The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1898-01-07
Giving Way of Supports Pre-
Cipitates Hundreds to the
Floor Below.
AUDIENCE IN A PANIC.
Wild Scramble for the Exits
by Those Not Caught In
the Crush.
Over a Score of Bodies Already
Taken From the Mass of.
WreCkage.

LONDON, Ont, Jan. 4.-Thirty per.
sons are known to have been killed and
many injured by the collapse of floor
in the city hall. Last evening closed
the municipal campaign and the hall
was crowded to hear the addresses of
the successful candidates. At mid.
night 26 bodies had been taken from
the wrecked building and identified.
How many were injured will never he
known as those who suffered but
slightly at once made for their homes
or were cared for by friends. Those
who were more seriously injured, were
carried to neighboring drug stores,
whence they were taken to the hos
pitfalls 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.
building Crowded to the Doors.
AT the close of the polls a crowd
gathered in the city hall, where it has
been the eusto III for years past for the
successful candidates to address the
electors. The building was crowded to
the very doors, probably 1900 people
being damned in its narrow scope. In
response to numerous calls, R. NJ.
Toothe was pushed forward to the plat
form on which the speakers stood. AS
he reached 1t there was an ominous
cracking and the raised platform on
which the mayor and newly elected
aldermen were seated seemed to pitch
forward to the floor. There was sag.
ging of timbers and the next moment
$50 people were hurled 20 feet to the
floor below. A beam cunning 20 feet
along the center of the hall had given
way and the crowded mass standing
above that section of the floor was
thrown In a heap to the bottom. a
large safe stood in one corner Of the
hall and with huge steam coil weigh.
ing half a ton came crashing down Oh
the heads OF the victims.
Panic Followed the Crash.
Following the crash there was wild
rush for the doors. AT the south door,
where the majority of the crowd had
entered, there was a terrible panic.
Those in front were thrown down by
the oncoming rush, shrieking and fight
ing for the door and safety. Only one.
half OF the rear door, space of prob.
ably three feet, was open, and in the
mad rush no one thought to open the
door in its entirety and 500 people
struggled through the narrow space,
the strong bearing down the weaker.
An investigation of the wreck after
the catastrophe disclosed the fact that
whole section Of the floor had dropped,
the joists having been as neatly cut off
as though the work had been done with
saw.
The building was an old one, having
been erected in the early 50's, and OF
late years additional stories had been
placed on the old walls.
Many of the Victims Are Boys.
Many of those carried down by the
falling floor were boys IA to l6 years
old. Some OF them managed to squirn.
from under heavy beams where men
could not move. Despite this, however,
a number of them were killed, their
lives being crushed out by the beams
which gradually settled upon them,
borne down by the heavy iron safe and
the steam coil that had fallen on top OF
of the wreckage
Although the platform on which the
speakers of the evening were standing
was apparently the first thing to give
way, the mayor.elect and many alder.
men escaped the death that overlook
SO many others who followed them into
the lower portion of the building.