Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-01-31
Men, Women and Children
Are Victims of Disaster at
Washington, D, Co. Moving
Picture Palace

the knlckerbocker tneater roof mere
Saturday night-the greatest movie
picture theater catastrophe in the
history Of the country-stood at ia
as dawn came over the grief-strick-
en- city.
Deaths were reported hourly from
the hospitals throughout the city.
where IA injured victims Of the dis.
aster, many of whom are near death,
were being cared for. With the death
list constantly mounting, police Off
Gals and rescue workers believed
it would pass 1875.
The rescue squads which have
worked frantically for Sc hours to
extricate htose trapped in the great
gaping hole of the theater believed
this morning that all the dead had
been removed.
Workers still were carrying out
debris, however, and making final
Search.
Investigations to Start
Several Investigations as to the
cause Of the catastrophe, which
ranks second in fatalities to the
Iroquois theater fire in Chicago. will
be started at once.
Senator Arthur Capper, Kansas,
in the senate today will demand that
the senate district committee make
complete inquiry. A similar re-
quest probably will be made in the
house.
The district commissioners. the 10.
cal building inspector and the cor6r
ner, all have ordered comprehensive
probes.
The coroner's jury probably will
be summoned today.
When dawn crept over the
stunned city, the night shift OF
marines was relieved and another
called.
They had picked, shovelled, bur.
rowed, hauled many weary hours,
practically combing the debris twice
and showing out great masses of II
into the roadway about the theateF
| The marine and army officers super
! intending the labor agreed that the
pit had given up all it's dead. 1t
! was inconceivable, they said, that
there should be other corpses there.
The last body, that of James Shea,
South Hadley Falls, Mass, medical
student of Georgetown university,
had been recovered about o'clock
last evening Shortly before the
marines had dug out the mutilated
body Of Shea's companion, pretty
Virginia Feraud, sister Of Guate'
malan Minister Bianchi, and borne
it to the morgue in the First Church
of Christ, Scientist, where tearfuily
it had ben identified by Mrs. Miguel
Prado and by the stunned diplomat.
Stoical Courage
Before that time, the last live
person to be brought out was Scotr
Montgomery, whose stole courage
was on par with that of the heroes
of the Titanic who said women ana
children first" Crushed badly, ne
had cried out to rescue his compan-
ion. Veronica Murphy, whose BODY
Law beside him, and to help women
and children before they thought or
taking him out. They got him out
in the morning and sent him to WAX
ter Reed hospital, operated on him
and he died. y.
Sunday had been q day Of horror
in the church morgue. Sobbin9'
fainting women, strained men strug-
| Cling to- hide their tears, had one
by one identified their dead.
Hour after hour of the day., ON
into the night and still there when
dawn peeped into the gruesomf
morgue basement were a corps OF
nurses-some Red Cross, some for'
mer army nurses. some volunteer
nr;vate nurses-with a score or doc"
/ tors, waited for new cases, hoping
| 'apainst hone that there might be
| some with a spark Of life in theln.
But as the Sabbath night wore on.
they gave up that hope. Now ana
then. marines brought in gruesomes
bloody, dirt-stained relics OF the
| dead-hats, elothin, watches, notes
hooks. fountain pens, rescued from
tha debris. But never a body more.
The detectives from headquarters.
sickened by the sight of bodies
I +a T1C0Rn1ZaS
HE only by clothing or articles on,
the person, generally jewelry, wait
ed. too, to check up If any more
should come.
Society Women Help
| Society women, volunteering for
service as members of the Red Cross,
maintained stations for coffee, sand
Wiches and cigarettes. Pretty girls
who had never seen death before,
braved the shock Of seeing bodies
! unspeakably mangled, so that they
could "do their bit" among the ma
rines, soldiers, firemen and police"
men.
And, the men tagged by long
hours and nauseated by things re-
sembling the battlefields of France
| kept digging with an energy almost
super-himan. Under the CHASTITY
glare of arc lamps and gas torches.
| they burrowed and shovelled. Long
Q lines obeyed the command "Heave
/ to-" as they snaked ou> massive
steel Orders. The mountain OF de-
bris, picked over and over, was drag
ged out gradually, but there was
still huge quantity inside the thea
ter which looked like some she'll
wrecked ruin Of the western front.
Burly, begrimed workers from the
navy yard. with suffering oxy-
! acetylene torches, chopped through
| Orders still athwart the heap of
concrete which had crashed through