Year: 1876

CRUSHED TO DEATH.


A Terrible Accident ut tho Royal chines'
Theater.


At about twelve O'Clock at night
frightful accident occurred at tie hoya
China Theater, San Francisco, which II
its horrible details and scenes of terror
was unequaled by any event which has
occurred in the Chinese quarter fo1
many a day. In the neighborhood Of
5000 men had crowded into the place,
quite number of Chinese females being
present, but only two or three white
men. At about twelve O'Clock a small
fire in some mating in the gallery,
which had caught by the sparks from q
cigarette or cigar in the hands OF some
careless Chinaman, was discovered.
The man who made this startling dis
covery, regardless of the consequences
even had he foreseen them, sounded
the alarm immediately in his OWL
tongue, which everybody understood to
mean destruction and death by burning.
The utmost confusion prevailed and 9
panic ensued. The large numbers OF
Chinese in the auditorium rushed fran.
tically for the door, while those packed
in the gallery did the same. Some
twenty-five or thirty men from the lower
part of the house reached the door first,
and were almost simultaneously over
whelmed by the frightened crowd surg
ing down from the gallery. The doors,
which are double, and each about
twelve feet high by six feet wide, were
closed, but resistless torrent of yellow
humanity poured down the stairs
through them without attempting to
open either, and the consequence was
that the foremost crowd, about thirty In
number, were scarcely out before the
stairway broke and the massive door
fell upon and crushed them to the floor,
while over it crowded and jostled the
dense audience without thought OF
the consequences. In the meantime,
the premature fire, which had made no
headway, was summary quenched by a
Christian Chinaman, named Adam
Quinn, who, besides stamping upon it,
took off his coat and covered it. The
actors upon the stage were entirely ig-
norant Of the cause Of the panic, and
did not stop to inquire concerning it.,
but continued their performance, which
had the effect of staying many OF the
frightened Chinese, who were trampling
everything down in their efortsto effect
an exit. The passage of the dense
crowds through the entrance and the
heartrending shrieks of the crushed and
dying under the doors alarmed several
policemen, who Immediately endeavored
to effect an entrance into the theater,
and sent to the police station for assist
ance. Half dozen stalwart policemen
from the watch which was just about to
leave the station for duty or their re-
spective beats, repaired quickly to the
scene, and the combined efforts of
dozen officers were necessary to stop the
outgoing Chinese. The work was &C.
complished by knocking several Celes.
tials about, and the remainder, realizing
that the danger in the theater, whatever
it was, had disappeared, fell back on the
crowd and checked their frantic COM
panions. By this time Captain Douglas
with a dozen .or more policemen ar
rived, with large crowds Of white men,
who, hearing the alarm, had rushed to
the spot. The railing Of the stairway
leading from the gallery to the lower
floor had given way, and several of the
frightened men had fallen down, only to
be crushed under foot by their equally
terror stricken companions. The tide
having been checked, the officers raised
the prostrated door and removed the
dead and dying from beneath it. Some
we're stone dead, while all under it were
more or less injured. Nineteen were
conveyed to the street dead, and seven
others who were rapidly dying. The
bodies were ranged along the sidewalk.
The entrance to the theater, a hall about
forty feet in length by some twelve in
width, occupied on one side by couple
Of Chinese fruit venders, was cleared
away, and the panic stricken audience
allowed to pass out.


The news of the accident spread Like
wildfre, and over q thousand Chinese,
men and women from all parts Of China
town, thronged to tho scene, and the
sidewalk was completely lined with half
nude Celestials, gazing with blanehed
faces at each body as it was carried out
into the street. One stalwart Chinaman,
weighing about ITO pounds, was
brought out and laid upon the walk, his
clothes torn and bis body lacerated by
the many feet that had tramIled relent-
lessly over him. His face Was black
with suffocation and the crimson fluid
was running in stream from bis nose
and ears. Life had not yet left him, but
in his dying agonies he writhed and
crawled about the pavement, swinging
his bare arms in the air and shrieking
for the relief that could not come. At
the right of the doorway, and at the
foot of the four or five steps from the
door to the floor of the hallway, is
stairway descending into dark alley.
Several of the foremost Chinese of the
crowd that were crushed under the fall
ing door had been precipitated down
these stairs, and two were brought up
with broken limbs. One was placed at
the front entrance in a sitting posture
against box of fruit, and the other, q
young man of high degree, was taken
into an Office. A few moments later
physician arrived and examined him.
As the unfortunate fellow lay upon q low
bench covered with mating at one side
of the room he was turning over and
over and groaning in agony. As the doc
tor felt his limbs to ascertain the nature
of his injuries, he yelled: "Oh, no, no;
me no hurt" as if fearing that his e1-
cruciating agonies were to be increased.
The other man, somewhat older, who
had been placed near the doorway, sat
in stoid silence, his pale face, under the
Pickering rays of gas jet, recording
the most e1cruciating suffering. About
fifteen minutes were consumed in the
passage of the crowd of Chinese from
the theater, and the acting of the play
by the company was continued until the
last deputation had departed, when the
actors and actresses rushed in body to
the doorw~y to discover what had trans
pired, indulging in many cultural e1.
CARNATIONS of terror at the long line OF
dead bodies placed upon the pavement.
Nineteen of the wenty.eight taken from
the hallway and removed to the street
were found to be dead. Several betray.
ed no outward signs of injury, and seem
ed to have been suffocated to death.
Eight or ten bore marks of violence,
several bleeding at the nose and ears,
tho or;rooo,, otraan, r11nnino acroes the