The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1912-05-14
last RITES GIVEN
BY PRIEST IN CAvE|N
Lowered With Rope to Within
Is Feet Of Where "232"
Lay Buried.

A crowd that pressed upon the police
lines and threatened at times to get
beyond control stood for three hours
yesterday at Eighty-fourth street and
Nineteenth avenue, Bath Beach. watch
ing firemen. police and laborers try to
save the life OF an Italian who had
been caught in a caveln in sewer
excavation. At the end OF that time
the body Of the italian. who was known
only by his employers as 2S:. his gang
number. was recovered.
Nineteenth avenue Ia soon 10 he paved
and before the paving begins they are
repairing the sewer pipes from Eighty
second street to Eighty fourth street.
Gropano Ruffino OF 55i Seventeenth
street. Brooklyn, and Frank Merevino OF
55s Seventeenth street. were bossing
about twenty Italians at work upon
the excavations yesterday afternoon.
In the middle OF Eighty fourth street
a shaft had been sunk through the dirt
thirty feet to the big pipes. Another
shaft Of the same depth further up the
street connected with the first by a
tunnel. to walk through which a man
must stoop. Suddenly there came a
rending and the noise Of cracking wood.
and the shorings Of the Eighty fourth
street shaft slowly gave way. LETTING
some fifteen feet OF earth down upor
the men at the bottom.
Immediately the Italian contractor
began running about and shouting
John NJ. kerrigan. a Bath Beach con.
tractor. passing in his buggy. jumped
out and took things In hand. He sen,
one man racing for a telephone to lie,
Brooklyn police headquarters know.
what had happened. and then set tc
work bossing the rest Of the gang tha
had been standing about wailing with
fear
At first nobody seemed to know lust
how many Italians were at work at the
bottom OF the shaft when the dirt came
| sliding down. But In a few minutes
three very frightened laborers came
climbing up the ladder from the shat,
further down the street. They had fied
when they heard the first cracking
running doubled over down the dark
tunnel to the foot of the ilLder that
would bring them to safety from the
other shaft. But they had left one OF
their comrades behind. a man the,
called Dominick. but who. 1t was dis
|
was down on the lists OF the compan,
az "232.''
While Kerrigsn was keeping the Ital
ians at their digging nre truck from
Engine Company li3 came banging w
and with II came the reserves from tho
Bath Beach police station in charge o,
Police Capt. O'Connor. a Coney Islans
Hospital ambulance and Battalian Chic
John J. Donohue got there neck ans
neck. and by this time all Bath Beacf
was headed for the spot.
The fremen helped the labOrers dis
for while. but they saw that kerrigal
, had enough men to do the work ant
| they left after an hour. The men hal
10 dig away from the bottom of tn,
shaft where the man lay and sink new
snoring. The Rev. Father George Gard
ner of st. Finbar's Catholic Church y
| Bay Twentieth street asked II he cOul,
give The buried labOrer the last rites
| \ rope was passed under his arms an,
he was lowered down to fifteen fee
above where the man was buried. Their
he administered extreme JUNCTION.
The work kept on and the crowd grew
steadily. giving the police all they Coul
do to keep them from breaking the line
and getting out over the treacherou
earth until ! o'clock. when the body wa
reached The man was at tho very bot
tom of the shaft and had evidently bee
killed Immediately by the mass Of cart
that had crumpled him up. His bod
was taken to the Bath Beach police sta
| tiDn