Evening Capital

AN AWFUL CRASH.
The Floor of a Crowded Reading
Church Suddenly Gives Way.
A LONG LIST OF INJURED.
More Than a Hundred Hurt More or Less
Seriously-The Escape from Instant
Death by Many Was Almost Miraculous.

Reading, Pa., Oct. 9.-Up to midnight last
night none of the persons injured by the giving
way of the floor of St. Mary's Catholic
church on Sunday had died, but six or seven
of them were in a very critical condition. It
seems almost miraculous that there were no
deaths on the spot. Archbishop Ryan and
the officiating priests escaped uninjured.
The archbishop had come on from Philadelphia
to conduct the ceremonies incident to
the laying of the corner stone of the church.
The day was clear and sunny, and all the
Catholic societies of the city, together with
visiting societies from Lancaster, Lebanon
Shenandoah and Harrisburg, paraded through
the streets with three bands of music.
At 4:20 o'clock in the afternoon, when
Father Libicki arose to begin the sacred proceedings,
there were 7,000 people present.
Most of them were gathered in the open air
outside the church foundations, but 1,000 men,
women and children were standing on a temporary
flooring raised on wooden joists.
Archbishop Ryan and a group of priests occupied
a little space at the rear of this
flooring.
Father Libicki had hardly opened his lips
when that part of the board surface on which
the audience within the foundation was gathered
gave way with a crash, and at least 250
people were carried down into the basement
fifteen feet below. One of the walls separating
the support of the joists had fallen. There
was a rush of people to relieve the injured
whose cries filled the air.
More than a hundred were taken out of the
basement with broken limbs, cuts, bruises
and other hurts. Physicians were busy for
hours mending fractures, and all the hospital
resources of Reading were brought into requisition.
Among those severely injured
were the following:
August Helfrich, breast bone crushed in
stomach and abdomen injured, shoulder
blade dislocated and wrist broken; Mrs.
Muscowitsch, collar bone fractured; Richard
Stanton, kneecap severely injured; Patrick
McDowell, leg broken; Ambrose Lennig, left
hip and spine injured; Catherine Broadtman,
internally injured; Philip Francisco, fracture
of left leg; Joseph Martin, left leg broken; John
L. Smith, injured internally; Mr. Saul, leg
broken; John Rotz, ankle broken; Lewis E.
Reisinger, injured internally and cut in the
head; Eva Shade, leg broken and injured internally;
John B. Bissinger, injured internally;
Josephine Brisse, painful injury to
spine; Mrs. Joseph Boyer, limbs severely injured;
Samuel Breidigam, leg broken;
George Sehl, fracture of left leg; Mayor
James R. Kenney, severe sprain of his ankles;
Frederick Doel, sprain and contusion of right
foot, hip joint and left shoulder blade; Mrs.
Frederick Doel, internal injuries of chest and
abdomen, lower teeth shattered and hip
crushed, and left ankle bruised and sprained;
Miss Mohring, several ribs fractured; Aaron
Yellis, injured internally; John A. Niedort,
leg broken; John Felix, severely injured; Josephine
Heine, compound fracture of both
bones below one knee; a stranger, who refused
to give his name, knee cap
broken; George Siegfried, leg broken;
Henry Harp, back believed to be broken;
Mrs. Andrew Klusewitz, ankle broken;
Calvine Kelley, internal injuries; Henry D.
Stapleton, leg broken and badly bruised;
Mr. and Mrs. Peterborn, both injured internally;
Polish woman, name unknown, right
arm and three ribs broken; John Scheid, leg
must be amputated; Valentine Scheid, legs
broken; A. P. Kershner, internally injured
and severely bruised.