The herald., 1895-07-11
FELL IN WITHOUT WARNING
Terrible Scene Of Excitement That
Beggars Description
rlremen Extrlcate the Men and Women That
Suffered
Tho Electric Lights Had Gone Out and It
Added to the confusion-A Partial
List Of Those Who Were
Injured
A..oc,.tad Prem special wire.

Associated Press Special Wire.
ATLANTIC CfTY. N. j., July l0.-The
social session rendered by the Atlantic
City lodge to the visiting Elks at the At
lantio avenue Casino this evening ended
In a frightful disaster. Fully one hun
dred persons were more or less uinjured.
The session had just opened and only one
Of the speakers had been heard. when,
without the slightest warning. the build
ing. which has not been used for several
years, collapsed and fully thousand per-
sons were thrown to the floor beneath.
Many women, the wives of the visiting
Elks, went down in the ruins. Fully two
hundred persons who were on the first
floor OF the building and Immediately
beneath Ithe banquet hall, were crushed
beneath the timbers and lay helpless.
The fact that all the electric lighs in the
building were out at the time the build
ing gave way added to the confusion. An
alarm twas Immediately turned in and
the city's force of two hundred firemen
and every police officer in the city were
called to the scene as hospital corps.
The .police ambulance and carriages of
eyery description were utilized to convey
the Injured to the hospital and to their
hosels.
When the police and firemen arrived on
the scene the excitement was SO intense
that they scarcely knew who're. to begin.
An immense crowd Of people had been
falling building and the groans Of the un-
fortunates who were pinned beneath
bricks and timber. The streets for several
blocks were.choked. The air was full of
anxious inquiries for friends and rela-
tives who were thought to have been in
fnv 4 k1,n
police succeeded in clearing the space in
the immediate Deighborhood of the build
ing and placed ropes around to keep the
crowd back. In the meantime the fire.
men had set to work to extricate the
wounded from beneath the ,nass of tim.
work W by the hotel keepers and resi-
dents near the scene. Every house was
thrown open for the reception of the In
iured and every available conveyance was
pressed into service to carry them to
their hotels. Meanwhile the physicians
their power to aid the unfortunate who
had been caught in the crash. As quick
ly as the unconscious forms of the wound
ed were taken out, willing hands bore
them to the nearest place and everything
that surgical skill could 90 to alleviate
ment among the assembled crowds was
even greater than that in the immediate
neighborhood of the building. All sorts
OF rumors were rife. As it had been gen.
orally known that the social session of
the order had been in progress in the
building and that it would in all likeli-
hood be the largest meeting of the sess-
len. almost every new arrival upon the
scene was almost frantic with grief and
anxiety for some relative or friend.
Their fears were to an extent quieted,
however, when it was learned from
<Iok
In the excitement of the disaster it was
almost impossible to procure accurate
details. The list of the injured cannot
be fully compiled tonight, but the follow
ing are the more seriously injured:
James B. Armstrong Of New York,
both legs broken; Mayer Wolfe Of Allan
tic City, light house engineer, injured in
ternally; Charles w. Tolwell of Camden,
N. j., leg and arm broken; Frederick P.
Clapworth. Camden, leg broken; P. Eek
man. Camden, leg and arm broken;
Frank Bolton. clerk in Hotel Trainor of
otherwise injured; Charles W. Foote of
Minneapolis. MANNED and bruised; Detec-
tive James w. Doyle of Minneapolis, bad
ly bruised and injured internally.
The first victim to succumb to his in
juries was Frederick Claproth of $40
Kimer street. Camden. He died shortly
after midnight at hotel to which he had
been conveyed. He had been in the
crowd on the lower floor of the building
when the crash came. He was caught
and pinioned down under mass of tim
bers. and when, after great difficulty the
police succeeded in extrcating his body.
he never regained consciousness. 1t is
now feared other deaths will result.
The news of the disaster spread with
such rapidity that by midnight messages
were received from anxious relatives of
the visiting Elks in all parts of the