Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1906-01-26
FIRE CAUSES A PANIC.
EIGHTEEN NEGROES KILLED AND
FIFTY HURT IN STAMPEDE
At PHILADELPHIA.
Eight Hundred Persons on Second
Floor Of Church Building Make Mad
Rush Down Narrow Stairway, the
Weaker Ones Being Thrown to the
Floor and TrampIed to Death in the
Terrible Crush.

Floor and TrampIed to Death in the
Terrible Crush.
Philadelphia, Jan. 22.-Eghteen ne
groes were killed and fifty injured in
a stampede following1the discovery Of
a fire in St. Paul's Baptist church.
Many of the injured will die.
An examination of the dead showed
that most of them had been suffo-
Gated or had died from internal in.
juries.
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.
Pastor Johnson strove to quiet his
people; he pleaded and prayed, but
the audience turned it's back and fed
for the doors.
Eight hundred were in the audi
forum Of the church on the second
floor when the fire started. The pastor
had just concluded his sermon and
was putting on his baptismal robe
preparatory to baptising two converts
when he saw smoke issue from small
crevice along the wall in front of the
altar. A revival was in progress in
the church and the negroes were in a
state of great excitement, which may
have had something to do with the
terrible panic which followed.
Others in the congregation saw the
smoke almost as soon as the preacher
end some needless one cried Fire -
Instantly the cry swept through the
audience.
The stampede began with the first
cry. There Wsre no flames visible, no
threatening glare, just 3 tiny thread Of
smoke trickling through the wainscot-
ing, but it had driven 800 men and
women into blind, unreasoning panic
Mad Rush Down Marrow Stairs.
The glass doors at the rear Of the
room were swept aside and shattered
in the rush. Men and women began to
pile pellmell down the narrow, wind
ing stairs. The first few got out in
safety. Then some stumbled and fell
and the sacrifice began.
In three seconds after the stampede
began there was a tangled mass, most
ly women, who were the weakest, ly-
ing in writhing mass at the foot OF
the stairs, trampled upon and crushed.
Men and women no longer ran down
the stairs; they fell
In the terrible crush few of the wo-
men or children had any chance for
life. OF the ten victims taken to the
children's hospital seven were women,
two were small children and the other
was an old man.
The pastor of the church, a man Of
powerful physique and strong voice,
continued to appeal to the crowd in
the rear to stop their rush, but none
would heed. Over the PROSTATE forms
the crowd went, crushing the life out
of those who were unable to extricaUe
themselves.
When those who came down the
AAoAAe o'"ii . iiau lCAL JIG OuliIlluS d tSl-
rible sight presented itself to the res
cuers. The first floor and the stair
way to the bend We're covered three
deep with the dead and dying. On the
street hundreds were shrieking for
help and looking for their missing
loved ones.
The fire was most triaing affair.
A defective flue started small fire in
the chimney, which caused smoke to
issue through the crevices in the Sec
ond floor. Whether the flames were
extinguished or burned themselves out
is not known, but there was no fire in
the building when the firemen set to
work.