The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-22

Pulling out knife. one of the workmen cut off part of her hair
 Don't cut my hair" she screamed, but the fireman slashed away, and then as an- other caught her about the shoulders as she fell back through the hole and began to pull. her clothing ripped. Don't ruin my dress" she cried. but the fellow pulled away and when she finally was rescued she was minus a good part of her hair and nearly all
 of her clothing.
 The girl, it was stated. seemed to be badly bruised and scratched, but SC far
 as could be told then was not seriously injured.
 Talked With Rescuers
 A feature of the earlier part of the
 rescue work was the conversation car
 ried on between those buried under the wreckage and the rescuers. Bucket lines were formed, the buckets being
 filled full of brick and then passed
 from hand to hand out to the street
 where they were emptied and by an- other line passed back again. In spite
 of the presence of death and suffering,
 the majority of the rescuers were gay. talking and joking.
 But the solemnity of their task was repeatedly emphasized as those at the front of the crews would hear a new victim moan or cry for help and like l an electric current the magic word would pass down the entire limo for everybody to listen. Immediately the large army of workers would fall into silence that was eloquent as those farthest in the debris would try 10 locate the victim; then the word to go ahead would come and the stream
 of wreckage would again pass out of dirgr n Ia atr President Ward had everyone of the negro convfcts of the city brought to
 the place and put to work, while a great number of negroes standing about were hired and pressed into the rescue work. In addition hundreds of
 white men, some of them prominent business men, dived into the wreckage and worked side by side in the dust and grime.
 At first rescuers were flighty, fear ing that more of the wall might fall. but soon settled down to their work stopping only when the word was passed that a voice had been heard in the ruins and the leaders were trying to locate it.
 Remaining Wall Knocked Down Shortly after 8 o'clock every worker was taken out of the two buildings
 and the fire department shot a heavy
  portion of the Steele Smith wall which
 was leaning badly and those directing the rescue work feared might fall and bury many of the rescuers. The stream | finally succeeded in pushing down the portion of the wall that was threaten ing and the work was resumed, but the enormous amount of water that had then been poured into the build ing made the clearing of the wreck 1 age more disagreeable.
 By this time great piles of the de- brls filled Second avenue, in front of l the scene. It consisted of everything l from a brickbat to a can of coffee or l pair of shoes. It was then believed l by the rescuers that it would be late l today before all of the bodies were re- | covered.
 l Joe Bailey, one of the rescuers, came cut of the Ham store about o'clock last night and said he believed there were 15 or 20 dead and dying under
 the wreckage yet
 l "I have been clear through to the alley and everywhere can be heard I the moans and groans of the injured, ; he said.
 "At the rear of the store I could 1 see down through the wreckage the
 body of a girl. She was dead. The body
 was lying close to what seemed to oo l a refrigerator. There will have to be I
 before her body is reached" Injured Terribly Mangled l The majority of the injured as they were taken from the ruins and hur-
 ried into waiting ambulances appeared | to be terribly mangled. One man, who was still conscious, appeared to have his whole faced crushed in. 1 Another--"Jimmy" Shook-was ur-
 der the wreckage about four hours be- | IL T.. and when they did finally bring him
 out both of his legs from the hips down seemed simply crushed into a pulp. He was perfectly conscious and l talked to the men who carried his cot out to the ambulance The agony he suffered during those four hours must
 have been more than words could ex- l press.
 1 When it was seen that Fescue work
 would be prolonged Dr. Elwyn Bal lard. scout commissioner, and E. F. Cleveland scoutmaster of Ensley with
 a corps of 12 Boy Scouts, went to the
 scene and offered their services. Twen- ty-four gallons of coffee were served | to the rescuers. The boys were busy
 all night running errands and making | themselves generally useful. l The enormous dust cloud created by l the falling wall damaged many other stores on Second avenue. The Ash l jewelry store was considerably dam aged and the Ideal cloak store, four | doors up the street, was enveloped in a cloud of dust.
 "The first thing we knew here," said
 Manager Aland, twas an awful crash and the whole store got black with 1 dust. The salesgirls were panic strick- en, but we succeeded in getting them out without injury. How all this dust 1 came in here is mystery l The Ideal counters were covered with