The San Francisco call., 1898-01-04

The remains of an unidentified man were also taken from the building.
 The injured, so far as can be learned. include the following: pr. Wilson, the Mayor elect, leg broken; Alderman Carothers, slightly injured; Edward Mopkin; - Burgess: William Gray, leg broken; - Fleming, both arms broken; w. Jones, Water Commissioner elect, badly bruised; Joshua Darchud; John Blanch; Alderman Neil Cooper; - Van Wyck; George Wyales, city editor News; Harry Passmore, reporter on the Advertiser staff.
 Those who were seriously injured were taken to neighboring drug stores, whence they were taken to the hos pital or to their homes, after their in- Juries had been attended to. The dead were taken to the committee rooms of Alderman Parnell, the defeated candi- date for Mayor, directly across the street.
 At the close of the polls a crowd had gathered in the City Hall, where it had been the custom in years past for the successful candidates to address the electors. The building was crowded to the very doors, probably 2OoO people
 
 There was Hull in the proceedings when the audience called for several of the newly elected Aldermen at once and there was some delay in securing a speaker to address them. Alderman Carothers joined the Mayor in an ef- fort to secure quiet. In response to numerous calls, R. M. Toothe was pushed forward to the platform on which the speakers stood. As he reached 1t there was an ominous crack ling and the raised platform on which the Mayor and newly elected Alder men were seated seemed to pitch for ward to the floor.
 There was sagging of timbers, and the next moment 150 people were hurled twenty feet to the floor below. beam running twenty feet along the center of the hall had given away and the crowded mass standing above that sec tton of the floor was thrown in a heau to the bottom. A large safe stood in one corner of the hall and, with a huge steam coil, weighing half a ton, came crashing down on the heads of the yic- tims.
 Following the crash there was a wild rush for the doors. At the south door. where the majority of the crowd had entered, there was terrific panic. Those in front were thrown down hv
 
 fighting for the door and safety. Only one-haf of the rear door, a space of probably three feet, was open and in the mad rush no one thought to open the door in it's entirety and 300 pao- pie struggled through the narrow space, the strong bearing down the weaker.
 Alderman Neil Cooper was among the hrst to be dragged out of the mass or broken beams. He was quickly car rled to an adjacent room and in a mo- ment half dozen more were keeping him company.
 several men lowered ropes and en- deaVored to haul the wounded out of the pit. From under the massed weight of the broken beams came many cries for help The windows on the ground floor were broken in and living and the dead were tenderly passed to the wait ing ambulance
 An investigation of the wreck after the catastrophe disclosed the fact that a whole section of the floor had dropped, the joists having been as neatly cut off as though the work had been done with a saw
 The building was an old one having peen erected in the early fifties, and of late years additional stories had been placed on the old walls
 In the Grand Opera House. which joins the wrecked building, the first act or The Girl From Paris had been completed when word was whispered through the theater of the disaster. A