Weekly Expositor

The Falling Wall of a Burned Building Kills Ten Persons—Canada's Parliament Wants no Tariff Reform.

10 Persons Killed by a Falling Wall.

The wall of a building which was lately burned at 767 Halstead street, Chicago was blown down. It fell upon a two-story brick building at 765 Halstead street occupied by the families of John Smith, a saloon-keeper, and James Kunze, a jeweler. Ten people were killed by the falling wall. The building which collapsed was owned by John York, a large dealer in dry goods, and was destroyed by fire a few weeks ago. It was five stories high, nearly 150 feet deep and had a heavy front of white stone. York began to rebuild immediately after the fire and as not all of the walls were down he had built the new wall on the top of what remained of the old one. It is supposed that the green wall was not sufficiently braced, although York said that both the contractor and himself believed it to be entirely secure.

The weather during the early part of the evening was calm with a little rain falling, but about 11 p. m. the wind began to rise and by midnight it had increased to a gale. The high walls of the York building began to shake in the wind and a policeman who passed in the front of it shortly before it fell informed the Canal Port avenue station that he thought it would bear watching. He was told to look at it closely and if in his mind there was any danger to warn the occupants of the neighboring buildings to move out. He turned back to the building and when within 200 feet of it there was a deafening roar. A large white dust cloud, and a succession of shrieks from the building occupied by the Smith and Kunze families. A large force of men were soon at work and 10 bodies were removed from the debris in horribly mutilated condition.