The herald., 1894-02-13
A MOMENT OF SUPREME PERIL.
How Courage and Presence of Mind Saved
Hundreds Of LIVES.


Hundreds Of Lives
There are still persons living in Lon
don who can recall the magnificent Chi
nese museum collected by Mr.. Nathan
Dunn, munificent merchant of Phila-
delphia and HongKong, which was
first located in Philadelphia, and then
brought to London in the early years
of the queen s reign. 1t was intended
as donation to the public, but was I'M
fortunately burned. The building first
erected-now the site of the Philadel-
phia Continental hotel-for this display
of the treasures of the then sealed king
dom had an upper room which was
about 80 feet high and very long and
narrow. In the center part of this i'm
mense auditorium were collected one
evening about 5000 persons At near
8 o'clock the manager of the building
came to the leader of the meeting. white
with alright, and told him that the
floor had sunk nearly foot, and that
in a few minutes more the tennents of
the joists might be out of their sockets.
The floor would then fall through on to
the Chinese museum, and the walls, 60
feet in height, would collapse and be
precipitated, with the roof, upon the as
sembly.
This might have caused the death of
those present-the foremost people in
Philadelphia. The leader explained to
the person whom the audience expected
next to hear that by addressing the as
sembly from the end of the hall he could
withdraw the company from the sunken
part of the floor to that where the front
walls strengthened the joists to bear the
weight of the people. The reply to this
was that his family was in the audience,
and that he must get them out first.
'sYou shall not, =" said the leader; "a
hint of danger-a rush-and we shall
all be under the fallen walls and roof.
Five minutes delay may kill us alto
gether.''
AS boy in the audience, I well re-s
member my surprise at seeing the lead
er suddenly appear at the far front of
the room and tell the people that they
would next be addressed from where
he stood-the organ loft. AS the au-
dience turned and moved to the front,
the flooring rose six inches. The people
were entertained, partly by an i'm
promptu sentimental song in voice
without quaver, in the very face of
death, and as soon as practicable they
were quietly dismissed. Not single
individual in that great assembly was
aware that, by the presence of mind of
one man, an awful catastrophe had been
averted. Three thousand persons were
saved from being buried under two
side walls so feet high, pressed down by
heavy roof.
The imagination sickens at the
thought of what would have eenthecon-
sequence of a panic and sudden alarm
by the failure of the courage OF this man.
All use of the room was of course sus-
pended till it was effectually strength
ened. So well was the secret kept that
only learned it long afterward. am
confident that, excepting the speaker re-
ferred to and the manager of the build
ing, no one outside the immediate fam
lily of the man whose courage prevented
this catastrophe has known the whole
story till now. The terror of those min
utes before the crowd was moved and
the floor rose toward its level was such
that he never, even in his own family,
alluded TO the scene, though he lived
for 40 years afterward. I know not if
the self possession of M. Dupuy, when
the bomb exploded in the French as
sembly, was greater than this hitherto
unknown act of heroism. p. S. in
London Spectator.