Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1905-08-16
HUNDRED BURIED IN DEBRIS.
LARGE DEPARTMENT sT0SE, ALBANY, N. Y,
COLLAPSED WITHOUT WARMING.
CAUSED BY EXCAVATION FOR CELLAR
Work Of Rescue--Story Of the Event Told b,
One Who Escaped.

partment store of the John G. Myers
Company on North Pearl street, col
lapsed early last Wednesday, carry
ing down with it over one hundred
persons.
Caught in chaos of brick, plaster
and wooden beams, between twenty
and thirty men, women and children
met death. Twelve hours frantic
work on the part Of rescurers Olsen
tangled fifty people, six of them dead
and many of the rest badly injured.
Three bodies were in sight at late
hour on the night of the accident, but
many hours of work will be required
10 get them out. Anything like a
complete list of the killed and injured
will be unobtainable until the work
els have made their way to the very
bottom of the mass of the wreckagc.
With few exceptions those caught in
che ruin were employees, large ma
jority of them girls.
The catastrophe occurred shortly
after the opening hour when barely a
score of shoppers were in the store.
A clock found in the debris had
stopped at IL minutes before 8, show
when the crash came.
CAUSE OF THE DISASTER.
The best account of the event that
probably caused the ruin is given by
the head of the orockery, glass and
drug department which occupies the
basement
"The workmen were saving at a
wooden floor beam," said he "which
runs underneath one of the central
pillars in the middle of the store.
Excavation for the cellar was going
on about the base of the pillar, and
believe that jarring of the beam be-
meath it displaced the foundation of
the pillar.
"The first thing knew, two of the
counters near the place where the
men were working began to sag, and
several pieces of glassware slid off
onto the floor with crash.
81 yelled to my clerks to run for
the front of the store. The words
were not out of my mouth when there
came a creaking and everything
around us began to fall"
Clouds of dust, which shot out of
the front entrance, caused those out
side to believe that the store was
afire, and fire alarm was immedi-
ately turned in. When the fire de-
partment arrived they had plenty to
do in rescuing those who were pinned
under the top wreckage. They were
joined by scores of volunteer rescurers
and within an hour Is or 20 persons
were carried out, none of them fa-
tally injured.
In short time the city's entire
hospital and ambulance force was on
the scene aided by half a hundred
doctors from all parts of the city.
WORK OF RESCUE.
The volunteer rescurers and the
nremen continued the work until ex.
hausted, when their places were taken
by wrecking force numbering 800
men, from the New York Central and
Delaware and Hudson Railroads.
These delved in the ruins all night,
But the work of rescue progressed
slowly. When darkness came, it was
estimated that nearly fifty persons
still remained in the ruins and that
not more than half of these could
survive the weight pressing upon
chem. Fortunately the wreckage did
not take fire. Some 100 persons are
still unaccountcd for, but fifty of
these are cash boys, of which the
firm has no record and the loss of the
pay roll makes 1t difficult to get any
thing like a complete list of many
others. In all the company has 400
but fifty of these are away
on vacations.
The building which collapsed stands
in the heart of the shopping district
at Nos. 80 and II North Pearl street.
II is owned partly by the company
and partly by the estate of the late
na..;l 0rr tnhn lnnn 70 tkn n1. M, ..a....