hospital. Six bodies were laid in one wagon. The drivers whipped up their horses and drove with full speed to the hospital.
 Vigorous efforts were made to resus- citate those who still lay on the walk. Ice water was brought from the New York entrance, and doctors who were in the crowd volunteered their services. As the last body was placed in wagon a hook and ladder company came dashine up from Brooklyn.
 The wagons were followed off tn
 bridge by women crying for their chi
 dren, and by men crying for their wives
 Several of the women were half nakeo
 and many were in rags. One woman ha
 had both of her shoes torn off, and a
 most all were bareheaded. There wer
 hundreds of them dishevelled and crying
 Their faces were white, and they wer
 covered with dust and dirt. It was foun
 that 12 persons were dead and man
 more seriously injured.
 THE CRY OF THE DYING.
 An eye witness says:-"All of sud den there went up to the heavens sue cry as no description of mine can d justice to. It echoed like the shriek 0 bugle and it acted like 8 signal. I
 an instant there came @ mighty surg behind us which literally took Us off ou
 feet. Men recovering from the shoe
 found themselves squeezed out of breath ing power. Women caught, some ( } them, half turned round, filled the ai 7 with piercing screams. Some of U $ clutched at the rails, as men on tn , edge of Niagara burst their veins grasl ing friendly ropes. Even the childre were srlffused with the sense of impent l ing horror, like birds in the Hull of |, thunder storm. see now, like the face of dream, when one is in sick be(
 the tiers of awe-stricken faces, and
 hear, even now, the shrieks of the suf' eating and the crushed behind me an y before me.
 j. "Ahead of us there was even mo |, hideous work going on. l saw LII e brellas, hats and canes leap into the a o above the serried heads in front of l . like the irregular spouting of son e strange fountain. This lasted perhaps l. minute, but at the time it looked like d continuous spectacle, and was so odd tn q it fascinated me-.
 AN APPALLING DEATH SCENE.
 "There was one woman who got out t. says an officer, "who seemed to be g. Jewess of the middle class. She W al very stout and very heavy and it to-