Evening star., 1936-05-19
GIRL, IS, IS KILLED
BY CIRCUS POLE AS
STORM HITS CITY
$1,000 Are Terrorized as
Tent Sways During 40
Mile Gale.
MAN DIES AS LIGHTNING
RIPS DOWN TREE TRUNK
IL Injured as Panic Sweeps Spec.
tators-Show Resumed After
Crowd Is Gained.

washington counted TWO deaths TO-
day on the heels of a cracking thun-
derstorm riding a 40-mile gale which
struck terror yesterday Afternoon into
the hearts Of $4,000 men, women and
children gathered under the swaylng
Ringing Bros. circus tent.
Betty Lee Roudabush. 13, of Shen-
andoah, Va, died in Sibley Hospital
at $50 pm, two hours after swing
ing tent pole in the Ringing big top"
on the Union Market Grounds frac-
tured her skull Seventeen other per-
sons were injured during the circus.
none of them seriously.
A bolt of lightning. ripping down
the trunk of tree. shortly before had
killed instantly William H. Green, 81.
colored. of 1913 E street southwest, as
he sought shelter from the gale.
When, at the height of violent
thunder storm and 40-mile wind,
small section of the circus big
top" ripped under the weight of
water, the $4,000 spectators. many of
them women with babies in arms,
screamed and trampled their neigh
bors in front of them in an effort
to gain the comparative safety of the
rings and stages.
An elderly woman, her arms around
two small children, knelt in prayer as
men and women struggled past her
toward the exit.
The determined playing of the band,
which gathered in the sawduSt track
around the rings. helped to calm the
crowd, and within an hour the show
WAS resumed.
Betty Lee died in Sibley Hospital,
having been taken there at AIS pm.
almost an hour after the outburst of
the panic. She died at $50 pm.
With her sister Nancy. 10, the hap
less child came to Washington yes
terday morning with their mother,
Mrs. Avis Roudabush; the mothers
father, G. j Strickler, and the
mothers aunt, Mrs. Harry o. Strick-
Ter.
The visitors stopped at the home
of Nancy's former nurse. Mrs. Flossie
Sullivan, 26l Kentucky avenue south
east, who took the children to the
show, where they had seats in section
D, row 4.
Twelve other spectators were in
jured during the melee, which resulted
in general police emergency call.
Mrs. Sue Brady, 1907 Thirty-fifth
street, wife of DR.. Francis I. Brady,
Georgetown University professor, and
their 5-year-old daughter, Susan, re-
ceived a fractured leg and fractured
arm, respectively, when struck by
falling pole. thought to be the same
42-foot timber which killed the
Roudabush child. They were treated
at Georgetown and taken home.
Six-year-old Carol Batchelder, 1850
Connecticut avenue. received frac-
tured collarbone when she and her
father, Winthrop G. Batchelder, local
manager of the Connecticut General
Life Insurance Co., toppled from top
tier of seats. Batchelder had tried to
slide down a rope with his daughter
in his arms. His shoulder was
twisted.
Other spectators injured were Dor
othy Pagan, "a, of 1923 I street; Orris
E. Minar, IA, of 5339 Nevada avenue;
Guy " Runkle, IS, of 1851 Columbia
road; Mortimer p Williams, 81. Of
1448 Park road, and Mrs Belle Will
liams, 46, and John Wolfe, S, same
address; Barbara Hall, 7, of 2720
Thirty-sixth place, and George Lech.
81. of $40 Sixth street southeast.
Five circus roustabouts were thrown
to the ground and stunned when
lightning struck an outside pole Of
the horse tent close by to the main
top They were given first aid and
quickly revived.
With the rain beating fiercely on
the new white canvas tent, first used
last week in Brooklyn and never wet
before, the spectators at 3:15 pm.
were cheering the graceful actions
of the Rudy Rudynoff liberty horses.
Outside the tent, past the perform
ers' entrance, raced rain-made brook
20 feet wide and q foot deep, which
roustabouts diked with dirt to keep
it from flooding into the ring.
Above the spectators In the rear
rows Of section S, reserved section,
the rain gathered in pocket Of the
top canvas at its juncture with the
side walls. Gradually it swelled, and
at 3:l5 pm. it ripped right-angle
slit in the canvas, pouring the water
on the spectators and violently shak-
ing the poles near it.
The doused onlookers, thinking the
tent itself was collapsing, leaped from
their chairs, stepped into the laps of
those in the rows in front of them
and hurried downward. Ignorant of
the true situation, the rest of the
population Of section s began q hasty
march forward, yelling as they went.
Taking alarm, the rest Of the 16, 200
upset chairs and nearly trampled
children in their rush to the track
and rings. The mass movement shook
the poles, which were kept from
yanking their stakes from the ground
only by the groups Of six or seven
roustabouts who seized each one
and held on grimly until others could
once more tie them down.
Many of the panic-stricken spec
tators braved the violent rain to run
from the tents altogether. Others
took refuge in the animal top, where
the tigers, lions, leopards and other
beasts covered in quiet.
But Larry Davis, head elephant
man, feared o stampede on the part
Of his ponderous beasts. He had all
q Of them driven from their tent IN
single file, each holding with its