TERRIBLE ACCIDENT IN A CHURCH.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2002, 4 June 1875, Page 2

TERRIBLE ACCIDENT IN A CHURCH.

A terrible accident' occurred in St. Andrew's Church, New York, on the 25th. February. The New York Tribune gives the following particulars :—

A terrible calamity, attended with-a deplorable loss of life and occurring in. circumstances of impressive solemnity, took place in this city last evening. In the very middle of the services, in a church crowded to its utmost capacity with an attentive and interested congregation, a part of the roof of the edifice was crushed in by the falling of a lofty wall adjoining. Several persons were crushed. to death and many were injured. In the panic which was excited ia the large assemblage of people, and' in the fierce struggle for safety which immediately took place, there were numerous accidents from trampling and from' the heaping-up of masses of thronging, terror^strickeu men and women. Five lives were lost by the disaster, and twenty-nine persons wero so severely injured as to require hospital treatment, while many_mogd went to their homes with less senSßi wounds and hurts. * V The Herald says :—Among all the sudden and heartrending calamities that have happened in this city there was never one so fitted to stir the public heart to mingled emotions of horror, pity, sympathy, indignation, and an awful sense of the uncertainty of-fife, as that which befell the quiet worshippers in St. Andrew's Church ..on Duane-street, yesterday evening. This edifice stands on the north side of Duanestreet, near Chatham-street. Sweeny's Hotel, a large and high brick building, is. located on the corner facing both streets. Just west of it, on Duane-street, and adjoining it, was a tall, narrow store, six storeys in height, whose interior was con-" sumed by fire on the 12th of January, leaving its iron front and brick side-walls standing. The next building to this is St. Andrew's Church, a Catholic place of worship—a low, large structure, capable of seating on its floor and,in its-broad galleries about 1500 people. Between tbis low-roofed church at the western side-wall of the tall, deep store left standing since the fire of January 12, was a space of some two feet or three feet. This was the condition of things exterior to the- church. and in its close neighbourhood when the congregation assembled for worship last evening. The prayers, chants, and other services which precede the sermon had been gone through, with in the regular order, and Father Carroll, of St. Stephen's Church, was in the pulpit, in the midst of a discourse which rose to an unusual pitch of solemnity, as if some mysterious premonition were operating on the -mind of the preacher. He was speaking of death, and warning the dense and crowded congregation of the fearful danger of postponing preparation for that, event, when, with dreadful suddenness, his discourse was interrupted by a loud stupefying crash, followed in a second or two by another. The wild amazement and frantic terror which ensued defies description. Those stupendous crashes came through, the roof on the east side of the building, bringing down portions-of the roof and a heavy crushing mass of loose bricks upon the heads of the people in the gallery en that side. In the consternation, astonishment, and horror which seized that crowded congregation, persons in the gallery leaped over upon the heads of people in the pews, and there was, a tumultuous rush towards the doors, in which many were either squeezed and crushed to death or dreadfully injured* In the confusion nobody knew how many had been killed or how many wounded in the gallery by .the weight which came down upon their heads -with the falling roof. After great effort and difficulty the church was at last cleared, the dead decently removed, the severely wounded taken to hospitals, and the more slightly wounded to their homes. The cause of this horrible spectacle of death, maiming, fright, confusioa, and horror, which came without warning, and with such terrible swiftness upon that peaceful religious assembly, is apparent from the description of the locality. The long, high, western wall of the six-storey burned building, left stand*' ing since the fire of the 12th of January, had suddenly fallen upon the low roof of the church, breaking through and driving down the heavy incumbent mass upon the heads of the people in the gallery directly underneath.

Melancholy Justice.—" Somehow or other, soda-water isn't what it used to be," sighed his Honour, as he leaned back behind the pile of warrants, and brushed the chesnut-shuck3 off his lap. " And the world itself seems a dreary waste to mo," replied Bijah, a sad look coming to his eyes. " I sometimes don't care how soon lam called upon to go." "My feelings exactly," added'the clerk. " This world has no more pleasures for me." The wind sighed drearily around the gables. A dog ■. under the table uttered a mournful howl. ' A small boy in the corner wiped his eyes on his hat. The entrance of half a dozen additional spectators, together with the thunder-like noise of a passing dray, ac- , ted to snap the link of sadness, and his % Honour forced a smile and told Bijah to reach in and grab the first person he could get a hold of. . „. His name was Winn. He admitted that he could not buy a • door-knob if brick houges were selling at a shilling apiece, and he further owned up that he had sat on the dock for hours and looked the wolf of starvation in the face. " I don't think this world has any further use for you," remarked his Honour, after taking a long look at the prisoner. "I see you haven't any get-up-and-vote-twice in your nature, and your character has been allowed to tumble around until you feel like an old omnibus horse." "Don't ,abuse me," replied the prisoner, in a ; mournful voice. " Bug it annoys me to see a big, fat hulk of a loafer idling away his life and chewing apple rinds to keep from starvation. I'd get under a piledriver, go to sleep on a railroad-truck, or walk off the wharf, before I'd drag out such a life. However it's no use talking to you. Consider yourself elevated for three months, and when that's out come back for some more."—Detroit Free Press.

An Excited Female, —A train on the Saginaw road had nearly reached the' junction the other day, when an old lady suddenly shouted out, " Stop this keer— stop her! " A passenger wanted to know what was up, and the old woman ran up and down the passage-way, and excitedly exclaimed, " Where's the man who runs these keers ? I've left a quart bottle of cold tea at Detroit." The train didn't back up. .

I'Oome around. I will achieve a mothor-in-law at 8 o'clock sharp," was the invitation sent to a Milwaukee man.