The Sentinel=record., 1913-12-25
SAD ENDING TO CHRISTMAS TREE CELEBRATION AT CAL.
 UMET, MICH.
MANY TRAMPLED ID DEATH
False Alarm of Fire Caused Rush to Single Exit and Weaker Persons Were TrampIed to Death-Dead May Reach One Hundred.

Calumet Mich, Dec. 24.-Four score persons, mostly children, were killed tonight at Christmas ceIebra- tion by copper mine strikers in an Italian hall because of a needless panic caused by a false alarm of fire. | While several hundred miners and 1 their wives looked on, the children pressed eagerly toward the stage to receive Christmas presents. At this point a man put his head in at the door of the hall and yelled fire" 1 The cry was taken up by those in the hall. Everyone started for the doors. The weaker were thrown to the floor and those behind tried to climb over those ahead of them.
 The stalrways were blocked so ef- fectively that those ineide could not get out and those without could not get in to aid the panic stricken crowd in the hall It was some time before the panic subsided
 The alarm was spread outside the hall by few persons who had been near the door and escaped uuhurt. A crowd soon assembled and the work of clearing the hall was begun. The principal exit was a narrow stairway at the back of the hall When this had been cleared of the bodies that filled it to the top and quick accounting had been made. it was found that 74 corpses had been piled up beside the hall building. It is thought that a dozen others were carried away by friends
 The dead that were piled up beside the hall included 37 girls, 19 boys, 13 women and five men. Excited men and women stood about the building, some dazed by the sudden change from holiday festivities to tragedy, others calling hystercally for a miss ing child, and a few even threaten ing violence to the rescuers for keep ing them back from the long row of bodies.
 There was not much work for the l scene as soon as the alarm was spread for those who were not killed in the first rush were held upright and saved by the very force of the on- rush toward the exit Only three in jured persons were taken to the hos pitals and few went home assisted by friends.
 For many days the children of the copper mine strikers had waited eX pectantly for the Christmas tree eX- ercises that had been arranged by the 1 Womens Auxiliary of the Western Federation of Miners. The entertain ment was set for the early evening and the hall. which is on the second floor soon filled to it's limit The children selected to recite Christmas selections and sing carols had fin ished their part on the program and the man selected to play the part of Santa Claus had appeared to dis | tribute the presents that were piled around the large Illuminated tree.
 The children were instructed to march up the aisles so that the pres ents could be handed to them.
 The aisles were filled with boys and girls when a large bearded man thrust his head in at the door of the main hallway and shouted fire | A woman who was near the door realized the import of The act and seized the man by the shoulders and tried to counteract the alarm, but her efforts were futile. The man wrested himself from her grasp and ran away and the cry of fire was repeated throughout the room.
 The word was shouted n several | languages as parents rose and rushed forward to get their children. The lives were crushed out in almost a twinkling. Then the physical impos- sibility of further movement brought
 the panicky persons to their senses. It was realized too late that there
 was no fire but most of those i2 the
 hall could not get out of the jam they had caused.
 goilceHlen anu lHtlheh huiif feu Vo
 the building, to find the hall congesJ-
 ed. Several officers climbed -he fire
 escapes and entered by the windows.
 In a short time the uninjured and
 the faint had been pulled from the
 tangle of human beings and placed in
 the front of the hall
 l Other men began to pull the bodies