The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-25

questioning of the witnesses in the
 catastrophe probe yesterday. The
 picture was snapped as he left the
 city hall yesterday evening.-Photo
 by H.. G. Baird.
 I and rain seemed to come after the crash 1 W. C. Kemp, policeman, stated he was
 walking down Second avenue on Steele
 Smith side and heard crash; that he mo-
 ticed a strong wind blowing; that he could
 not have seen lightning if it had been 1 there.
 1 Police Capt R. H. Hawkins said that he saw cloud coming from southwest and went into picture show entrance to get
 out of wind and dust; then heard crash,
 ran across street and heard victims crying | beneath the wreckage.
 Dr. T. D. Parke said that he was sit ting in his office in First National Bank building and heard crash spoke to per-
 son in office, saying wall had fallen; had impression lightning struck, but did not 1 see lightning; that there were two crashes , but wall may have fallen in two sec tons.
 Fire Chief Testifies Fire Chief Middleton said that when de- partment answered alarm part of de-
 rartmeiit put out fire and rest started rsscuing people, that he had examined
 walls after fire and considered them safe; that nobody ever complained or suggest
 ed to him that walls were unsafe: that his examination was thorough; walls were not cracked or out of plumb and conditions did not warrant a report to commission that walls were dangerous; that he had experience with falling build ings, that he never knew of wall tied" q mi to fo1l ly that either strong wind or lightning must have crushed wall; that none of wall had fallen in Steele-Smith side ex- cept what fire department had pulled in there; that fire department had tried to knock down remaining parts of wall with stream which had pressure of 250 pounds
 per square inch. but wall had stood; that he knows of no other wall which Mat thews had reported safe which ever fell; that he never heard report or rumor that walls were unsafe that some years ago
 at Moore & Handley's fire wall leaned and 15O men tried to pull 1t down, but rail- 1 road engine had to be hitched to rope to
 pull down wall; that Ham wall looked to him like mighty sorry wall MT. Ward made his statement about complaint that people were not repre- l sented and Attorneys Coleman and Mar tin took their places.
 MT. Coleman stated he was very much impressed at informal fair and just way in which investigation was conducted Alexander Saw Lightning w. c. Alexander, as next witness, stated he was in operating room of Odeon thea Ire No. l; that he saw flash of lightning; that his lights went out and he was stunned by shock; noticed flash of light
 ming just as he heard noise of falling
 wall; that the morning of the day the wall fell he noticed wall was buckled or mi ita tl,A x,af1< |. l. the wall many times before, and it had always seemed plumb and straight; that his lights dimmed twice; that his feed wires are not the same and have no con-
 nection with Ham store wires. C. c. Jones stated that he was standing
 in front of theatre, wondering why wall didn't fall; that he was watching it and pretty soon it did fall;" that he did not | notice wall was leaning or bent; that he | saw no lightning; that the wall gradually | leaned and then broke loose and Kicked back" that he had not come downtown | to see wall fall
 w. l.. Robinson stated he had been in Ham store; that MT Mcleod had just ordered from him sand for his children
 to play in; that few days before he had mentioned to Mcleod that he would not
 stay under that wall "A hours and MT. Me | Leod answered he thought wall was safe; | that the remark to Mcleod was merely a
 
 ticular.
 Told of Crack in Wall Prof. s. A. Ellis stated that the after
 noon following the fire he noticed a crack l m Steele-Smith wall; that he went to. Norton's drug store and called Chief Mid dieton and the answer was that there
 was no danger that he then called MT. Waros office and someone answered | again that there was no danger: thax the | ba
 the Ham store; that this part of the wall
 IS still standing and the crack is still l there. On being questioned by Mr. Ward
 witness stated he did not know Wards
 voice, and MT. Ward then stated he
 wanted 1t known that 1t was not he who
 answered MT. Ellis.
 l D. T. Waldron stated that ha worked
 in Steele-Smith building after fire: that 1 the walls were then frozen; that he wal working under c. w. Austin; that he had
 been warned to watch the walls as when
 they thawed they might fall; that parts
 Of the wall were falling all the time he was working in the place; that he al-
 ways considered walls unsafe; that he never mentioned this opinion to any one
 in authority; that Mr. Allen had told him he thought all the walls but the first story would have to come down; that MT.
 Allen told him also that if he got con- 1 tract to build proposed basement he would l
 that he had examined every bit of walls:
 that the hottest part of the fire was at
 the east wall; that he never noticed
 buckle" in the walls; that he worked
 Tn building about a month taking out salvage; that he never mentioned his
 fears to MT. Matthews or to MT. Vince
 lock; that the duties of State Fire Mar
 shal Austin was to determine cause of fires.
 Louise McDay, negro maid stated she
 worked for Dr. Drennen and Dr. Mac gruder; that she was standing in Nor
 toms corner and saw flash of lighting
 go down into Steele-Smith building and I then saw building fall.
 Joe Pate stated that he was at Nor
 tons corner and first thing that at l tracted his attention was something | like lightning; that he looked up ard
 saw whirlpool of dust; then saw wall fall; that there was an awful gust of wind; that he saw no lightning. Cox Saw No Lightning R. s. Cox stated that he was in front of Ham store and saw no light ming nor was there any wino; that timber knocked him down, then plle
 of hrfc1r him s. ~A.