Page:Account of the dreadful accident and great loss of lives which occurred at Kirkcaldy, on Sunday the 15th June, 1828.pdf/9

9 women, are doing well. This must excite the astonishment of everyone who examines the appearances which the church still presents. In the desperate struggle to get out many of the doors of the pews have been broken, book-boards have been torn up, and wherever there was any corner or projection which could be seized hold of, it is torn down. The pressure, indeed, appears to have been so enormous in many parts, that it overthrew every thing which came in its way; and all those who were caught in its vortex had their clothes more or less torn, while some reached the open air almost in a state of nakedness. Fragments, chiefly of female dress, as bits of silk, broken combs, and ether small articles, were scattered about the church, even on Tuesday, after every thing of value had been removed—and sufficiently attested the nature and extent of the death struggle which had taken place. Besides, a considerable number of persons escaped, or rather was forced out, through the windows, particularly that of the staircase leading to the south gallery; and as the descent in all cases were several feet in height, and the violence with which they were ejected extreme, the fewness of fracture is truly astonishing. One man, indeed, was less fortunate. Standing in the southern gallery, immediately after the crash, and as if fascinated by the horror of the scene before him, he leaped through a window down into the area, and fell prostrate, but he immediately recovered himself, and springing to his feet, as if wholly unhurt,