The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-07-19
HEATPROSTRArES THOUSANDS
IN TBR0NG DRAWN BY PARADE
or ELkS IN PHILADELPHIA.

Hospitals Victims Laid Got In
Rows on Lawns Five Dead and Ftfty
More Reported Dytns-wasens sna
stores Used for Temporary Hsspataas.
PHILADELPHIA. July is.-In the throngs
that filed the streets and stands to-day
to zee the Eiks' parade $3.50 persens fell
victims Of an unusually deadly comblnA-
ton Of heat and humidity.
Five are dead and in ten crowded hospitals
tonight fifty more are dying.
Broad street. along which the parade
passed, looked like n battlefield. Emse-
gency hospitals were hastily improvtsed
under grand stands and in side streets.
while at the hospitals the stricken onss
were laid in rows upon the grass outsids.
stores and wagons were converted into
wards. Automobiles. carriages and svssy
form of vehicle we're pressed into service
10 help out the patrol wagons and ambu-
lances.
Adulterated lemonade. which vas sold
freely to the crowds, was partly RESPONSE
BILE for the many prostrstions.
Chief Police Surgeon Patterson said
tonight that nan Of the prostrations
were due to the fact that the sufferers had
started out early In the morning with little
or no breakfast and had sat or stood In the
sun for hours
NO definite or complete record could
be kept OF the cases" said DR.. Patterson.
Probably twice as many as our oficial
figures show were treated and sent directly
to their homes. nave never heard Of any
thing like it before"
In the hour that victims we're falling
thickest the music of the bands was almost
drowned by the changing bells Of ambu-
lances and patrols. Scenes about Broad
and Arch streets. from which point the
medical forces we're being directed by Dr..
Patteron and his staff. conveyed the I'M
preston that some great disaster had
occurred.
Men and women were being carried
fainting from the crowds and from the
stands and we're being laid out in the strest.
Patrols and smbulsnces we're dashins up.
loading and deshing of again. Doctors
with red crosses on their arms were dash
ing water on the stricken AMI administer
ing stimulants. Men with meEaphones at
telephone booths attached to poles high
above the street we're shouting out such
messages as: SEND two wagons to Broad
and Green streets" -Four people down at
Broad and Spruce" "Thirty-hve have juss
fallen in the crowd at Berks street. -Don't
send any more TO the Pennsylvania Hos
pitai, it's being swamped.'
And through all this bedlam wi tn banda
playing lively music and the haks Rayfy
flying the paraders marched on. Now and
then an Elk would topple over or staggsr
toward the ropes The gap would close
up and his comrades would go ahead.
At 3 o'clock the Elks were dropping out
Of the lines by scores and seeking refuge.
Al this time a terrific Thunderstorm sans
up, putting an abrupt end 10 the parade
and sending the crowds to shelter.
Had this not happened and had the heat
continued an hour longer" said former
Director Of Public Health Coplin tonight.
the victims would have ranged into the
tens Of thousands and the death list wolld
have been appalling"
Stand after stand had been erected in
Broad street along a stretch OF three miles.
the route OF the parade. The parade was
scheduled to start at 10 this morning n
thousands Of people came into the city TO
see IL. BY half past 10 the three miles u
blazing asphalt was lined twenty deep with
the multitude. and not a seat on any Of the
grand stands was vacant. Hundreds %
thousands OF e women and children
we're packed solidly along the course. Many
Of them had been there almost since day.
break prompting positions. On this mass
Of humanity the sun beat down directly
and the asphalt threw back on them a bis
tering heat.
IL was near II o'clock when the heat
victims began TO fall. Soon the big State
Fencibles' Armory. fitted up beforehand as
a hospital, was filed 10 overlooking. Then
physicians in the crowds began TO offer
their services and they were ca gerly ac-
cepted. At 2 O'Clock the police discovered
the bad lemonade. Fifty people At Broad
street station dropped after drinking il.
Then mounted police and patrols hurried
along the route emptying into the cutters
every vessel of lemonade they could And.
BY this time the Samaritan. St. joseph.
Medico-Chi. Hahne mann. jefferson, Penn
sylvania. Polytechnic. Howard. ST. Agnes
and st. Christopher hospitals were flled.
Then from the northwest the thunder
storm came rolling down and the grand
stands began TO empty apd the crowds on
the street TO fght 20 At past the ropes.
At 3 O'Clock il was almost pitch dark
and Mayor Reyburn ordered the lights
of the court Of honor turned on. This
quieted the crowds. and when the rain
began to fall they had dispersed.
The hospitals were still filed tonight.
The parade itself was one OF the most
picturesque n the largest ever given
by the Elks. $4,000 men being in line.
John d.. O'Shea of lynn. Mas. ohair-
man Of the trustees Of tho grand lodge.
who was stricken with spoplexy O Tuss-
day. died tonight at the Bellevue strstford.
At the convention tonight Sunday.
July II. 1908. was fixed as the date for
opening the next convention at Dallas, Tex.