Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1899-09-08
HEAVY ARCHES FALL
COLLAPSE OF cH,cAeo's NEW
COLISEUM STRUCTURE.
Crash Comes Without Warming to
Work men, and Many Arc Caught Bee
meath Heavy R%uins-In Addition to
Ninc Killed., Thirteen Are Injured.

Iron girdcrs creakcd: there was a
shout, Look ont. Its falling..' II wild
rush of men on the ground: the aganized
cry of thirty bridge workers as they were
hurried sixty-tive feet through the air;
aud the framework of the new Coliseum,
Wabash avenu and Fifteenth street,
Chicago, Monday afternoon nj , o'clock
was a wreck, and under its ruins nine
men lay dead, thirteen injured. many of
them fatally, and five were missing.
Workmen of tho pittsburg Bridge
Company, the firm which did the iron
work, We're tearing down the traveller
used ID building the twelve great arches.
l'urlns the lowering of the first section
the structure was noticed to remble and
complaint was made by several of the
raen.
Then came the taking down of the
massive beams that formed the second
sectien. A rope thrown over the third
nrch from the south wall WAS used to
steady the pieces of lumber MS they de-
scehded. One was poised in the air and
f.hsineer NfcCahe waited below for the
signal to lower. Suddenly the engine
gave Il snort, the arch trcmb!cd. began
to sway. Then came the shout of alarm,
NaAcl safety ulu tuG tCli;llSe OF
the Quilting.
Men on the ground ran through the
arches, now beginning to creak like
breaking laths, and most of them had
time to reach the street or the alley. but
their Unfortunate companions ON the
arches came slowly down to injury and
death.
The movement of the arches was At
first so show it seemed as if minutes were
consumed before they swayed far enough
to touch each other. When they came
together there was the sound of rending
iron Orders and braces. the breaking Of
rlvets and trusscs, and the whole struc-
lure came down with a crash, while the
doomed men shrieked out their last pray
ers as they We're dashed against plies Of
unused braces or fell under portions OF
the broken arches.
Ono of the falling columns overturned
the boiler and the escaping steam cover
ed the wreck with a binding veil. white
clouds of dust rose from the earth to
battle the search for the wounded, some
of whom called out pitcously.
Columns and arches lay piled on one
another. broken and shattered as though
they We're staff; heavy timbcrs, two feet
Square. We're twisted and splintcred as
II they were twigs. and beneath this
mass OIL iron and wood and stone human
beings were writhing in pain or We're ly-
Ing cold in death.
Fire added to the horror. the ovcrt,lrn-
ed engines kindling the woodwork near
them, but these incipicnt blazcs were
soon eN%tinsuislicd and ne whole attcn-
ton OF tremen. policemen and citizens
was given to rescuing the victims and
taking out the bodies of the dead. There
We're hundreds of willing hands to help
drag the iron beams from the crushed
and battered fragments of men and to
carry the bodies tenderly to the ambu-
lanccs.
Inc living were first taken from the
runs, but at times the rescuers found it
diitlcllt to determine whether or not the
hlallgled forms they carried so tendcrly
stlll retained the spark of life. Nine men
were dead. Their bodies were taken out
mutilated almost beyond human sem
'blance by the blunt edges of the ponder
Gus mccall beams. Twelve other unfor-
Inmates, still alive. but shrieking and
writing with the pain of cruel injuries,
some of them lcglcss, others making Mite
Gus appeals with the stumps of what
were once arms. were removed, and more
deaths may follow.
1T has not yet been decided where the
loss. which may reach 100000. will fall.
The work of the pittsburs Bridge Com
pany was just finished. the last arch hay
ing been placed Saturday. The men were
placing the bolts and rivcts Monday and
removing the traveller and scaifolding
used in doing the work. Members of the
firm We're congratulating themselves
that they had had no accident. and the
work was done. But the work had not
been accepted by the Coliseum company
and the question of responsibility for the
loss on the building rests unsettled.
The exact cause for the collapse seems
to be unknown, at least those supposed
~ know hesitate to put themselves on
cord. Many theories are advanced, but
1t may require an official investigation to
bring out the truth and properly place the
responsibility.