Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1893 — DEATH IN THE RING. [ARTICLE]

DEATH IN THE RING.

SEVEN KILLED IN A CIRCUS TENT. Dozen* of Others dre Knocked Senseless and Some Terribly Injured by the Fiery Stream and the Subsequent Panic Among the Audience. Lightning’s Awful Work. A terrific thunderstorm raged in the vicinity of River Falls, Wis., Wednesday afternoon. Rain fell in sheets and great floods of water formed almost in an instant in tho streets. Ringling’s circus was showing in the edge of a grove about a quarter of a mile from the center of the town. The circus proper had just finished its performance, and, as the concert was about to begin, a number of people who did not care to attend the latter wore making their way through the menagerie tent, when a terrific bolt of lightning struck one of the center poles of the menagerie tents, and more than fifty people were prostrated. Seven were killed instantly, and others were injured by the shock. The scene of consternation which followed when the survivors realized the extent of the fatality surpasses description. When men ana women surged toward the scene, and it was only bv the exercise of rare presence of mind on the part of Messrs. Ringling and their employes that a serious and probably total stampede was averted. The Ringlings did everything possible to alleviate the sufferings of the injured. Rough canvasmen, stake drivers, and animal attendants vied with one another in their attentions to the wounded. Stretched on the ground were four fullgrown men and three boys, all dead, and as soon us anything like order could be restored they were recognized as follows:

The Dead. Aldbidge, Oubtis. 14 yezr.i old. Dean, O. A., married, farmer, Kltmikinnlck Township. Glenlennino, J. A., married, Town Clerk of Oak Grove. Glendennino, Leslie, 12 years old, a son of J A. Glondenning. Mapes, Clabk, married, a farmer of Clifton Township. Reynolds, Eugene, unmarried, carpenter. Hmith, Ohableb, 12 years old, a son of Wallace Smith. The bodies of the dead were taken to the village engine house. Some of tho bodies were badly scorched, but tho majority presented no external evidence of the shock. Death was absolutely instantaneous in all cases except that of young Doan. lira to aud Uuinau Terror.

The effect of tho shock was terrific For a moment after the echoes of the crash subsided there was an instant of ominous and intense silence, more painful and impressive than the loudest peals of thunder. Every occupant of the great canvas —bird, brute and human—was gasping with expectant horror. Tho shriek of a woman was the first sound to break the tense and terrible stillness, which, though but momentary, seemed prolonged beyond endurance. Then a little girl caught sight of tho blackened face of one of tho dead boys—her cousin—who had brought her to the circus and bought her the bag of peanuts and the bar of candy which she still clutched in her chubby palms. Instantly she became a palpitant center of terror. Her incoherent screams, horrible beyond description, seemed to awaken every occupant of the tept from a state of somnolence to a vivid but confused realization that something awful had befallen them. A score of women started from their a in tjie higher portions of tno itneater, and would have crushed those below them, or fallen headlong, had not the press agent of the show stepped into the ring and commanded them to sit down. It was a timely, clear-headed act which no doubt averted a serious panic. His example was quickly followed by various men , throughout the audience. I The next moment, however, all was confusion again. Such a roar as few have ever heard from the mouth of a lion outside of his native den was sent forth by the king of the cage. He was joined oy his entire family, and the terrible din was taken up by the tigers, the hyenas, and apparently by every beast in tho large menagerie.