The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1923-05-22
COMEDY BECOMES A
TRAGEDY WHEN 70 DIE
KEROSENE LAMP OVERTURNS
WITH APPALLING RESULT
DURING SCHOOL PLAY.
ENTIRE FAMILIES WIPED OUT
Not Home Left Without Vacant
Chair When 800 Are Trapped on
Second Floor as Explosion Starts
Flames and Panic.

Second Floor as Explosion Starts
Flames and Panic.
CAMDEN, S. C.-Grim tragedy
stalking in the wake OF mirthfu1 COM
edy has turned Kershaw county into
community of mourning.
The climax of the commencement
play of the Cleveland school, a rural
institution eight miles from here, had
been reached shortly after 9 O'Clock
Thursday night when an oil lamp on
the little stage was overturned and
exploded In an instant the stage was
mass of flames. Panic seized the
audience of parents, brothers, sisters
and relatives of the graduating class
who had come proudly to honor the
youngsters that had crowded the lit
tie auditorium. Some 800 were in the
room.
There was q concerted rush for the
single exit that led to narrow wood
en- stairway. The weight of the mass
was too much for the steps and they
collapsed, hurting scores in tangled
mass and numbers being crushed to
death.
Happened in a Breath.
In a breath it seemed to persons
who escaped the entire building was
wrapped in flames. And within an hour
the building was little more than a
heap of smoldering ashes, the funeral
pyre of more than three and a half
score of Kershaw county citizens be-
ing wiped out. Scarcely a home in
Kershaw county but that was affected
by the disaster.
The death list reads like roster of
families of the community. In almost
every instance where parents are list
ed as dead from one to four children
persisted. Seventy-three known dead,
men, women and children, and one
missing, together with dozens more
or less seriously injured was the ter
rible toll.
Forty young. children, sixteen men
and fifteen women, including a ne
gro nurse, were burned to death and
two young white men are missing.
Entire families were wiped out, and
in some cases there are no relatives
left to claim the bodies.
Each wrapped in a sheet, the bodE
les OF the seventy-three dead lay Fri
day in long row within few yards
of the place where they met their
death. Some Of the fragments of
bodies were SO badly burned that the
rescue workers could not tell Wheth-
er they had whole bodies or just sec
tons.
Hearse Makes Trip After Trip.
Camdens only hearse made its de-
1iberate way down the streets here
Saturday, loaded, trip after trip, with
parts of the burned bodies.
One trip the hearse carried the
bodies of the entire B. ]. McCloud
father, mother and child. One casket
held the remains of all three.
Identifcations were vague, not
more than half dozen being certain,
but relatives were eager to claim the
charred bodies, seeking some little
comfort in the fact that their loved
ones were given ordinary burial and
were not dropped into that great pit
which received three score of the vic
tins Friday night.
81 Buried in One Grave.
Bathed in the glory Of a setting
South Carolina sun sixty-two bodies
that less than twenty-four hours be-
fore had been fun-loving men, women
and children late Friday were placed
in one big grave in Beulah Methodist
church yard. The grave was 80 feet
long.
The bodies were those burned be-
yond all possible recognition Twen-
ty or twenty-five had been either
wholly or partly identified, and these
were to be cared for by relatives.
Three thousand South Carolinians,
led by Gov. Thomas c. Mcleod,
gathered from all parts of the state to
pay last tribute.
Fund Being Raised
A plan for fund to insure the edit
cation of the children left motherless
and fatherless is being worked out,
and work on farms where the head
of the family persisted will be super
vised and aided by men designated
or employed out of the fund by the
chamber of commerce.