Page:Account of the dreadful accident and great loss of lives which occurred at Kirkcaldy, on Sunday the 15th June, 1828.pdf/20

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One of the first persons who discovered the danger was Mr Edward Sang. He sat immediately under the longitudinal beam of the gallery and a small quantity of dust falling upon him, which was followed by particles of lime, he looked up, and observing the whole mass of the floor coming down, as it were in a body, he made a desperate spring forward, and alighted in a passage through which the minister enters from the vestry to the pulpit. By the time he had reached this spot the whole had fallen.—A little boy, about eight years of age, made a singular escape. His mother was crushed against the wall, but still held him in her hand. In the confusion, she lost her hold of him, and naturally supposed he had perished. But when one of the bodies was drawn out, the boy was found unhurt, and rolled up in a mantle attached to the corpse. —One individual, who lost a daughter, had his whole family with him in his seat, which was in the centre of the church, and he had the presence of mind to remain till the confusion was over. He endeavoured to calm the alarm of his family, and to keep them together; but when he reached the door the first object he beheld was the corpse of his daughter stretched on a tombstone. —Another, a tall and powerful man, with a boy by his side, at the request of some others, pushed forward to pull open the bolts of the south door, and returning in search of his son, found him on the floor trampled to death by the very persons in whose behalf he had so generously