The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-09-20

the crowd inside finding outlet came pouring out. Score of them lost their footing and rolled down the long steps to the pavement, sustaining broken limbs and internal injuries.
 SCREENING SIGHTS.
 Tn an hour the church had been prac- tically cleared, and sights which greeted the eyes of those who had come to aid the injured was sickening. Down the aisles and along the outside of the pews the dead bodies of men and women who had been pulled back from the entrance were strewn, and the cries of the maimed and crippled was heartrending. In a few minutes the work of removing the bodies was begun, and the walls of the relatives of the dead who had waited on the out side could be heard for several blocks.
 PHYSICIANS AID.
 The Shiloh church is located just at the edge of the South Highlands. and all the physicians living in that part of town went to the assistance of the injured. As many of the suffering negroes as could be moved by the ambulance were taken to hospitals and the rest were laid out on the ground and there the physicians attended them At least fifteen of those brought out injured died before they COulu Dt I1ONtu lIOIIl tiiG 5lOuild.
 During the stampede Booker T. Wash ington and several other prominent negro leaders were on the stage and were un- willing witnesses to the frightful catas- trophe. None of those in the choir or in the pulpit were injured in the least. For a few minutes they attempted to restore order, but seeing their efforts were futile waited until the struggling crowd had advanced far enough for them to pick up the dead and injured.
 DIED OF sUFFocATIoN.
 Most of the dead are women, and the physicians say in many cases they faint ed and died from suffocation. A remark able feature of the calamity is that no blood was seen on any of the victims. They were either crushed or died from suffocation.
 CHURCH WELL BUILT.
 The Rev. Dr. T. w. Walker. pastor of Shiloh church. said last night:
 Shiloh church is a modern brick structure and has just been completed at a cost of $75000. There are four entrances to the building and the main one Is six teen feet wide. The deaths were caused by everybody trying to rush out of the main entrance at the same time. Inside the church not a bench was overturned and all of those who were killed died in or aDOuI lNe tDlldllt0 1ht P'OPiS I'D near the front of the church were not injured in the least.'
 Mayor VIM. Drennen said:
 Most of those who were killed are strangers but their bodies will be cared for until identified and claimed by rel aties."
 The Rev. J. A. Garee of Lawrence, Kan, was seated on the rostrum when the stampede occurred. He said that some one started the cry of Flight which was changed to Fire" by negroes in the rear of the church. He escaped from the rear entrance of the church and that no one was injured who left by that exit.
 The Rev. E. M Cohron of St. Joseph. Mo, seeing the large crowd and fearing that the building could not stand the strain. left a few moments before the accident. He had decided to return just as the cry of Fire" was raised. He said: There were fully 1000 people in the church, of whom 2000 were standing. There were over 1000 clamoring for ad- mission at the time. Only those in the rear of the church were injured. Those in the center and front seemed to under stand that 1t was a stampede and that no fire had broken out. The majority of those killed met their death by being