The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1899-09-01
COLISEUM IN RUINS.
Chicago Building Crushed by
It's Own Weight.
ATLEAST SIX WOREMEN WERE KILLEE
The Structure, which Was Not quite
Finished, Fell to the Ground
Because of Its Top Heavy
Supporting Arches.

CHICAGO, Aug. 29.-Twelve stee,
arches, each weighing SO tons, which
were to have supported the superstruc-
ture of the Coliseum building, in course
of erection on Wabash avenue, between
| Fifteenth and Sixteenth streets. fell TO
the ground late yesterday afternoon. 1t
is known that six lives were crushed out.
The bodies of three men are supposed to
be under the wreckage Seven are in
the hospital with injuries received 10 the
accident, and of these two will surely
die, one may possibly recover, and the
rest are for the greater part seriously in
jured.
The dead are: Charles Walpot crushed
to death; Stephen j. Thompson, crushed
to death; John Fay, head crushed Rich
ard Sherman, head cut off; Edward Muir
ray, head and both legs cut off, and Theo.
dore Thorne, crushed to death.
The missing, supposed to be under the
ruins, are Frank Logan, Alexander Mil
las and Samuel Smith.
The fatally injured are: John Dowd,
both legs broken, both eyes knocked out
and internal injuries; John White cut on
head and right side and internal injuries.
Others injured are: Cornelius Toomey,
head crushed and internal INJURIES Inay
recover; Peter Delletre, crushed about
shoulders and chest, serious; John Haw-
thorne, head cut and internal injulies, Sc
rious.
All of the II arches were standing, the
twelfth and last having been completed
yesterday. 1t was the intention of the
steel contractors, the Pittsburg Bridge
company of Pittsburg, to turn over its
work last night to the general contract
ors. the immense traveller" or der
rick, which had been used in the erection
of the arches had been removed, and the
agents of the bridge company were ac-
counting their work as practically COM
pleted, when suddenly and without the
slightest warning the arch last put in
place suddenly fell over against the one
next to it, The weight was too much
for this. 1t gave way crashed against
the third, and then one by one the great
steel span fell over to the south precisely
in the same manner as number of cards
would fall.
Nearly all the men who were killed
were at work on top of the arches 80 feet
above the ground. Some of them made
futile attempts to slide down the side of
the arches, but before they could save
themselves 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 unfor-
tunate 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 struc-
ture began falling slowly, each arch being
sustained by the crossbeams supporting
the entire structure. AS the mass gained
impetus bars of iron inches thick snapped
with a loud report, and the great mass
moved faster and faster in its descent.
With a crash that was heard blocks dis
tant the structure fell, leaving the walls
practically uninjured.
An immense crowd gathered around
the place, and, despite the efforts of the
police, who were close at hand, they
swarmed over the mass of wreckage,
making desperate but ill directed efforts
to drag out the dead and to save the
wounded. 1t was only with the greatest
difficulty that the police were finally able
to drive back the crowd and give the fire.
men and uninjured workmen a chance to
rescue the injured. That more men were
not killed and injured was almost mir
acle. Fully so men were at work in the
space covered by the arches as they fell.
A number of the men jumped into small
excavations, of which there are many in
the ground beneath the steel works, and
were saved from the great masses of
steel that crashed down over them. Sew
eral of them were standing under the
arches when they commenced to fall and,
running to the side walls, by great good
fortune happened to stand in the space
left vacant by the curve of the arches
away from the side walls. Had the arch
es fallen to either side the loss of life
must have been much heavier, but they
fell true to the south on a line parallel to
the side of the building, and none of
them save the two southern arches fell
at all outside of the space to be occupied
by the building.
Edward Bindon, engineer, who was
tending one of the engines at the south
end of the structure, attributes his es-
cape to a sudden inspiration. He was at
work at his post, when he heard shouts
from above and the noise of twisting
Orders. Ten feet away, on the ground
floor, was a pile of ironwork which
had not yet been used on the building.
Bindon threw himself against the pile of
girders on the floor, and under its pro-
tecting sides he lay while the massive
beams from above fell on all sides about
him. One of the largest arches fell di-
richly across the pile, but Bindon was not
hurt.