Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-07-11
ONE HUNDRED CRUSHED
Social Session of the Elks Ends
In Disaster.
FLOOR OF THE CASINO COLLAPSED.

FLOOR OF THE CASINO COLLAPSED
There Were Thousand People In the
Building at the Time-Oue of the Vic.
Tins Dies, and the injuries of Others May
Prove Fatal.
ATLANTIC CITY, July 1.-THE special
session rendered by Atlantic City lodge to
the visiting Elks at tho Baltic Avenue
casino ended in a terrible disaster in
which fully 100 persons We're more or less
seriously injured.
The session had just opened and only
one of the speakers had been heard when,
without the slightest warming. the build
ing, which has not been used for several
years, collapsed, and fully LOCO persons
were thrown to the floor beneath;
Many women, the wives of the visiting
ElkS, went down in the ruins. Fully 200
persons who We're on the first floor of the
building and Immediately beneath the
banquet hall We're crushed beneath the
timbrrs and lay helpless. The fact that all
the electric lights in the building went out
ut the time the building gave way added
to the terrible situation.
A double alarm for the fire department
was at once turned in, and the city's en-
tire force of 200 firemen and every police
officer in the city were called to the scene
rs a hospital corps. The police ambulances
and carriages of every description We're
utilized to convey the injured to the City
hospital and to their hotels
When the police and firemcn arrived ON
the scene, the excitement was so intense
that they scarcely knew where to begin
first. An immense crowd of people had
been attracted to the place by the noise of
The falling building and the groans of the
unfortunatCs who We're pinned beneath
bricks and timbcrs. The streets for sew.
cral blocks We're chokcd. The air was full
of anxious inquiries for friends and rela-
tiVes who were thought to have been in
the building. Within a few minutes the
police succeeded in clearing the space in
the Immediate ncighbOrhood of the build
ing and stretched ropes around to Keep
the crowd back.
Digging Ont the Injured.
In the meantime the fircmcn had set to
work to cXtrcatc the wounded from the
mass of timbcrs, and they were aided in
their work by the hotel keepers and resi-
dents near the scene. Every house was
thrown open for the reception Of the in
jurtd, and every available conveyance was
pressed into service to carry them to their
hotels.
Meanwhile physicians were on the scene
and We're doing everything in their power
to aid the unfortunates who had been
caught in the crash. AS quickly as the I'M
conscious form of n victim was taken out
of the ruins willing hands bore it to the
nearest place, and everything that surgi-
cal skill could do to alleviate their suffer
ingS was done.
Tho excitement amid the assembled
crowds was even greater than that in the
immediate ncighborhood of the building
All sorts of rumors were rife. 1t was first
reported that the building had caught fire.
and that in the consequent panic many
lives had been crushed out. Then n rumor
came that the entire edificc had collapsed.
AS it had been generally known, how
ever, that the social session of the order
had been in progress in the building and
that it would be in all likelihood the larg-
est attended event of the convention, al
most every new arrival upon the scene
was almost frantic With grief and anxiety
for some relative or fl lend Their fears
were to an extent quietcd, however when
it was learned from n good source that no
lives had been lost
In the excitement of the disaster it was
almost impossible to procure accurate de-
tails. The list of the injured cannot be
fully compiled now, but the following are
the moro seriously injured:
List of the Injured.
James j. Armstrong of New York, both
legs broken.
Meyer Wolfe, Atlantic City, lighthouse
engineer, injured internally.
Charles W. Tolwcll, Camden leg and
arm broken.
Antonio Claproth, Camden, leg broken.
Eel loo nd lNr,,
ken.
Frank Bolton, clerk of Hotel Traymorc,
this city, shoulder badly crushed and 9TH
erwisc injured.
Charles W. Footc of Minneapolis,
manned and bruised.
Detective James Doyle of Minneapolis,
badly bruised and injured internally.
James Armstrong theatrical agent New
York city, exalted ruler of New York,
| lodge No. l, both legs broken.
Miss Armstrong his daughter aged i,
arm broken.
W. Lumbard, Boston, leg broken.
Horace Arudt, East Orange, \. ]. back
+ broken.
William NarnCy, baseball manager, Bal
timorc, injured internally.
Mrs. Flcischman, Philadelphia, both
| legs broken.
{. NJ. Foot, arm broken.
Nathaniel Duke, head and body bruised.
Charles w. Farwell, Minneapolis, nose
broken.
A number of the members of the Jeu.
| nings band of Camden, n. j., internally
| injured.
The members of the Washington Elks
| and their friends escaped without injury.
The first victim to succumb to his in
| jurics was Frederick Claproth of SIG Kim
Der street, Camden. He died shortly after
midnight at neighboring hotel to which
| he had been conveyed.
| ClaprOth had been in tho crowd on the
| lower floor of the building when the crash
came. He was caught and pinioncd down
| under mass of timbers, and when, after
great difficulty, the police succeeded in
| Cxtrcating his body, it was found that
both his legs and arms had been broken
He never regained Consciousness.
1t is now feared that other deaths viii
result and it is matter of wonderment
that out of the 600 or moro persons who
| were on the lower floor none was killed
| outright
| Tho news of the disaster spread with
such rapidity that by midnight message
after message was being received from
| anxious relatives of visiting ElkS in al
parts of the country.