The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1913-12-26
Christmas Celebration Was
Transformed into Fright
full Disaster
CHILDREN ARE
CRUSHED UNDER FOOT
Sufferers Are Members of
Michigan Copper Strik-
ers' Families

Calumet, Mich, Dec. 26.--On the day
of rejoicing over the Savior's birth, Calu-
met stricken by a terrible catastrophe,
stood mourning beside its dead, the "
victims, mostly children, of the fright
full panic Christmas eve in Italian hall.
All bitterness in this strike.ridden coun-
try is wiped away by one great common
affection. A mass meeting Of the clti-
zens. was held yesterday to express SYM
patty and to devise ways to alleviate
the suffering of families on whom death
had fallen. Outside help was declined.
The authorities are unable to trace
the man who is said to have started
the panic There is little hope that he
will be apprehended. One theory is that
the fire cry was originated within the
hall.
The revised death list is ~.
Many stories of heroic attempts at
rescue are told. President Meyer of the
Federation of Miners has wired Presi-
dent Wilson for federal investigation.
One couple entered the town hall where
the bodies were gathered, to look for
their missing child. Their hopes ran
high when they looked at 70, but the
last body was the one that they feared
to find
How the Panic Started.
A fool who ran up the stairs shout
ing "Firel" is responsible for the death
of ~ persons who were attending a
Christmas eve entertainment for the
children of the striking copper miners of
Calumet in the Italian hall Wednesday
night. Fifty-eight of the dead are chill
dren.
There was no fire. Not candle was
lighted on the three Christmas trees in
the hall, for there were no candles; the
strikers couldn't afford them. But when
the man came rushing in from the street
with his wild cry there ensued one OF
those strange panics such as ended so
many lives in the Iroquois theatre in
Chicago
Men and women fought each other to
get down the narrow stairs into the
street. They clambered over one an
other and crushed those beneath them
crushed many more children than grown
ups because it was mainly children's
party and because the little chaps had
no chance; they couldn't go fast enough
they were borne down, suffocated, tram
pied to death. And over their bodies
and the bodies of their parents, heaped
and choking the exit space, swarmed
hundreds of others, crawling, clawing,
fighting their way, climbing over the
dead and so escaped
Nobody can say exactly who the man
was who did this thing. The Christmas
exercises had just ended and the miners
and their families were departing with
their scant treasures from the dark trees
when the man ran in from the street and
screamed his false warning. Some per-
sons say he was an Austrian miner who
had celebrated the holiday too freely.
Rush Followed the Cutlery.
The rush instantly followed his cry.
The exit doors were opened; there were
no locked doors to add to the tragedy.
TIE stairs were unencumbered. In any
sort Of order everybody in the hall could
have got out safely in a very few mo-
ments.
But what happened is this: each man
and woman caught up the nearest child
and tried to reach the stairs first. As
many children were in the hall unattend-
ed, they were left to escape as best they
might.
They scurried among their elders, add
ing their cries to the confusion, until on
the stairs they were sileneed under the
weight of the deadly blockade. Most OF
those who died had been smothered;
many of the bodies were unmarried.
Passersby threw open the outer doors
of the building at the foot of the stairs
and when the worst of the crush was
over did what they could to rescue those
who were caught in the press. But
bodies were packed so tightly that they
could not be pulled out. Finally flremen
and deputy sheriffs climbed ladders and
smashed into the hall through second
story windows. Tugging at the mass
from the tops of the stairs they man
aged TO save number of persons who
had been caught in the tangle.
The deputies shouted "There is no
fret" and grabbing those who had not
yet reached the stairs, yanked them back
into the hall and so saved other lives.
1t was all over in five minutes or so.
but it was two hours before the last
body had been carried to the sidewalk
and laid beside the curb. In the street