New-York tribune., 1905-02-28

While the auditorium Of the Fleet street AITl"
can Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Fleet-st''
near Myrtle-ave.. Brooklyn. was crowded 10 us
fullest capacity last night with mourners for a
funeral a rotten wooden beam broke, letting
half Of the floor down to the Sunday school room
below From the mass of wreckage the bodies
of eleven dead persons and more than thirty in
jured were taken. The church was an old wood
eH structure, which it is said, had been con-
demned by the Buildings Department five years
20. The rotten beams and woodwork crumbled
up like cardboard.
There were more than nine hundred persons
n the church at the time. OF this number eight
hundred were in the auditorium upstairs. In
the panic that followed men and women and
children jumped out of the windows and strug-
gled madly TO get out Of the narrow exits. After
the place had been cleared out it looked as If
charge of dynamite had wrecked the church.
pile of clothing of all descriptions which was
ten feet high was piled up in one Of he ante
rooms.
The Rev F NJ. Jacobs the pastor 4 the
church, who going to conduct the services,
when he saw the tremendous crowd shouted
TO the trustees to drive some Of the people out.
It was while attempt was being made - get
some Of them out of the building that the floor
collapsed. There were no police on duty there
at the time. The casualty list is as follows
TIE DEAD.
BEAN. Anna AtIantic-ave and Hun Srrfy Place
CLARK. Benjamin. infant. No. 2o2 Johnsou-st
CHBISEN. Samuel. No. SOS Fulton-st.
ELLIS Theresa No 30 St. Felx-st
GREEN Mrs. Bertha No 47O Hudson-ave
NELSON Harriet. No. ZOE Fleet Place
SCOTT, Mary. No. $40 Baltlc-st.
SMITH. Mrs Louisa No. 22e saratoga-ave.
SULLIVAN. Anna. No 1872 Johnson-st
zoOLRENN. Frederick: No. 427 Hudson-ave
THE INJURED.
ave; INJURIES to legs and shock; Long Island col
hip actasgd % TAKEN ss'y h6e 5Tr no i0'
Piaoe e LoIs is tFyye yeqrs No p Rockwell
fractured ankle; Brooklyn Hospital
O ass BosSn S5sF 6Ds E9 a5s
Ase fss bs rsys years : No S 81 L1ns
MDoNALD. Sadie. twenty years; contusions and cuts;
ankle broken cmberland street aospta spit ilu''0
dos 9e b5ne bf6ke t5Ftf9pP No % ae Place.
do5uFed hT wa,b3x gas5 S2 ii5 s6a Sapn''y three
& Bsa be- i Street o.Bfs ass
fetafed huaS vent a home gsaF' No i2 jaw
JOHNSON, Martha W. 60 years No 1o5 Jefrerson-ave
leg broken taken home
TULKY, James NJ. forty-seven years old Of No 3s7
saratosa-ave.; leg broken; Brooklyn Hospital
yS@fs g of rS6yn 5 E h6sSP iS Park
m a6ntudan Iaa Il sT ESee Ts8 old Of @ IS Loe
head: Brooklyn Hospital "
nSo BSo0yn aosDa Ga If No ass Hudson
Hospital and home.
DEAD MANS BODY AT DOOR
The funeral which was about to be held was
THAI of Sidney Painter, of No. So Marion-st. He
was violinist well known in colored circles, and
was a member of negro order known as the
Il. B. P. o. Elks Of the World" which is pat
termed after the white society of Elks, but has
no connection with 1t. There were several hun
dred members Of the society present. The church
had been filed TO it's utmost capacity the mar
row stairs leading to the auditorium upstairs
being crowded that il impossible for
another person to squeeze In Outside the street
was filled with impatient throng, trying to
crowd in. The body Of the dead at the
door and the undertaker's assistants were trying
to clear passage so that II could be taken into
the church when the crash came.
The church is an old wooden building with the
auditorium upstairs. and the Sunday school
room with two furnaces underneath. Supporting
the second floor were two long beams about four
by six running the length of the auditorium,
which was about seventy-hve feet long and fifty
feet wide These beams were supported by a
number of iron pillars not more than two inches
in diameter
The place where the break came was in the
beam on the left hand side Of the church, about
half way back The large timber broke through
as if Il had been a lath letting all the lateral
sunnorts down The rear left hand quarter of
the auditorium went through into the room
below. There were several hundred people down
stairs and many of them were caught in the
falling timbers
The scene that followed indescribable.
Men, women and children wedged In
mass OF wreckage eight feet higis. Wnile the
shrieks and cries Of the dying and injurez -e-
sounded, those who had not gone down witt, s..e
floor made a rush for the narrow stairs. wh,ls
others dashed through the windows, Some Of
the dead were picked up. with broken necks. on
the outside. The undertaken witn the body Of
DEWEYs FINE CID SHERRY WINE.