The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1907-07-26
PHENOMENA HEAT
REGISTRATIONS
THOUSANDS DROP ON The
STREETS or PHILADELPHIA.
One Thousand Two Hundred In Hos
pitfalls And Many Deaths.


. throngs which had gathered to Sc
, the parade of the B. p o. Elk
dropped today, victims of a phenon
, enally deadly combination of hes
and humidity. Men, women and chi
dren fell as though under fire fror
some unseen ambuscade.
Five are dead and in ten crowde
hospitals from forty to fifty more pei
sons are dying.
Broad street, along which the pa
rade passed, looked like battlefield
Emergency hospitals were hastily con
structed under grand stands and in
side streets, while about the hospi
tails the stricken ones were laid il
rows upon the grass outside. Store:
and wagons were converted into
wards, automobiles. carriages ant
every form of vehicle was impressed
into service to help out patrols and
ambulances.
Lemonade in which adulterants had
been placed, and which was sold freely
to the crowds, was one of the factors
in the phenamenon.
Chief Police Surgeon Patterson said
tonight that many of the cases we're
due also to the fact that the sufferers
had started out early in the morning
with little or no breakfast and had
sat or stopped for four hours.
mo definite or complete record can
be kept of the cases." said DR.. Patter-
son. Probably as many more again
as our official figures show were
treated and sent directly to their
homes. | have never heard of any
thing like this before
Included among the victims were
we'll known citizens and men prom
inent in the Elks' order Henry ].
Walters, exalted ruler of Philadelphia
lodge, is seriously i'll in ST. Joseph's
hospital. Past Grand Exalted Ruler
Judge John A. Mavino, of Oakland,
Cal, was treated in one of the emerg-
ency stations and sent to his hotel.
During the hour that the victims
were falling thick, and the music of
the bands was almost drowned by
changing bells of ambulances and pa
trolls, scenes at Broad and Arch
streets, from which point the medical
forces were being directed by DIR. Pat |
terson and his staff, conveyed the inn
preston that some great disaster had |
occurred en- and women were being !
carried fainting from the crowds and |
from the stands and were being
aid out on the street. Patrols and |
were dashing up, loading
and dashing off again. Doctors with
ed crosses on their arms were bat
ling hard, dashing water on the
stricken and administering stimulants.
Men with megaphones on telephone
booths attached high above the street
o telephone poles, were shouting out
messages for ambulances.
And through all this bedlam, with
lands playing lively music and the
lags flying, the parades kept on
Now and then an Elk
would topple over, staggering toward
he ropes. The gap would close up
nd his comrades go marching on
Yard.
At o'clock the Elks were dropping
Mt of the lines by scores and seek
1g refuge. At this time a terrific
come up, putting an
brupt ending to the parade and send
lg the crowds to shelter
Had this not happened, and had
he weather continued hot another
our longer" said former director OF
ublic health, Coplin, tonight, "the
lctims would have ranged into the Ii
Ems of thousands, and the death list b
ould~ have been appalling" n
1t was not until nearly o'clock a
lat the people discovered the pois- II
led lemonade. Then fifty persons q
elapsed from drinking it on Broad 7
Id Dauphin streets, causing a panic D
the crowd. After that mounted G.
,lice and patrols raced along, con- Il
seating every bucket and throwing D
into the cutters. O
All the hospitals tonight are still G
DIVIDED with the worst cases. There ~
e in all more than 1900 cases now RI
der treatment b,
Fine Words Etc In