Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1922-02-01
Representative smithwick Of
Florida Gives Experience
of Crash in Washing
ton Theatre.

lanche of broken plaster, bricks.
snow, splintered wooden and twisted
steel beams catapulting upon the au-
4 dience while the orchestra played and
a comedy film ground out it's de-
scription of the Knickerbocker thea
tire disaster given today by Repre-
sentative John II. Smithwick of Pen
sacola, Fla. He was in the balcony OF
the theatre when the roof collapsed
under the weight of snow and escap-
ed unaided-just how he can not re-
call-with more or less serious hurts.
"The orchestra was playing beautl-
full music and a comic film was run
Ming" said Mr.. Smithwick, lying in
his bed, ~bandaged and with his face
and hands covered with cuts. "Sud-
denly there was a sharp crack. look
ed UP and saw a great assure running
across the ceiling. 1t was right over
nv head. 1 instantly realized what
was happening. The plaster began to
fall, dropping down in large and
small chunks all over the theatre, it
seemed to me. While I was looking up
a great piece right over my head
started to fall. I ducked, crouching,
involuntarily, I supposed down be-
tween the seats. The piece struck the
seat right where I had been sitting.
The force was broken by the seat,
but it pinned me down where 1 was
crouching. The noise was awful. 1t
was a great, tremendous roar. 1t was
simply indesctibable. I never can for
get it.
wIn the midst of the roaring were
shrieks of cries of women and chill
dren and a few shouts of men. There
were cries for help, groans and worst
of all, the means of those in terrible
pain. 1t was awful. I can't describe. l
see it all the time-those poor chill
dren and men and women crying and
groaning there.
Few in Balcony.
"There were only a few Of US in
the balcony. Luckily there weren't
more. The balcony gave way and
crashed, soon after the ceiling began
to fall on those on the lower floor.
They were caught the worst. W. in
the balcony were more fortunate.
CT guess there las a lapse of may
be 20 seconds, hardly more, before
the balcony fell. Funny but it spun
around, kind of twisted as its sup
ports gave way and it swung down on
those below. 1t didn't go straight
down, Just kind of slid sideways and
slanting, I suppose, from the weight
of the debris that had fallen on US
upstairs.
"I don't know how I got out from
where I was crouching under that
chunk of plaster that had fallen on
me. I really believe it weight all OF
500 pounds. And 1 think L moved that
plaster with my shoulders. Anyway, l
crawled out between the seats to
where I saw a small hole in the plas-
ter above. 1 forced myself up through
that hole, wiggling and showing. Then
1 crawled out over the snow and plas-
ter, over the tangled debris, to the
doors on the Eighteenth street side.
rAcross the aisle from me when
the crash came was a little fellow
1 neve saw him again and I wonder
if he is dead-who laughed and roar
err at every especially funny part of
the film. I don't know what became of
him or the others in the balcony af-
ter we were showered with plaster.
"As the ceiling broke the plaster
fell first in chunks. 1t was just like
an ice pond breaking up. The roof
didn't give way on one crash. 1t
seemed to break up everywhere. That
let in the snow, which came in
through the broken places where the
ceiling had given away.
Retains Composure.
''It's queer, but l was conscious all
the time when / was pinned down
under there by that great piece of
ceiling; my mind, when I saw the
ceiling falling and afterward, was
Just as clear and collected as it is
now. 1 knew / was hurt some, but l
didn't know how badly. 1t seemed
that my time had come. I lived a year
I tell YOU, pinned down between the