The New York herald., 1922-01-30
CHURCH A MORGUE
And A HOSPITAL
wr
Christian Science Edifice
Placed at Disposal Of
Theater Victims.
DEAD PLACED in AISLES
WomHed Receive First Aid
From Physicians and
Scores Of Nurses.
TRAGIC SCENES PREVAIL
Relatives Frantically Seek
Missing and Hope Against
Hope in Search.
TRAGIC SCENES PREVAIL

WASHINGTON. Jan. 30 (Associated
Press) ).-Recovered from the wreck
and horror Of the ruined Knicker-
booker Theater, pitiful stream of
mangled bodies. dead and living,
flowed all last night and to-day into
the lower rooms of Christian Science
church few hundred yards away.
At the first word of the disaster tie
place was thrown open to those
stricken folk and the hundreds of
others who came to search for their
dead or injured, and as the full weight
OF the losses became known the dead
monopolized the space. crowding tie
injured in the all too small rooms.
1t was merely a first aid station
Tor those taken crushed, but alive,
from the wreckage. They were car
ried in stretchers over the slippery
pavement with lines of soldiers keep
ing the crowds far back Surgeons
and nurses and women eager to bring
their sympathy and cheer to the suf-
church. They tenderly washed away
the marks Of injury, black some
times by hours Of waiting pinned
under debris until the rescuers cut
the victim loose. Bandages were ap-
piled and then the injured were taken
away to hospital or home.
AisIes of the Dead.
But the dead lay along in the double
rows in wh:.... :hey stretched across the
floor, lay until fearful relative or
friend, a husband or wife or father or
nother recognized the crused form
at last. Up and down these aisles of
The dead walked those whose fears had
drawn them here because of some one
missing in the family circle. Women
already weeping In certainty Of what
they must find sooner or later beneath
the kindly blankets that shielded the
sleepers made the journey of sorrow
many times before they found what
they sought. Men, with working faces,
leaned to draw back the coverings, and
then gasp with short lived relief as
they moved on to the next huddled FORM
Some OF these seekers came with the
Girt and Crime OF the wreckage upon
them still. Some had passed through
the crash OF the roof and balcony. only
to leave dear one dead in the tangled
mass. They had worked hours with
the rescuers to find that one, only to
turn now and then for hurried trip
to the chamber of death.
Eleven times death struck down hus-
band and wife, side by side. They died
as they had sat to see the swift pic
turing of the filn. But many other times
II was only the wife or the husband
who perished. and the survivor must
make the terrible pilgrimage of recog-
milton In the grim chamber of the dead.
The times when children were taken
were sparingly few. Usually the big the
ater has been in its earlier hours of a
Saturday night the gathering place OF a
host OF youngsters. come with their
parents for the weeks amusement. But
the storm that wrecked the Knicker-
booker kept most Of the little folk at
home that night.
Up the long path. trodden through
heavy snow. that ran from the Inn
promptu morgue to the Knickerbocker,
struggled the stretcher squad. army ana
navy men mostly. Commissioned OFF,
GERS of the military services held the
doors Of the church entrance, and with
exquisite gentleness and sympathy sfted
out those who sought their dead from
others drawn by morbid curiosity.
Above all, there was quietness at the
church in spite of the urgent and never
ccaslng activity. The losers In the
Knickerbocker disaster, neither the ply
sically hurt nor the bereaved, gave voice
TO their suffering. And 1t was the tes-
timony of the first who reached the the
ater that the outcry there in the FUN
was little and soon stilled.
work of Brave Priest.
Some OF the victims were alive when
rescue work begun. but died before the
saving hands could reach them. One
girl child. pinned under a beam, died
with both hands I'm those of an army
officer who was directing her release.
one man, pinned beside his dead wife,
was freed from pain with hypodermic
needle and survived the long night to
safe removal.
A moment after the crash Father
John Floersch. priest. entered tho ruined
theater. Knee deep in the snow that
covered all, for the benefit of the dying
around him he gave general absolution
and the final rites of the church to the
dying. Then he plunged Into the rescue
work.
Notable was the speed Of the Red
Cross organization. whose local chap
tors forced their way 10 the theater
site across a city whose normal trans
portation lines had been paralyzed In
the snow. and set up canteens for the
workers, hospital facilities for the
wounded, and ambulances for the dead
and the injured, who had to reach op-
Grating centers. Scores of surgeons and
nurses answered their summons with
Es.are c-sss, and their succor both
saved lives OF the victims and sus-
tained the unfiagging zeal OF the res
cuers.