Arizona republican., 1902-09-20

said blow was struck. Some one in the choir said: They're fighting"
 Mistaking the word fighting" for fire" the congregation rose en masse and started for the door, One of the ministers quickly mounted the rostrum and admonished the people to keep quiet. He repeated the word quiet several times and motioned to his hear CTS to be seated. Again the excited congregation mistook the word quiet for fire and renewed the struggle to reach the door,
 Men and women crawled over bench es and fought their way into the aisles, and those who had fallen were tram pied upon like cattle. The ministers tried again and again to stop the stam- pede, but no power on earth could stay the struggling fighting mass of human ity. Screams of women and children added to the horror of the scene and through mere fright many persons fainted and as they fell to the floor were crushed to death
 The level of the floor is about fifteen feet from the ground, and long steps lead from the sidewalk to the lobby just outside the main auditorium. Brick walls extend on each side of these steps for six or seven feet, and these proved a veritable death trap. The negroes who had reached the top of the steps were pushed violently forward and many fell. Before they could move others fell upon them and in fifteen minutes persons were piled upon each other to a height of ten feet. This wall Of struggling humanity blocked the en- trance and the weight of 1,5CO persons [ -l,sz twenty persons lying on the steps un- derneath the heap of bodies died from suffocation
 Two white men who were in the rear of the church when the rush began es- capped and realizing the seriousness of the situation rushed to a corner near by and turned in a fire alarm. The de- pertinent came quickly and the arrival of the wagons served to scatter the crowd which had gathered around the
 front of the church. A squad. of police
 was also hastened to the church, and with the firemen finally succeeded in releasing the negroes frcm their posi- | tiOrs in the entrance.
 | The dead bodies were quickly re-
 moved and the crowd inside finding an outlet came pouring out. Scores of
 them lost their footing and rolled down | the long steps to the pavement. sus- | taining broken limbs and internal in | Juries. In an hour the church was | practically clear, and the sights which | greeted the eyes Of those who had come
 to the aid of the injured was sickening. | Down the aisles and along the outside
 of the pews the dead bodies of men
 and women were strewn. and the cries Of the maimcd and crippled were heart
 rending. In few minutes the work of
 removing the bodies was begun.
 The Shiloh church is located just on 1 the edge of South Highlands. the fash l ienable residence section of the city.
 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 mbe removed by am- | balances were taken to the hospitals.
 and the rest were laid out on the
 grounds and there the physicians at | tended them. At least fifteen died be-
 fore they could be moved.
 During the stampede Booker T. | Washington and several ether promi- | nent negroes were on the stage and were unwilling witnesses to the fright ful catastrophe. None of those in the choir or in the pulpit were injured in the leaFt. For a few minutes they at temDted 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 Nest of the dead are l women. and tne physicians say that in many cases they fainted and died from
 suffocation. A remarks ble feature of the calamity is that no blood was seen ] {
 either crushed or died from suffocation