The Washington herald., 1922-01-30
WRITER ON SCENE
ASROOF CRASHES
TELLSOF TRAGEDY
Only Half Dozen Escape
Through Exits From
Theater.
BY CLAYTON wHITEHILL,

among the ruins. Nurses and doc
: tors, stretcher-bearers, and thou
sands of silent and drawn onloCk-
ers working or waiting at their
posts within and without.
This is the picture of Washing
tons greatest tragedy in years
the collapse of the Knickerbocker
Motion Picture Theater. show placs
OF the Capitals moviedom, at Eigh-
teenth street and Columbia road.
The picture has been maintained.
reel after reel, in all of its horror,
since shortly after $50 Saturday
night
Groans of the injured and dying.
for the most part, had been s;illeG
by noon of the Sabbath. wien tie
great blizzard which had sw -. the
city completely spent itself and the
sun shone down upon the fury and
tragedy the STORM had wrought.
Rescuers held out slight hope Of
recovering alive the few still left
in the ruins late yesterday. who
had been engulfed in the avalanche
OF death-dealing wreckaGe which
had swept down upon some four
hundred movie fans.
Falls With Crash.
1t happened that the writer was
passing the theater at the hour the
tragedy occurred. From within the
notes of the organ had just died
away. There was a sound like ths
sighing of a great wind. then a
thunderous rumble which SHOCK the
ground underfoot as the snow-.aden
roof disappeared within the walls.
With a crash the exit doors were
literally blasted out. Then silenceN
followed almost Immediately by the
low moan OF many subdued voices.
punctuated by shrieks of frigntercd
and injured within.
Noise of panic followed. Those
nearest the exits stampeded for
safety. Charles Whitcomb. of New
York, who had purchased the last
ticket sold at the theater per-
formance had just opened the door
to enter the house. when the roof
crashed. The force of the impact
hurled him across the lobby
through the outside door into the
street. Only slightly bruised, he
muttered thanks to God for his
escape.
Only Half Dozen Escape.
Not more than half a dozen per-
sons. seated on the outermost aisle
of the orchestra were as fortunate
as whitcomb in escaping.
Meantime, from the great snow
drifts. blocking all traffic without.
thousands of people appeared as il
by magic. From nearby. fire sta
tions companies summoned by a
general alarm fought desperately
with their heavy equipment to-
he
Guided by shrieks.
Those who reached the disaster
first saw a hill. three stories high,
gray and CHASTITY. Now and then
means of women and children and
shouts of imprisoned men pierced
the air above the clang and roar
of fire engines and ambulances.
These cries guided the rescuers.
The hill of ruin was made more
chastity by the shadows cast upon
IL by the standing walls and the
few electric lights that had not
been broken by the collapse. Snow
driven by a high wind swept down
on the wreckage.
Probably the wind and cold and
driven snow silenced the early
corners. They expressed their anX-
iety in faint means and followed
the rescuers through a side door
near the stage where flood lights
and a border of prism colors still
burned and cast their soft refiec-
tion on the silver screen That
was the only note of color during
the first moments following the
cavein-
A Mass of Ruin.
4 closer survey revealed high up
on the hill of ruin the overturned
protector house, great bulk OF
plaster-stained metal. resembling
a giant distorted head. The movie
machines and thousands of feet OF
film were all inside there. black
and tangled mass. The operators
too, were in there, or in the wreck
age nearby. Yesterday. two babies
were taken from this pile. unin-
jured save for slight frost bites OF
their tiny doubled fists
Above. forming a jagged horizon
were four walls. ripped clean of their
burden, the roof. All the painted
decorations of the theater, the gilded
holdings and ornaments were ND
den in the CHASTITY pile. Great CHUNKS
of the hardened lime formed an al
most solid cover to the horror. The
balcony. jutting far into the orches-
ira. had collapsed with the roof, so
that most of those occupying the
higher-priced downstairs seats lay
in a sepulchre with twofold heavy
roof. Beneath that were the orches-
ira chairs sustaining to a slight ex-
tent the overwhelming weight Of de-
bris-
Hurled Into Orchestra.
Mrs F. W. Richardson had just
taken her seat in the front row OF
the balcony when the roof fell in. II
heard a sound that I thought was a
heavy wind sweeping over the roof"
she said. THE whole place tfem-
bled and then suddenly l found my
self sweeping headlong with the bal
cony into the orchestra pit" Mrs.
Richardson suffered a wrenched leg
and back.
Those of US who were in the bal
cony got of comparatively easy"
said C. F. Alexander. another to
be seated upstairs
II was partially pinned in by
section of the roof, and a little boy
was thrown on top of me. Both Of
US. however. escaped without seri-
Gus injury"
Equally fortunate were DR.. and Mrs
Canine, who occupied seats in the
last row Of the balcony when the
crash came.
Although the physician suffered a
broken left arm. he returned to the
wreck and aided In the treatment
of the injured as soon as his arm
had been set Mrs. Canine suffered
a fractured rib and minor scratches.
Roth she and her husband