note: transcription publicly contributed - please contact us with comments, errors or omisions

MG 1 volume 2124 number 135

HALIFAX DISASTER RECORD OFFICE
Chronicle Building
Halifax, N.S.

Jan. 22, 1918.

PERSONAL TESTIMONY. of Miss Josephine Crichton.

Was standing opposite window--felt rumble. Two seconds later window came in toward her, but the blind hit her first so that she was not cut.

When the order came to go south, J. C. and sister Helen went up to Queen St., to stay with Miss Ackhurst who was bed-ridden and could not "go south". They found her sitting in the middle of the street in the chair she had been occupying every day for nine years. She was so bundled up that all that was visible of her face was a little round the eyes, and that was absolutely black, with soot. All the horses that came along the street became very much frightened at the apparition. Helen C. spent twenty minutes leading frightened horses past the old lady. After some time, they were told that there was no more danger, so they [illegible] started for the North End to locate relatives. At North St., an aunt of 86 years, who was very slightly injured, in a house internally demolished although the outside looked 'not too bad' said "Don't stay here, we don't need you, we have our legs and arms, Go North Go North!" They had met two Dalhousie girls and ordered them to raid Logan's Drug Store (162 1/2 Agricola St.). The floor was three inches deep in glass and plaster. They only found one roll of adhesive tape and one small bottle of antiseptic. Went to a grocer's and bought a bag of sweet biscuits which served as their only solid food until next day at noon. As they passed the Cotton Factory it was a mass of smokeless flame. When they reached the Rockhead