The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-01-22
EIGHTEEN KILLED
In CHURCH PANIC
Fire in Philadelphia Church
Causes Wild Stampede of
Colored Worshipers.
journal SpeciaI Serxice.

SoUTnal special Service rr . -
Philadelphia, Jan. 22.-Eighteen ne
a stampede following the discovery of
a fire in ST. Paul's Baptist church at
last night 8 services. Many of the in
jured will die. :
The text from which Rev. Mr.. John.
son preached was the third verse of
the seventh chapter of II Kings: -
"Why sit we here until we die9'
When the fire was discovered, the
organist continued to play, increasing
the volume of his instrument to thun-
derous tones, but the refrain could not
be heard, drowned out in the medley
of shouts and screams from the panic
stricken negroes.
Mr.. johnson strove to quiet his peo-
ple;. he pleaded and prayed, but the
audience turned it's back and fed for
the doors. -
Eight hundred were in the auditorium
of the church on the second floor when
the fire started. The pastor had just
on his baptismal rob- preparatory to
baptizing two converts, when he saw
smoke issue from a small crevice along
the wall in front of the altar. A re-
vlval was in progress and the ne
graes were in a state of great excite
ment, a fact which may have had some
thing to do with the terrible panic
which followed.
Panic seizes Crowd.
Others in the congregation saw the
smoke almost as soon as the preacher,
and some needless one cried "fire.'
Instantly the cry swept thru the au-
dience.
The choir was singing an anthem.
The singers changed their music to
shrieks of fear, the ushers who were
taking the collection dropped their col
lection baxes.
The stampede began with the first
cry. There were no flames visible, no
threatening glare; Just a tiny thread
of smoke trickling thru the wainscot-
ing, but it had driven 800 men and
women into a blind, unreasoning panic.
The glass doors at the rear of the room
were swept aside and shattered in the
rush. Men and women began to pile
pell nell down the narrow. winding
Then some stumbled and fell, and the
sacrifice began.
ALL Rushed to Same Stairs.
There was no stopping for any per.
son once he had Joined the mad rush:
If any strove to stop he was pushed
on by the resistless mass that crowded
and showed and struggled above: By
some curious circumstance very few
elected to descend by the south side
stairs. which are exactly the same as
those on the north side, except that the
entrance is at the other end Of the hall
way. Everybody tried to get down the
one flight and all wanted to get dow
at the same time.
In three seconds after the stampede
began there was a tangled mass, mostly
women who were the weakest. lying in
writhing mass at the foot of the stairs
trampled upon and crushed. Men anC
women 40 longer ran down, the stairs
they fell. -.
The railing at n side was swept
away like a straw and broken into
splinters against the farther wall. The
aperture between the stairs and the
wall, about three feet wide. was flleG
with the mass of human beings unable
z to drag themselves out. The wide space
those who had fallen and were being
Women Suffer Most.
In the terrible crush few Of tn,
women or children had any chance TO
life. Of the ten victims taken to tn
Children 8 hospital, seven were womer
two were small children and the othe
was an old man.
damned in that black hole at the foo
of the +stairs,' said Police Sergean
Hamilton, who was one Of the first O
the police to arrive. "Now and the
a. black form would roll from the hea
and stagger to the sidewalk, but tn
majority were we'd ed in 50 tightly thu
they could not give away until tn
police and fremen' pulled them out on
by one.'