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THE OLD LADIES HOUS. [underlined]
Personal Testimony of Mrs. Margeson, Matron,
Taken in Fort Massey Hall, December 20th.

Mrs. Margeson was in the all-kitchen, giving luncheon orders to the cook when the explosion occurred. She only heard a "little whiz" and thought it was the furnace bursting. Went into Hall, to find the building shattered. Doors, sashes, windows, etc. demolished Strange to say, china was lying on the floor but un-broken.

The falling glass cut many of the inmates. The Head Nurse may have to have her leg amputated, owing to injuries from glass. Half-a-dozen of the old ladies have voluntarily told Mrs. Margeson the same story, that they saw a flash, and then heard the report. Miss Johns, aunt of Mrs. Burrill, Inglis St., was sitting on her bed, drawing on her stockings. She said there was, "a flash, a whizz, and then the noise." She could have put on her stockings in the interim between flash and noise.

After the explosion, people shrieked to Mrs. Mareson to leave the house. Some old ladies were not at all disturbed and flatly refused to leave their beds, or to put on their clothes hastily. Mrs. Margeson brought one load of old ladies to the "grass islands" in the Robie Street Parkway, where for several hours they sat upon chairs borrowed from the neighbouring houses. Mrs. Margeson hoped to obtain shelter in some church, but this was impossible. Other of the inmates found refuge in the Armouries, Camp Hill Hospital and in tents on the Common. Mrs. Margeson and her contingent returned to the Home, where for two days and nights, they sat upon