Cheraw chronicle. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1896-2005, 1922-02-02
STREAM OF BODIES
TAKEN FROM RUINS
LITTLE CHURCH THROWN OPEN
AND USED AS FIRST AID
STATION.
Graphic Description of the Pititul
Scene of MansIed Dead and Living
Is Given by Eye Witness.


mangled bodies, dead and living, how-
ed all Saturday night and Sunday into
the lower rooms of a Christian Sci
ence church a few hundred yards
away At the first word of the disas-
ter. the place was thrown open to
these 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 monopollzed
the space, crowding the injured in the
all-too-small rooms.
1t was merely a first aid station for
those taken crushed, but alive from
the wreckage. They were carried on
stretchers over the slippery pavement
with lines of soldiers keeping the
crowd far back.
Doctors and nurses and women
eager to bring their sympathy and
cheer to the suffering or bereaved
waited in the church. They tenderly
washed away the gray dust OF the
crumpled concrete, the CRIME and
caked blood, blackened sometimes by
hours of waiting pinned Under the de-
bris until the rescuers cut the victim
loose. Bandages were applied and
the injured were whisked away to
hospital or home.
But the dead lay long in double
rows in which they stretched across
the floor, lay until fearful relative or
friend. husband or wife or father or
mother, recognized the crushed 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 GER
tainty 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
gasped with short lived relief as they
moved on to the next huddled form.
Some of these seekers came with
the dirt and CRIME of the wreckage
upon them still. Some had passed
through the crash of roof and balcony
only to leave a dear one dead in the
tangled mass.
They had worked hours with the
rescuers to find that one, only to re-
turn now and then for hurried trip
to the chamber of death.
Eleven Husbands and Wives.
Eleven times death struck down
husband and wife, side by side. They
died as they had sat to see the swift
picturing of the film.
But many other times it was only
the wife or husband who perished
and the survivor must make the ter
rible pilgrimage of recognition in the
grim chamber of the dead.
The times when children were taken
were sparingly few.
Usually the big theater has been in
its earlier hours of a Saturday night
the gathering place of host of young
sters who come with their parents for
the weeks amusement. But the
storm that wrecked the Knickerbocker
kept most of the little folk a. home
that night.
Up the long path, trodden through
heavy snow, that ran from the i'm
promptu morgue to the Knickerbocker,
struggled the stretcher squads, army
and navy men chiefly. Commissioned
officers of the military services held
the doors of the church entrance, and
with exquisite gentleness and sympa-
they sifted 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 ceasing activity. Of the losers
in the Knickerbocker disaster, neither
the physically hurt nor the bereaved
gave voice to their suffering, and it
was the testimony of the first who
reached the theater that the outcry
there in the ruins was little and soon
stilled.
Died in Ruins.
Some of the victims were alive
when the rescue work begun, but died
before the saving hands could reach
them. One girl child pinned under
beam died with both hands in
those of an army officer who was
those of an army officer who was di-
rectir her releagse. One man. pin
ned beside his dead wife was freed
from pain with hyrOdermic needles
and survived the long night to safe
removal.
A moment after the crash, Father
John Floerch, priest Of a nearby
church. entered the ruined theater.
Knee deep in the snow that covered
all fer the benefit of the dying
around him. he gave general alb
solution and the final rites of the
church to the dying. Then he helped
in the rescue work.
Notable was the speed OF the Red
Cross organization, whose local chap
ters forced their way to the theater
site across the city whose transpor'
tation lines had been paralyzed by the
snow. and set up canteens for the
workers. hospital facilities for the
wounded. ambulances for the dead
and and the injured who had to reach
operating centers.
Ambulances and private machines
gathered up the injured as they were
brought out. Finally string of army
ambulances arrived from the Walter