Evening star., 1925-07-05
50. TO 75 VICTIMS
IN BUILDING WRECK
SOUGHT IN RUINS
Twelve Bodies of ReveIers
Taken From Scene of
Boston Disaster.
DANCE HALL COLLAPSED,
BURYING MERRYMAKERS
Workers With Steam Shovels Dig
Through Night Under
Battery of Lights.
BY the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
BOSTON. July A search for an
unknown number OF dead. crushed be-
meath the ruins of the old Hotel
Dreyfus, a fve-story building occu-
pied by the Pickwick Club, was being
pressed tonight. The building col
lapsed early this morning, carrying
with it members Of a party Of Fourth
of July merry-makers, estimated to
number 125. Some escaped, but many
were known to have been carried
down in the wreck.
Throughout the day scores of fire
men, aided by police officers and
wrecking crews, and working with a
big steam shovel and automobile
trucks, bored their way into the tan
gled ruin. At night they continued
their work under huge battery of
searchlights. 1t was not expected
that the full list of dead would be
known before Sunday night.
Six bodies, five men and one wom-
an. were taken from the wreckage at
11:15 tonight, bringing the total of
known dead to IL. IL of which have
been extricated from the ruins. The
bodies were huddled together in a
pocket" in the wreckage near where
Ihe front uooT u lHe DuluthS Adu
stood.
Three women and two men also
We're taken from the ruins dead, or
died a short time later.
Seventeen persons were taken to
Boston hospitals. Four were said to
be dangerously hurt.
The dead removed from the wreck
age were:
Miss Loretta Keegan, 36 years old,
of Cambridge.
John j. Scales, 81. a singer in the
dance club.
Mrs. Edith Jordan of Somerville.
bride of a few months, who died from
shock.
W. II. Marr, 80, machinist of the
L. S. Coast Guard cutter Mohava-
Pauline B. Luca.
Patrolman Paul taken out at mid
night.
Thirty to Seventy five in Wreckage.
Searchers admitted that they did not
know how many persons they might
find in the wreckage. Persons who
escaped being borne down to death or
serious injury in the sudden collapse
estimated the number carried down
with the building from so to as high
as 75
The Pickwick Club. popular night
resort in the Chinatown district on
Beach street near Washington. oc-
cupied the second story of the former
hotel building. A Fourth of July pro-
gram was in progress when, shortly
after 3 o'clock, without warning, the
roof and all five stories went plunging
downward in a twisted ruin. One side
wall, next to which an excavation for
"A new building was being made,
buckled in the s-niddle and fell in on
part of the ruin. The front sagged
forward and leaned at a crazy angle
Escaped Through Windows.
In a wild rush for safety many
fed out of rear windows and down
a fire escape. Others found their
way down flight of stairs close to a
standing wall. Still others were
hurled clear in the fall and suffered
only slight injury.
The cracking of swapping timbers
and rafters before the crash failed to
alarm the dancers. The noise was
drowned in part by the dance orches-
ira. Survivors said that they thought
the cracking was the sound of fire
crackers being exploded outside.
The work slowed down through the
forenoon as they cut free Mrs. Jordon
the last known living person in the
ruins
After she had been rescued and
had died the menacing front wall was
pulled down and overhanging portions
Of the building were removed. Then
gangs of workers. steam shovel and
crane, great steel cables and motor
trucks were pressed into service and
the work of tearing the ruin to pieces
from the top was begun.
The workers toiled for hours before
they reached the edge of the second
story, where the victims lay pinned
and then continued the task of NOV
ing the hundreds of tons of debris.
now and again uncovering n body
where 1t lay caught between the
waxed dance floor and the metal cell
ing.
The police tonight ordered closed
the four-story brick building on Wash
ington street, running back Beach
street to abut on the Pickwick Club
property. 1t was feared that the
rear wall, from which bricks had been
dropping, might have been danger
ously weakened when wreckers pulled
away the remaining floors and walls
of the night club still standing. The
Gordon Olympia Theater building
also was ordered closed and will not
be reopened until adjudged safe, the
police. said.
Probe Is Planned
A grand jury investigation will be
started Monday, District Attorney
O'Brien of Suffolk County announced.
Relatives and friends stood for hours
in the crowds held back by the police
lines, watching the rescue work.
The collapse did queer things. The
corner of the dance floor in which
the orchestra sat remained fast and
the piano and bass drums We're visi-
Bile from the street. a vase of flow
ers atop a desk nearby was undis-
turbed, as was a bottle of whisky that
was left on a window sill in the COR
ner.
A statement from Building Com
missioner John H. Mahoney and
John NJ. Casey, chief of the licensing
division of the city, issued tonight
placed the blame for the collapse on
overcrowded conditions in the night
resort. Considering the fact that
no official with authority to prevent
oVercrowding was present" the
statement said. lit is probable that. the
: mana cement took advantage of the
might before crowds and readily ac-
cepted all who came. The building
was undergoing alterations; the
work was not completed. The club
occupants apparently overcrowded
the premises beyond the strength of
the>dQors.n