On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
FATAL , ACCIDENT AT THE SURREY GARDENS . An appalling catastrophe took place on Sunday evening in the New Music Hall of the Surrey Gardens . Ths Rev . Mr . Spurgeon , a young Methodist clergyman "who has recently attracted great attention by the vehemence of his oratory , laad advertised that he would preach , on that evening iii the-building alluded to , the money paid in admission ( after the discharge of all expenses ) being devoted to the erection of a new building capable of holding 15 , 000 people , ia -which Mr . Spurgeon proposes to continue his exhortations . Upwards of 10 , 000 persons attended on Sunday evening in tho Music Hall ; and the preacher had not long commenced the service ,
and was addressing his audience , when an alarm was given which led to most lamentable results . The precise nature of that alarm remains in mystery . According to some accounts , three men rose up in the body of the hall ¦ w ith extended arms , and shouted " Fire ! " According to others , there was a cry of " The building ! the building ! " or " The galleries are falling ! " Others again state that there was a slight ringing of a bell , while some say that they heard a noise as of the rumbling of carriages approaching the building . However this might have been , there was a sudden and uncontrollable panic . A frantic rush was made by the people in the first or lowest gallery , and , pouring precipitately and in a dense mass down the circular stona staircase in thp
of the balustrade near the bottom of the staircase at the eastern extremity of the edifice also gave way ; but nothing serious resulted from that particular casualty . Mr . Lund , Superintendent of Police , who was seated among the audience together with his wife and daughter , did all he could , in connexion with the constables stationed in the hall , to arrest the flight of the scared multitude by blocking up the entrances ; but the officers were soon pushed aside , and the gardens were filled with the crowd , some of whom were seriously hurt , while others , who were only frightened , called loudly for the police and for surgical assistance . Two medical gentlemen , who had formed part of the audience , speedily volunteered their aid ; and several wounded persons
were attended to on the spot , and then sent in cab . 3 to their own residences or to Guy ' s H&spital . The dead were conveyed to the workhouse . This terrible catastrophe only occupied about five or six minutes . On the first rush taking place , Mr . Spurgeon , after a moment's pause , directed that a hymn should be sung ; but this was not finished , though the audience joined ia it , and he then continued the service by giving out the text of his sermon . For this , he has been greatly blamed ; but it has been urged in his favour that " lie adopted the course indicated in order to allay the excitement and alarm , and to disabuse the people of the idea of danger . Several times did he recommence his discourse , at the
the deacons came up-Btairs and desired his immediate attendance in the third tier of the north-west galleries , where he said some youths had been misconducting themselves by exploding small quantities of gunpowder . The fireman proceeded to the spot , and perceived the smell of exploded gunpowder . No person being able or willing to point out the offending parties , he was in the act of descending to the ground floor of th « hall when the cries of " Fire ! " first ran through the building . The first suggestion , that the alarm was purposely given by thieves , is discredited by Mr . Lund , who thinks no thieves were present , and who believes that some rival body of Methodists desired to create a disturbance in order to injure Mr . Spurgeon ; but a more probable
explanation would seem to be contained in the statement , made before the coroner on the first day ' s inquest ( Tuesday ) , by Louisa Johnson , sister of Harriet Johnson , who was killed . This witness said : — " I was fifteen last May . On Sunday evening , I accompanied my sister , Harriet Johnson , to the Surrey Gardens . We went into the first gallery of the hall . We stood close to the door at the top of the stairs . After we had been there threequarters of an hour , my sister said , ? The house is falling !' and we ran down the stairs . I had not seen or heard anything to lead to such an impression .. I fell , and a number of people fell upon me . I and my sister were the first that got into the staircase . I took hold of the
banisters and fell , the staircase being narrow . I then lost my recollection . I was afterwards raised up and taken out . I did not hear any alarm given besidea wliab my sister said . As soon as she told me the place was falling , I rushed out . She did not speak loudly , but she might have been heard by a few people around us . When we ran out , she was behind me , and when I fell she fell upon me . I do not believe my sister had any motive in calling out that the place was falling . " A juryman : "As you rushed our . of the door did you meet any persons coming down the other stairs ? " Witness : " No , I did not . The staircase was free . As soon as I heard what my sister said , / ran out , screaming . Other persons followed . I fell , and they fell upon me . "
The damage done to the Music Hall by the accident is not very considerable . It consists principally of broken windows , and 50 Z . will cover it all . An investigation into the state of the building has shown that there was no cause for alarm with respect to its stability in any part . At a meeting held at the chapel in Park-street on Monday night , Mr . Moore , a deacon , made the following statement with reference to the accident : — - " Had it not been , for an overwhelming sense of duty , I never could have come here to-night . I am more fit to be in bed . I never passed through a more miserable and distressing day than this has been . " With reference to the origin of the alarm last night , there is no doubt that it originated from wicked , designing men . If ever Satan was
permitted to take human appearance and walk the earth , it was on last night . Oh , that dreadful scene I But you are anxious to hear about our poor pastor . He is verybad . Very bad I say , not from any injuries or bruises he has received , but from the extreme tension on his nerves , and his great anxiety . So ' . bad is he that we were fearful for his mind this morning . Under theie circumstances , only one thing could be done , that is , to send him into the country away from tho scene . As we knew that a great number of persons - would call at his house during the day , we sent him early this morning ; so that none of his engagements can be entered into this week , From information I have just received , I am enabled to tell you that to-night he is a 'little better , but still very prostrate . Mr . Oluey ( another deacon ) is ill in . bed . "
request of some among the audience , but was as often compelled to break off , saying that " his brain was in a whirl , " and that preaching was impossible . During the delivery of these remarks , several renewals of the panic took place , and fresh rushes were made towards the doors . Finally , another hymn was sung ; and Mr . Spurgeon , after beseeching the audience to disperse calmly and deliberately , was led away by his friends , apparently in a fainting state , and was taken in a cab to his own home in the Borough . It must be confessed that the observations of the preacher immediately after the first panic -were not of a reassuring nature . They were of the fierce , denunciatory character favoured by Evangelical pastors ; and Mr . Spurgeon is reported to
have said that the reason why the auditors fled so rapidly on the alarm being given was that they were afraid of what would happen to them after death , and that they would rush fast enough to save their bodies , but did not heed the salvation of their soula . Unless the speaker was too bewildered to comprehend the meaning and effect of his own words , nothing could exceed the cruelty or the frivolous indecorum of this attempt to misread a natural instinct by the lurid light of superstition . Moreover , an allusion which Mr . Spuigeon made to the necessity , as indicated by the accident , of having a larger building for their meetings , such as that which it was proposed to erect , was not in the best state at that precise moment .
According to the daily papers , it appears that the calamity was not lessened by some instructions given by Mr . Spurgeon himself . In order that the people who attended on Sunday evening might not be induced to roam about the gardens , and that they might confine themselves to the purposes for which the gardens were on that evening specially opened , he ordered that all the entrances on the side of the building opposite the principal door should be closed—a circumstance which prevented the people from obtaining egress from that aide of the hall , and induced a general rush to the principal door , -which was soon blocked up by those who were making such desperate efforts to escape .
It was at first assorted that , after order had been in some measure restored , the money-box was sent round in aid of the funds for the new conventicle ; but it has since appeared that this was not done by Mr . Spurgeon ' a agents . Some unauthorised person , however , collected in this way about 8 / ., which will be devoted to the sufferers . The number killed was seven , of whom five were women ; the other two were a man ( Samuel Heard , a Bermondsoy tanner ) and a little boy . The latter was
carried away dead b y hid father . Tho wounded amounted to thirty , principally women . Somo of the caaos wore slight ; others very serious . One of tho killed ( a Mrs . Barlow ) was on the eve of her confinement . Her husband was greatly opposed to her going ; but he ac length consented on his wife telling him that her nurse would accompany her . Tho Ciesarcnn operation was resorted to after death , but not until it was too late . Tho infant , which , in tlio ordinary courso of . nature , would have bean born the next day , waa dead .
The sister of one of the women who lost their lives waited upon the police authorities on Monday , and gave a painful narrative of that part of tho catastrophe . She stilted that sho hcrsolf smothered her sister ; that , when tho rush touk place , both being anxious to get out , the deceased , who wns in advance of her , fell , mid was forceil Avith lior faco on tho stone flngn , and « lie was driven upon lior , nnd folt the last respiration sho gave , but , being closely pressed by thoso from behind , » lvo waa unublo to got up , or to render the least assistance . An inquiry into tho origin of tho disaster was inatitutod by the proprietor of tho gardens , aided by the police . Air . Lund is of opinion that tlie alarm was wilfully given for somo sinister design ; but a fireman employed in tho building reluted a circumstanco which rtcoms to throw homo light on tho subject ., lie state that ¦ while Mr . Spurgeon was reading tho lesson , 0110 ol
north-west tower , many of them fell and were trampled to death . ¦ ¦ "When within six feet of tho bottom of the stairs , the balustrades snapped under the strong pressure ; but "it is beyond all question , " says the Times , " that death in every case ensued upon the staircase . It is also an indisputable fact that every one of the persons killed sat or stood during the service until the alarm was given in that first gallery ; and , what is perhaps more remarkable than all else—the very individuals who came by this violent end were precisely those nearest the place of exit , and who were the first to run for safety at the
earliest manifestation of the panic . A man . ( Samuel Heard ) , two young women named Johnson , and three others , named Harriet Barlow , Mrs . Skipper , and Harriet Mathew , all stood immediately within the doorway leading on to the fatal . staircase , and were , therefore , one would have thought , in the best possible position for effecting a safe retreat . They were likewise the first to run . But , as the event unhappily proved , it was far otherwise . They were all trodden to death on the stairs , even the strongman , Samuel Heard , of all men the most likely to be able to hold his own in a crowd .
"It is extremely probable that Heard , from his position near the door , as described by his relatives who accompanied him , was the first to make for the door when the alarm was sounded , that in his precipitation he made a false step as he . began the descent , was hurled headlong down the stairs , could not recover his feet again , and that the women , Johnson , Barlow , and Skipper , who would from their position be immediately following him , fell over him as he lay , and were with him trampled to death by the crowd from behind . Those who remained quietly in the building until the consternation had passed away , as might have been expected , fared best , and this , with the melancholv fate of those who were the first to
run , conveys a practical lesson as to how each man and woman should behave on a similar emergency , in a vast crowd , having regard alike to their own individual safety and to that of every one around them . It is a singular fact that , after the balustrade gave way to the pressure of the crowd , no one appears to have fallen through the breach on to the iloor below ; but after that casualty happened there was an oxample of female heroism and the force of maternal love deserving a passing record . Susannah Heard , a young married woman , her husband ( the brother of Samuel Heard , who was killed ) , ami their little boy , with many others , were jimmied , un 011 tlie stair and unable to make
any progress one way or the other . She stood nearest the balustrade , and to save her little boy from sufibeution she held him a considerable time over the handrail by the neck above the well of the stairs . At that time , a . ' man—probably George Lane , now in Guy's Hospital with n comminuted fracture of tho right arm - —was wedged so forcibly agninst an iron pillar which uupported tlie stairs that she and her husband could distinctly hear tho bones of hia arm snap several time * . When tho balustrade gave way her husband put his arm round her ami Uc . pt her from falling' through tlie gap , sho standing while lie did so on only ono leg , with tlie other
hanging over the edgo of the stairs , and still holding her little boy over tho gulf . By and by tho pressure slackened , nnd sho was relieved from this perilous position . The husband at this moment took hold of a woman standing near him in thu crowd to prevent her from falling , and ho found she was dead . It is remarkable , as showing how gregarious a crowd is , tlmt though the means of exit from tho building aro so many , tho greater part of tho people iu the first gallery , where all tho misuhicf was done , appear to have made for one door , there being at least threo others equally convenient , nnd affording equal facilities of "
escape T \ lulu this wiih going on in tho first gallery , soveml persons m the other parts of tho hall forced tlloir wav through tho window * at tlie side of tho building nnd leapt out on to the roof of tho refrcshincnt-room many sustaining very aerlous injuries in so doing . A portion
Untitled Article
OTHER . ACCIDENTS AND SUDDEN DEATHS . The recovery of the bodies of tho thirteen workmen has been delayed by another accident to the machinery employed in raising the water from the pit . One of the iron -wire-ropes used in tho process of lifting water by means of the cage gave way on Friday Aveek , and not only did considerable damage to the engine-house , but also caused a second rope of tho same description to fall to the bottom of the pit , together with the cage to which it was attached . This accident happily occasioned no loss of life ; but since its occurrence tUo men have been unablo to descend into tho mine , and they have made much less progress than had been expected in the operation , of extracting the wntov , tho pump only having boon available for that purpose duriug- the last two days .
An . inquest has bocn oponed at Manchester , on the body of Thomas llitchcn , aged thirteen , tho son of a mechanic at l ' cndleton , whose death resulted from a practical joke . lie was employed at the mill of Sir I ' ilkuuuh Armitago and Sons , rendleton , and on Friday week was playing with threo companions at a clothnrcss , when one of them asked tho boy to lay his head within . the press . Ho did so , and ono of the lads then turned the screw till arrested by a shriek from llitchcn . They released him in great alarm , and found blood llowing from his ears . Tho unfortunate boy only survived until tho following evening .
A train from London , on Monday afternoon , ran intc an engine and a coke waggon at Hortliam , near Southampton , on tho South-Western line . The enginc-drivci of tho passenger train , had ns usual just smut oft' the
Untitled Article
October 25 , 1856 . ] T H E X . E A D E R . ion
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 25, 1856, page 1011, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2164/page/3/
-