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Show I Heavy Fall of Snow Impedes Work of Rescue WASHINGTON- Jan. 28u. international in-ternational News Service) Many por-sons por-sons were cru.-h-d to deaM. ton hi When the roof of the Knickerbocker theatre, one 0' thi capital's most pal Bal movie palaces caved 'n without AOrnlng burying a struggling rmu-s of people beneath It. ! lAt 10:16 the police said that approximately ap-proximately sixty victims had been laken away from the great mi wreckage. ftt was estimated that at least 300 1 Pffrsons were in the theatre when the rtiAh occurred, perhaps more ,'!As fast as the bodies were taken from the wreckage they were hurried to hospitals for examination. No attempt at-tempt was made to examine them at tp scene of the disaster. Every ambulance, am-bulance, fire engine and police patrol t in Do i it . was at Hi seen DEAD LINK BOTAI.BI8HED After nearly an hour's steadv work, the polite uucceeded In clearing a space about the wrecked Lheata A d?ad line was established, and en iiowspaper men were permitted inside the dead line. ;On the outskirts of the dead line however, thousands of people gathered ntanv of them frantic to: news of i 1-a 1-a lives and friends. The police were unable to cope with the situation however, and the commander com-mander of the company of United Suites infantry which had been on duty at the armament conference, sent .a a Call for his men to report to him I t he s. , ne for dut Aj 10.10 o'clock, all the ambulances at " alter Head army general hosplts.1 j were summoned and all the army doctors doc-tors at the hospital were requested to ome to aid in the rescue work. A hurry call was sent to the com-uj.ndcr com-uj.ndcr of the military post at Fort Myer, across the Potomac, for twenty men with a torch to cut awav thi tan-; tan-; k'led skein of steel girders which frustrated frus-trated efforts of rescuers to get to the inside of the mess. Thc cave-In of the roof occurred shortlv after 9 o'clock LOUD ROAR HEARD H .With a roar that could be heard for blocks the heavy stcrl and concrete roof crashed Inward. There was no 1 warning whatever, according to those who were seatt-d nearest M who barely made their escape from' H the place. They declared 'hat the pic-1 H ture was running on the screen, when Mdder.lv the whole place seemed to! tumble In about the ears of the audl- H ;The roof had been weakened by H more than 30 hours bard snowfall. H JThe work of rescue probably will j take all night, the police and firemen H at the scene estimated after an hour H ap.d a half of frantic work. H 'The rescue work was going forward, B n a blinding snow storm and the j ureets around the theatre were packed H under a blanket of three feet of snow. H. which made It extremely difficult for H i lie ambulance and automobiles t0 get H through .The manager of the treatre. Robert Hi Etrlo. and his wife were in tho the-I H aire at thi: time of the collapse. They H njade their escape through the Flgth-eenth Flgth-eenth street door The other entranc- ejj were on Columbia Road, i 'I was afraid of the weight of the H snow on the roof." said Etrlo I called H Tne general monagement of the the- H srres (the theatre was one of the t Cranda'd string; and asked, about It. I ' but 1 was assured that the roof was Cap ibb- ot supporting It ' At 10:15 o'clock only one actual dead bud been taken from the theatre and Identified. It WSS Mrs. U. H Covall, oi 408 Blghtefnth street. Approximately 160 persons who were In the theatre made their escapo. Virtually uninjured save for bruises and shocks The center of the heavy-roof heavy-roof with its great burden of snow Come Straight down Into the center ot the theatre and all of the people v. ho were In that section must have loeii killed, the police said. They estimated that at least mo square feet of the roof was resting directly on the flooi 1 I I ( KV 1 1C M N V Those who made their escape wore I occupying seats around the edge- of th theatre. Tin roof did not sheer off With the walls, or else all those In the theatre must have been killed It appeared ap-peared to have crashed In from the I center and formed a rough, conc-I conc-I shaped mas? I The greatest difficulty In the rescue work was gelt no; through lb.- mas-, ot I steel and concrete. At 11 o'clock the ' police had a doaen acetylene torches on the ene and were novklng slow progress in . uiung the debris to where they could hear moans and groans and cries coming from within Klve minutes alter the body of Mrs Covall was brought out tho body of a member ot the orchestra, William 'Tracy, was brought out. He, loo. was dead I The tlrsl i onnected story of the dls-j dls-j aster from one who was In the theatre was given by Hugh Nesbit, who was 1 pulled from the ruins with a broken t left leg and lacerations of the face land head. STOR1 OF VICTIM esblt said he was seated on an aisle near the . enter of the oichestra and I near the exit. Ho heard a rending, cracking suund ho said, and as he , ran for the exit there was u crash ! and. before he could reach the aisle. ia shower of plaster, girders and snow crashed on the audience. Nesbit was ' pinned under a fallen wall. I never heard such screaming and groaning In my life.' the boy said. "It seemed as though everybody was moaning and sighing at once. Those on the outside seats did their best to make for the exits, but 1 saw I several of them crushed down by the railing roof and walls. " Christ save me" one woman kept I crying. She was only a few feet away i from me. but only her face showed In the debris. It seemed an eternity before I was helped out I did not mind my leg so much; I guess I was too excited to feel the pain until after 1 got Into the ambulance All I cared for was to get 'out alive and, thank God. I did " Residences and clubs In the vicinity of the theatre were thrown open for the accomodation of the injured until they could be treated by physicians on the scene and sent to their homes or rushed to hospitals. SOME R VIVE t.M H Rl (1 The Theta Delpha Rhl fraternity house at Clifton and Calvert streets was made the headquarters for one group of doctors. Some of those taken out of the wreckage, apparently dead, revived quickly after getting into the biting snowstorm that raged ovitslde. Uno 19-yenr-old girl was brought out, to all appearances dead Within a few minutes alter she was laid on a blanket in the atorm. she opened her eyi , wanted to know what had happened hap-pened and then quickly got to her feet "I'm all right." she said, and Insisted Insist-ed on going home. She had been trapped within for more tiian an hour. The fact lhat some apparently 1 1 To -less people revived quickly after reacn-!ng reacn-!ng the air led the police shortly after 11 o'olock to believe the catastrophe might not cause so many casualties as at first believed. W l IRI SKill I SEEN Tho scene of the disaster presented a weird sight In the swirling snowstorm snow-storm and the flickering glare of lights all over the wrccKag by which tho rescuers were working. Electric torches gleamed like fireflies through the flying snow and here and there blazed the blue flame of acetylene torches as they ate their way through twisted sieel girders At 10:21 -ft persons had been taken to emergency hospitals. How many of them were dead It was Impossible to ascertain. Garfield hospital also received a number. num-ber. At 10; 15 Lieut. E. V. Young of tho Marine ' corps, who was directing the force of fifty soldiers on duty at that hour estimated that there were 25 dead and 5a injured. Rarry Rulkley. vice president of tho Knickerbocker Theatre company, told the International News Service that the building which collapsed tonight w'as of comparatively new construction and that there had never been any question of Its ability to stand up under un-der any test The building was designed de-signed and erected, he said by one of the best architects In the country-I'ollce country-I'ollce and building Inspection officials had mM er questioned the construction of the theatre, Rulkley declared Ho said that It was isimply a case of those who erected the building never tie- ; Having a snowstorm such as Washington Washing-ton witnessed In the past 21 hours would occur In this latitude SEARCH FOR GIRL Tho small son and daughter of Iaw- ! renre Duntram. press association telegrapher, tele-grapher, were In the crash. The boy was taken to tho hospital Injured and a search was being made for tho girl Virginia, while hor mother sobbed frantically on the edge of tho crowd. J. D Morgan, general manager of Crandall theatres, said: Th,. building laws had been all compiled with Tho roof was recently re-cently Inspected bv the building In spector of the district and pronounced safe." His arm broken by tho crash. J R. Canine, who was with his wife in the balcony, when the roof caved in. was working with the rescue squad in tho ruins "We were sitting there watching the picture," Canine said, "when, without warning, the roof started to come down When It got to the bottom I felt that my arm was broken and asked my wife to reach In my pocket and get my matches We managed to Jam through the crowd and get out some wny I don t know how it was terrible." ter-rible." One of the secretaries of the Chinese embassy was reported to have both legs broken |