River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1888-10-11
a eAAPTER OF Aoaanns.

Tho Floor Of n Church at sReadGng. Pa,
Gives Way During Services and Nearly
. Hundred Persons Seriously Injured
Three Lives Lost in a Railway Wreck
Near Observation-Disclosures Killed by
Floods aud Storms In China and Japan-
Seven Persons Barned TO Death in Me-
braska-Awfui Mistake of Hunter.
MANY BADLY HURT.
READING, Pa Oct. 5 The ceremony Of
laying the cornerstone of the new ST
Mary's Polish Catholic Church in this city
had just been completed Sunday after
noon, and the officiating priest, Father
Leibeeczki. was delivering the final
address, when. at quarter to 4
o'clock, the floor In front Of him fell
with crash, and about 201 men, women
end children wete dropped fifteen feet
into the basement Upon the struggling
wounded people fell the wreclzage of joists
and planks and a section of newly
built brick wall about twenty feet
square. Archbishop Ryan, of Philadelphia,
who stood in safety short distance from
the fallen floor, looked down upon the
scene. Mayor Kenny, of Reading, went
down with the unfortunates, and was
one of the first to be taken out, with
slightly injured leg Women and
children screamed with pain or fright
Some of them were ruthlessly trampled
pnder foot by men who made haste to free
themselves, bit in many instances the
stronger sought safety for their weaker
companions first and for themselves
afterward Nearly 1900 people, who were
outside the building, rushed in to help
the wounded
Archbishop Ryan assisted in lifting out
severed women and children A half-dozen
members I.* the Germania Band were in the
struggling mass, their silver instruments
being knocked about in lively
fashion. Two Polish women were
taken out in a dying condition. Two
Infants were handed out next One had
bitten of its tongue. An alarm brought the
two city ambulances. They were quickly
filed with groaning men and women who
had their legs, arms or backs bro
ken. Neighbor.ng trades people hitched
up their teams, filled their wagons with
bedding, and thus assisted in the removal
Of the injured. Private residences were
converted into hospitals, and in some
instances six patients were re
ceived in single house. All the
physicians in the city were promptly in at
tendance and every thing possible was
1one for the relief of the sufferers Very
touching scenes were witnessed among
the thousa sands who had rushed to the
church IN search of friends and relatives.
Archbishop Ryan and the accompanying
priests were about the coolest persons in
the immense audience. They made vain
efforts TO restore order, and went among
lhe people, quieting them as much as pos
sible. The Archbishop remained at Read
ing last evening, administering comfort
and consolation wherever possible.
The list of the seriously injured thus far
number ninety. Several persons are
missing. Among the injured were ten
men from Lancaster who came here with
the Knights of St John and participated
In the parade prior to the service. At
least half a dozen of the more severely
burt are expected to die
THREE KILLED.
WASHINGTON, Oct. S.-The Cincinnati
express, bound west. collided with an east
bound freight train about midnight Satur-
day near Dickens Station, forty miles
west of Washington, on the B. & o. rail-
road Three men were killed outright
and several others seriously injured.
The trains came together without a
minutes warning in a deep cut where
there is a curve in the road ana while the
express was running perhaps fifty miles an
hour. There was an awful crash and the
mail car, the baggage and express cars and
the two locomotives we're piled up in a
heap thirty feet high. The night
was pitch dark and it was some
time before the bewildered people in
the passenger coaches and sleepers, none
Of whom were seriously injured, could
realize the situation, ana with the train
men render assistance TO the unfortunate
men who were buried in the wreck. FL
nally two men, John Wiley and John
Casety, postal clerks, and John Roden-
baugh, brakeman on the freight train,
were taken out dead. Joseph Jeffrios, en-
gineer on the passenger train, l. w. Cor
don, express messenger, $. c. jackson
and A. C. Cook, postal clerks, and J. B.
Virts, the freight train fireman, were
badly injured.
CRUEL FLAMES.
LINCOLN, Neb, Oct. S-A special to the
state Journal says that a family named
Richter, farmer, living between Geneva
and Ohiowa, consisting of the hus-
band and wife and five children,
were burned to death, with the exception
of the husband, who was so seriously
burned that he will probably die, at their
home Saturday night. A tramp who was
spending the night with them was also
burned to death. The origin of the fire is
unknown, but the supposition IS that it is
another tribute at whisky's shrine The
tramp had been around the neighborhood
for some time, and that day was drunk.
Mr. Richter had also been drinking and it
Is supposed that the farmer may have gone
to sleep while smoking, aud the fire thus
originated 1t was not discovered until
the house, with its inmates and entire
contents, was entirely consumed.
HUNDREDS SLAIN.
SAN Francisco, Oct. S-China advices
say that a disastrous flood has inundated
the province of Moukden, about $50 miles
northeast of Pekin. Hundreds of natives
were killed, many homes annihilated and
crops destroyed, and there is prospect of
a general famine for the coming winter
Cholera is still raging in Hong Kong and
the daily average of new patients ranges
from forty to fifty, most Of whom die of
the disease.
A storm at Nekagori, in Japan, on Au-
gust 30, caused following damages: Num-
Der of houses demolished or half de-
stroyed, 5000; vessels totally lost, IS; yes
sells wrecked, 500; number of persons
wounded, injured and receiving public
assistance, 5000.
HUNTERS MISTAKE.
PEKIS, Ill, Oct. s.-Mat Betchald, with
his wife and others of this city, were in
the woods nutting Sunday. Fred Kessler
and Mark Dorsey were hunting squirrels
there. The latter shot at one and shot
Betchald instead, who was up in tree,
unknown to Dorsey. Betchald cried out:
''Im shot, aud fell from the tree dead