Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-04-26
STORM WRECKS
CIRCUS TENTS;
ONE MAN KILLED
Hurricane at Jersey City Over
turns Animal Cages, Crush
ing Attendants Beneath.
REIGN OF TERROR
FOLLOWS FALL OF CANVAS
Horses Stampede While Gagged
Beasts Scream, Roar and Bite
at Bars Holding Them.

JERSEY CITY April 26.-Fifty-two
cages each containing one or more wild
animals were overturned during a heavy
storm this morning when the big tent
belonging to the Frank a. Robbins cir
Gus at Baldwin and Ocean avenues was
torn from its fastenings. Under the
falling tent and topping wagons one
man was crushed to death, a second
was mortally injured, W. were severely
hurt and several others were cut and
bruised. so that medical attention was
required.
While the forty-mile gale continued it
was impossible to control the Tapping
tent or to get the Gagged animals, which,
maddened from fright, were screaming.
roaring and biting at the bars holding
them in check.
Such was the pandemonium that all
that section of Jersey city was aroused.
Men and women ran from their homes
into the rain and wind n demanded
to know the trouble. The police re-
serves locked to the scene from every
precinct in the city.
The wind had become dangerous be-
fore midnight. There were two tents
staked in readiness for the opening cir
Gus performance tomorrow. These tents
had peer tied down with the greatest
care. and the twenty-five men sleeping
in the one in which the wagons con-
tanning the Gagged animals were smell
tered felt secure. In one corner of this
tent were ten circus horses, all of them
tethered.
The other was the exhibition tent.
Nothing was stored in it except seats
and some empty vehicles. As the storm
increased in fury the animals in the
cages began an uproar. some of the
mon arose and attempted to quiet them.
but the animals were in a panic.
Under one of the wagon cages lay
mike. Reardon, a trainer. n an as
sistant trainer known only as South
Carolina" Reardon called to the other
men:
Let 'em alone. You can't do my
thing with EN- till the wind dies
TIE men ~retreated from tine cages
lust as one side of the tent began to
swerve. The guy ropes had given
The men started for the open,
but they were not quick enough. The
tent swooped down on them, its big
poles cracking. Every animal wagon
under the canvas was turned over, and
when the animals found themselves in
this mix-up they began to fight for
freedom.
The cage under which Reardon lay
two lions. When they got
to Reardon the doctors said they could
do nothing for him. South Carolina
Law with both arms and both legs
h,clxap sO1 informal iniuriGS.
The cries Of the men under the fallen
Weighing them down. Some OF
animals. Paddy" Moran and Texas
were so badly hurt hat they could not
their way to the open.
All this while the horses were strain
at their halters, witt the heavy
canvass Weighing them donw. Some OF
the horses were thrown from their feet,
but struggled up and tugged at the
that held them until they gave
way.
The horses gained the open before
the men pinned under the tent. In the
scramble for safety more than one man
was cut and bruised by hoofs. h
horses stampeded about the tent, max
ing it dangerous for anyone to APP
proach.
w men the EIOFil SuiSliFu Llt ppilNI
called the fremen to aid them in rails
ing the fallen tent. All this while the
wild animals were screaming and biting
at the iron bars.
1t was slow work removing the can
and slower work getting the up
turned cages right side up. When the
police and fremen approached these
the panic-strieken beasts tried to
them with their claws through
the bars.
The animals had been brought from
quarters at County Park yes
The elephants were caught in
a ~drenching rain and were returned to
the park. The keepers say that had
they been caught under the falling can
vas Jersey City would have had a real
elephant hunt on its hands.
During the early morning the rain
down in torrents and the fright
ened lions. tigers, jaguars, bears,
hyenas, wild boars, ~kangar9os, wild
goats, snakes, etc, shivered in the wet.