The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1894-04-14
uNpER The DEBRIS.

Collapse of n Crowded Tenement Buiid-
~! r. Memphis, Tenn -Four Persons
Killed, rive Injured And Many Missing'
the Latter. SEr,rosed to be Dead In the
Ruins-Horrif,i ing eseses Attending the
Work of Rescae.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. April S-Four
cheap coffiRs laid in n row IN the
morgue. and five baudaged forms re-
posing on cots at the city hospital,
represent this dead and injured taken
from the debris of n tenement build
ing on the northeast corner of De Soto
and Esale streets, al. I:15 o'clock yes
terday morning.
There is no doubt that there are
more bodies beneath the immense pile
of brick, lime, sand and splintered
timbers that now covers the place
where the bulding stood, but it is safe
to say that no l1astc that may be made
for the recovery of the bodies will
avail to save life.
THE CoLLAPsE WAS WITNESSED BY SEW
ERAL PERSONS.
The collapse took place at 7:iJ o'clock
yesterday morning. 1t was witnessed
be several persons on the outside. and
several of those who were on the inside
survive to relate what little they know
of this, one of the most appalling dis
asters that ever occurred in Memphis
There was creaking and cracking, n
swaying of walls, then the collapse.that
came with a crash. A great cloud of
dust foated out upon the air, filling
the street each way for n block. There
was hurrying forward of police, fire.
men and citizens, and then the work
of rescue began.
CHANCES foE RECOVERY DOUBTFUL
of the injured the chances for the
recovery of Cora Murphy and Gather
inc Boyd are extremely doubtful. All
are colored.
The building was erected thirty-fOur
years ago 1t was of brick. three and
a half stories high, with n slate roof
While it was all one building, it was
divided by n thick wall into two COM
partments- The building had never
been condemned rs unsafe 1t was
considered as one of the staunchest of
the older buildings in this city.
The scenes attending the rescue were
horrifyinT in the extreme. The bodies
that were found with life extinct
were all badly crushed, the flesh torn
and mutilated. and some of them were
almost nude.
a half hour after the collapse oc-
Cured, tiiE news of it had travelled
over the entire city and the attend
ance at the churches showed de-
cided falling off, as the wOrshipers
could not resist the temptation of Wis
iting the grewsome place. The result
WIS that n great crowd gathered there
until Beale and DcSoto streets in the
vicinity were densely packed.
The time for church services came
and went and still the crowd remained.
As each corpse was lifted out, n groan
would 20 up. The noon hour brought
no diminution of the mass of people,
and the heat of the afternoon was un-
noticed by the throng. When dark
ness set in there was still n large
gathering.
THE WORK OF HEsCUE.
Men went to work on the debris rs
SooH as the collapse took place FIRST
an old negro woman shook tine dust
from off her back. arose from the top
of the heap and got away without as
sistance. Then the form of Il woman
was lifted out, still alive; and soon the
body of n man still breathing was
pulled out. These were sent TO the
city hospital.
Then came n corpse, and so the
work of rescue proceeded slowly
throughout the day. The exact num-
Der of lives lost will not be known un-
til the debris is cleared away. There
were about fifty rooms in the tene-
ment, about half of which were occu-
pied. Twenty-Five people were known
to be in the building at the time of the
collapse of these six escaped with
out serious injury. four were taken out
dead, five wounded, and the remain
der are missing