The Savannah morning news., 1903-05-23
DASHED TO DEATH
IN THE 5O-FOoT FALL OF AN ELF
VATOR CAGE.
AT A DANCE IN PITTsBURe
FESTIVITIES WERE INTERRUPTED
BY A DISASTER.

One Man and Three Women Were
Killed in the Terrible Fall From
the Fifth Floor of the Building.
Bodies So Badly Mashed That
Identification Was Not Possible.
Five or six Were Injured-StOry of
the Accident Is a Shocking One.
Electrician Arrested.
three women were killed, and five or
six injured tonight at 1926 Fifth ave-
nue., the building being occupied by
dancing academy.
The cause of the fatalities was the
swapping of the elevator ropes, allow
ing the cage to drop fifty feet.
The dead are so badly mashed that
identification has been impossible up TO
midnight The only one whose name
may be correct is Catherine Curtin. On
her body was found railroad ticket
with the name on it.
Among the injured are:
Harry Lipson, aged %, bruised all
over the body and hurt internally.
Miss Kate Flanagan. q years old,
bruised ALP over body and suffering
from shock.
Albert Myers, aged 20, fractured leg.
Mrs. Lulu Postilwatte, scalp wound
and body bruised.
A banquet and bali were being held
in the building by the Pennsylvania
Electro Mechanical Institute, and ev-
cry available portion of the fifth and
sixth floors were crowded by members
of the institute and their friends
Cage was Crowded.
At about 10 o'clock the elevator. with
a load of thirteen passengers, started
for the banquet room on the sixth
floor. When that floor was reached it
was found that every place was crowd
ed, and the passengers decided to go
to the fifth floor, where the dancing
was in progress. When between the
sixth and fifth floors, the steel cable
snapped, and with resounding crash
that was heard blocks away, the cage
dropped with it's load of human freight.
1t smashed through the floor above
the cellar of the building and was
stopped by a braced post of wood.
three feet below the first floor. In
this inaccessible position the passen-
gers were damned under broken tim
bers and twisted steel, yet none might
have been killed had not the heavy
iron balance weight, weighing over a
ton, come crashing down upon them.
Miraculously all but four were able
to scramble out The others were PIN
were mashed almost beyond recogni-
ton.
Myers Held n Prisoner.
Albert Myers was held prisoner for
more than an hour. While firemen and
volunteer rescuers were preparing rig
gings to lift the machine so as to be
accessible, he lay pinioned under the
wreckage. Whisky and water were
passed to him with words. of encour-
agement. A fireman endangered his life
by dropping into the mass of wreck
age and holding the injured mans
head.
Heavens, it was hot down there"
was the brave mans first words, spok-
en- while being carried from his prison
to a hospital ambulance.
The opinion prevails that the eleva-
tor was overcrowded. and Superin-
tendent of Police John P. McTighe or
dered the arrest of Prof. L. N. Giles, a
mechanical engineer and instructor of
the Pennsylvania Electro Mechanical I
Institute, who at the time of the ac-
cident was running the elevator 1t is
alleged that he allowed the elevator to
be overcrowded, and that he had no
experience in running an elevator and
was partly responsible for the accident.