The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-05-31


voices, a young girl who had 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 feet deep 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 up on the rails at the side and
waved the crowds back from both the New
York and Brooklyn Sides but the people
continued to crowd on toward the steps. No
police were in sight, and every minute the
excitement grew worse. Men in the crowd
lifted their children above their heads to
save them from the crush and people were
still paying their pennies at both gates and
swarming in.
AT last the 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. Messen-
gers were sent to the police station in Oak
street but before any outside help came the
bridge police, assisted by citizens impressed
two grocers wagons into ambulance service
| add they were loaded up with the dead and
dying and driven off the bridge, followed by
crowds of distracted men and women As
the wagons came ont on the street, they were
obliged to stop to allowa brilliant uniformed
band, playing gay music, to pass up Chatham
street
Twelve dead bodies had been laid in the
basement of the Chambers-street hospital at
CLOCK. Two of the dead were identified
as George Smith, of ~ Watts street, and
| Ellen Riorden, of SO Montgomery street.
Among the injured were F. E. Dale, of 70
Henry street; Wilhelmine Loew, of 8 Monroe
street; Thomas Riorden, of 36 Montgomery
street. Mrs. Charles Voegler, of 80 West
Twenty-sixth street; Minnie Smith, of 258
Houston street. Ella Requay, of 90 Horatio
| street, and Frank Barnett, of 10 Mott street
Among the unconscious ones were two un-
| identified men, woman, boy and girl.
1t was not until the dead wagons came out
that the public knew anything of the catas-
| trophe. The wagons were fol-
lowed off the bridge by women
crying for their children, 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 off, and almost all were bareheaded
There were hundreds of them disheveled
| and crying. Their faces were white, and in
many instances were covered with dust and
dirt
Mrs. Edward o. Colburn, of 1877 South
Eighth street, Brooklyn, came out into
Chatham street leading little boy with each
| hand. She had lost her husband in the
| throng and he had taken their youngest
| child with him. While she was talking with
a reporter of the Sun, on Chatham street
her Oldest daughter a girl OF nineteen. ran
up to her, crying: Where is father?"
The mother answered that she did
| not know Mrs. Colburn said: ut was an
awful experience. l saw one woman fall
backward from the steps, and ais soon as she
| fell she was jumped upon by the men who
| were forced after her they trampled her to
DEATH
A cool-headed man told reporter the fol-
lowing
xuuG oh fuTA five a.. Al.
steps, and walked toward them. l noticed
a jam on the steps and stood watching the
| immense throng A man got on the iron
| work ard beckoned to the crowd to go back.
He was not policeman; L saw no policeman
there. l heard a scream, and several other
screams followed. The crowd surged back
| and l jumped over the fence. The
jam centered on the steps, l went along
the stone sides, and walked along and hung
on the railing with one hand. Just as I got
| up on the north side OF the fence the crowd
swayed toward New York and threw girl
| down on the right-hand corner She went
over sdewise and forward, and fell on her
face; then four men and woman fell on her
The crowd cried, Everybody come over and
get away, for Gods sake!' have been used
to handling small gangs of men. yelled for
| them to get over the rail, and
pulled hanover. 1 got him over and the
woman next to him, and after hard strug-
| gle got them so that they stood along the
| iron work. Meantime the throng was wedged
at the scene of the accident. The tide was
| from Brooklyn, and the New York entrance
was closed to all but reporters and those en-
gagged in the carrying off the dead and
wounded. 1t was not until Is minutes of 6
| o'clock that squad of police were sent on
| the bridge and the crowd was thinned
Rev. William H. Reed, of Brooklyn, re-
covered his valse with his sermons and UNI
brella, at the Oak-street station. He lost
| them in the crush while trying to help
man with a child, both of whom escaped
When the approach was cleared at last, it
was literally covered with articles of clothing
and personal property abandoned in the
struggle They we're viewed with amazement
by people coming over from Brooklyn, who
had not heard of the disaster
In the excitement of the crush, William
Oxford, drunken man, deliberately jumped
from the bridge approach into William
street, receiving severe internal injuries and
external bruises.
THE KILLED AND INJURED.