The Pickens sentinel. (Pickens, S.C.) 1911-2016, 1922-02-02
uI,ILniv, III DUUiLJ
TAKEN FROM RUINS
LITTLE CHURCH THROWN OPEN
AND USED AS FIRST AID
STATION.
Graphic Description Of the Pislful
Scene of MangIed Dead and Living
Is Given by Eye Witness.

| Washington.-R from the
wreck and horror Of the ruined Knick-
| erbockcr theater, a pitful stream OF
mangled bodies, dead and living, flow.
cd all Saturday night and Sunday into
the lower rooms Of Christian Sci.
ence church 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 monopolized |
| 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
strctchers 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
crumplcd concrete, the CRIME and
| caked blood. blackcned sometimes by
hours 6f waiting pinned under the de-
| bris until the .rescuers cut the victim
loose. Bandages were applied and
| the injured Woru 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. a husband or wife or father or
mother, recognized the crushed form
at last. Up and down these aises OF
the dead walked those whose fears
had drawn them here because Of some
one missing in the family circle.
!, Women already weeping in ccr-
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 reliof as they
, moved on to the next huddled form.
: Some Of these seekers came with
= the dirt and grime OF the wreckage
upon them still. Some had passed
G through the crash Of roof and balcony
only to leave a dear one dead in the
n tangled mass.
| They had worked hours with the
! rescuers to ind that one, only to re-
turn now and then for hurried trip
to the chamber of death.
u Eleven Husbands and Wives.
s Eleven times death struck down
Y husband and wife, side by side. They
d died as they had sat to see the swift
!, picturing Of the film.
:, But many other times 1t was only
+, , the wife Or husband who perished
T. and the survivor must make the ter
rble pilgrimage of recognition in the
II grim chamber Of the dead.
i The times when children were taken
| were sparingly few.
Usually the big theater has been in
It's earlier hours OF Saturday night
the gathering place Of a host Of young
sters who come with their parents for
tho weeks amusement. But the
y storm that wrecked the Knickorbocker
J, kept most Of the little folk at 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
II and navy men chiefly. Commissioned
n officers Of the military services held
e the doors OF the church entrance, and
vi with exquisite gentleness and sympa.
4 they sifted out those who sought their
!. dead from others drawn by morbid
y curiosity.
Above all there was quietness at the
church in spite OF the urgent aud
never ceasing activity. OF the losers
in the Knlckerbocker disaster, neither
the physically hurt nor the bereaved
gave voice to their suffering, and it
was the testimony Of the first who
| reached the thoater 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
a beam died with both hands in
those Of an army officer who was
those Of an army officer who was di-
roctin her releagse. One man, pin.
ned beside his dead wife was freed
. from pain with hypodermic needles
and survived the long night to safe
S removal
, A moment after the crash, Father
, John Floerch, priest Of nearby
church. entered the ruined theater
Knee deep in the snow that covered
all for 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.