New-York tribune., 1922-09-05
Diners Spilled
As Chop Slley
Shop CollaT'ses
Sagging Floor in Broad ST.,
Newark, Building Puts
Patrons to Roat, Forget
full of Personal Property
Chinese Flee via Window
Cafe Adjoining Also Bereft
of Crowd; Homecoming
Motor Traffic Is Diverted

About fifty Americans who were max
ing the best of rainy Labor Day In
the Shanghai Restaurant, at 72s Broad
Street, Newark, at $3.50 o'clock last
night were suddenly spilled on the floor
amid such wild confusion that most
OF them thought for moment they
had fallen through the earth and come
out OF China in the busiest days of the
Boxer uprising. Yellow men were run
ming around everywhere madly shout
ing Orientalisms which might be in
terpreted as death to the foreign devils
and brandishing carving knives and
tablespoons.
Every so often one of them jumped
cut the window or began fighting with
another Chinese, apparently convinced
that he had something to do with the
uproar. The floor was Uttered with
oyerthrown chairs and broken crock
cry. Giasses were rolling aimlessly
| about. All the windows had been
broken. In general there was little
left of the familiar appearance of the
| restaurant.
Kick" Put in Cafe Glasses
In Walsh's saloon, on the ground
tioor at No. 730 Broad Street, there was
just as much confusion, but there the
score OF patrons went under different
spell, thinking that the soft drinks
acquired an illegal kick. In Schiller,s
store, underneath the restaurant, the
impression prevailed that the fruit and
vegetables on sale there had come to
| life and started an attack on the pro
| prietor and his two customers.
! When the confusion subsidized bit it
was learned that the ground had given
! in at the juncture of the two buildings
causing the walls to sink nearly three
feet. The floors were torn almost loose
from their noorings, but they held
safely long enough to let every one in
the two structures make a safe exit
and even allow three courageous police
men to so in after all the cloaks, wraps
and valuables abandoned by the diners
| in their haste to follow the Chinese in
their flight. No one was injured, but
! 1T is thought had the walls sagged an
other two feet all the ceilings would
have fallen.
When the diners and drinkers had
| reached safety and got back their be-
| longings they recovered from their
| fright and decided the show was q
good one. They lined up on the OPP
posite side of the street to be sure
of being on hand when the buildings
completed their collapse, and were
soon Joined by crowd Of nearly 5000,
all cheering every time bit OF brick
| or plaster fell.
Police reserves were rushed to tho
scene and with difficulty roped off
about 200 feet OF the eastbound side
| Of the street, after driving the specta-
tors back to the opposite curb. This
| released the westbound traffic, which
! had been held UP by the crowd, But
| definitely blocked the stream Of auto
| mobiles returning to New York from
Jersey resorts.
The police finally succeeded in re-
routing the motor traffic via back
streets, but by that time the tie-up
was so heavy that the narrow ways
would hardly accommodate the rush.
1t was nearly midnight before normal
road conditions were restored.
Rain Believed ut Fault
No investigation into the cause of
! the accident was possible, while the
buildings continued in a state of i'm
minent collapse. The commonly ac-
cepted theory was that the rain had
undermined the foundations, possibly
already Weakened by excavation work
which was in progress to deepen the
basement under No. 728.
The buildings are on the corner of
Broad and Commerce Streets, In the
heart of the busiest section Of New
ark, and near the Park Place station of
the Hudson and Manhattan tubes. Both
are landmarks.