The record-union., 1899-08-29
Twelve Arches Of the New Coliseum
at Chicago Collapse,
Carrying Down in the WreGkage a Large
Number of WOrkman.
Besides the Nine Lives Lost, Two
Men Are Missing and Fourteen
Were Injured, Four of Whom
Are Expected to Die.

CHICAGO, Aug. 2S.-Twelve steel
arches, each weighing thirty three
tons, which were to have supported the
superstructure of the Coliseum build
ing, in course of erection on Wabash
avenue, between Fifteenth and Six
teenth streets, fell to the ground late
this afternoon. 1t is known that nine
lives were crushed out and the bodies
of two men are supposed to be under
the wreckage. Fourteen are in the
hospital with injuries received in the
accident, and of these four will surely
die, the balance for the greater part,
not being seriously injured.
Dead: Charles Walpol, Edward Muir
ray, Frank Logan, Stephen j. Thomp
son, John Farrey, Richard Sherman,
Theodore Thorn, Leroy F'rener, work
man from Toledo. o.: A. L. Norman,
workman from Toledo, o.
Fatally injured: John Marshman,
fractured skull and fractured right
leg; j. j. Dowd, internal injuries, both
eyes out, both legs broken; Peter Pei
etier, right arm cut off at shoulder,
skull fractured; John White, skull frac-
tured, internal injuries.
Missing and believed to be in the
ruins; Edward Swanson, Joseph King.
Injured, not serious: Cornelius Too
mey, J. H. Marley. John Hawthorne,
John ]. Johnson, David Reardon, H.
p. thinner, ]. Flack, ]. Hanson, An
drew Morrison.
All of the twelve arches were stand
ing, the twelfth and last having been
completed to-day. 1t was the inten-
tion of the steel contractors, the Pitts
burg Bridge Company of Pittsburg,
Pa, to turn over its work tonight to
the general contractors. The iron
traveller or derrick which had been
used in the erection of the arches had
been removed, and the agents Of the
bridge company were accounting their
work as practically completed, when
suddenly and without the slightest
preliminary warning the arch last put
in place suddenly fell over against the
one next to it. The weight was too
much for this, it gave way, crashing
against the third. and one by one the
great steel spans fell over to the
south. precisely in the same manner as
a number of cards would fall.
Nearly all the men who were killed
were at work on too of the arches,
forty feet above the ground. Some of
them made futile attempts to slide
down the side Of the arches, but be-
fore they could help themselves they
were hurled to the ground. Many of
them uttered piercing shrieks for aid
as they fell.
Most of them were killed outright by
the awful nature of their injuries. The
skulls of the unfortunate men were
crushed into shapeless masses, their
limbs were cut off as if by a monster
knife, and they were mangled beyond
recognition.
The immense structure began falling
slowly, each arch being sustained by
the crossbeams supporting the rest of
the structure. AS the mass gained
impetus the bars of iron, inches thick,
snapped with a loud report, and the
great mass moved faster and faster
in its descent to the ground with a
crash that was heard blocks distant.
The structure fell, leaving the walls
practically uninjured, and sending up
great clouds of dust and dirt.
That more men were not killed and
injured was almost a miracle. Fully