Omaha daily bee., 1905-08-10
DEATH LIST ONLY THIRTEEN
Victims Of Collapse of Albany Building
Much Fewer Than Estimated.
SPECIAL COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE
Mayor viii Appoint Board of Out-Of-
Town MenstO Determine RE-
spOnsIbIIity for the
DIsaster.

ALBANY. n. Y, Aug. s.-The collapse
| Of the John G. Myers company department
store yesterday which resulted in the death
of thirteen persons. and probably the fatal
injury of two others. will be Investigated
by special commission.
TO avoid the possibility of a preiudiced
inquiry, Mayor Gaus decided that all the
investigators shall be out-of-town men.
The discovery that the thirteen bodies
already taken out will account probably
for all the victims of the accident is a
surprise to Albanians, who until this after
noon expected that at least a dozen more
mangled forms were buried beneath the
ruins. SO sure are the wreckers that no
more bodies are there that they have sus-
pended their search
Two Hundred Rescuers work.
This morning found 200 men still toll
ing over the wreckaEe of the John
q. Meyer company's department store,
where twenty-four hours ago occurred
the saddest catastrophe in the history
OF old Albany. Eleven dead bodies,
many Of them mangled beyond recognition,
have been taken from the ruins thus far.
and one woman died after being carried to
the hospital. The known death list which
last night numbered only FIVE has been
more than doubled by the addition of the
following, all employees:
MARY McAXER, died at hospital.
THERESA SPANNBAUER.
ETA EPINKS
| GRACE ERENER.
/ HELEN MALONE.
JOHN E. POWERS, cash boy.
The dead recovered last night are:
MICHAEL FITZGERALD.
FRANK LEONARD.
MISS ANNA E WHITBECK.
MISS MINNIE BALLARD.
MISS ALICE L. SHARP.
In addition to these it is almost certain
that fifteen or twenty bodies stil remain
in the twisted mass OF beams, wires, plas-
ter, brick and lath that was once the main
portion of one Of the city's largest stores.
days work by skilled hands from the
wrecking crews of the New York Central
and the Delaware & Hudson railroads has
resulted in removing barely half the debris.
Shortly after daybreak the searchers
found the twelfth body. 1t was that of
Miss Helen Malone, a young girl who
shared the cashiers gallery on the main
floor with Anna Whitbeck, Minnie Bullman
and Alice Sharp, and was crushed beneath
the same iron girders that Killed her
three companions Others IN the above list
were carried out of the ruins between the
hours of 2 and o'clock this morning.
Two injured May Die.
The injured In the hospitals are doing
well with two exceptions, Miss Ella j. DOna-
hue who was one OF the first survivors to
| be taken out of the wreck has several OF
| her vertabrea fractured and It is said can
| not live. Mrs. William Borst of Window,
Mimi, who was one OF the few shoppers
injured is also reported TO be in a critical
condition. She has been visiting Mrs.
-s.I
attorney, and the two ladies were out on
an early morning shopping tour
Mrs Brass also was injured, but after
being In the wreckage several hours was
removed without serious wonds. The only
addition to the list of injured is Thomas
Rogers, a fireman, who was painfully,
| though not seriously bruised and cut while
at the work of rescue.
is thought scarcely possible that any Of
! those imprisoned in the debris can be alive.
| Since midnight only dis1gured corpses have
been taken out 1t IL thought that nine
! tenths of the bodies in the ruins are those
, OF women.
Trying to Place Blame.
| Now that the first shock Of the horror Is
past, the people OF Albany have begun to
ask who is responsible. MaYe: 5aus, Chief
Higgins OF the fire department and Com
! missioner Cantine Of the department OF
public safety. believe that the accident
was caused directly by the workmen ex-
cavating beneath the basement noOr, who
undermined one of the key brick piers In
the center OF the building, and their belief
is generally shared. Mayor Gaus said
today:
IF any person has been guilty OF negli-
gence, to which the accident Is due, he will
be punished Every guilty person will be
prosecuted as soon as we have placed the
responsibility for this disaster, which is the
worst of it's kind that has ever befallen the
city"
An investigation will be begun as soon as
the work OF rescue is over.
The work under way when the building
collapsed was in charge Of Contractor
John Dyer, jr. OF the thirty men EN-
ployed by him on the building every one
escaped In view OF the fact that nearly
all Of them were In or under the basement
in the very center Of the stucture, their
escape is almost miraculous.
Shortly after 10 o'clock the thirteenth
body was found and Identified as that OF
hy father who