"To a building that collapsed yesterday and killed thirty working
people. That house was condemned fifteen years ago by the Inspector.
But its owner was a friend of the Boss, and it stood till it fell
and killed those people."

The street was blocked by the fire department playing their streams
on the smouldering ruins, while gangs of men worked cleaning away
the rubbish and searching for dead bodies.

A crowd of relatives and friends were pressing close to the ropes.
Many of them had stood there all night, crazed with grief, wringing
their hands, hoping and praying they might find some token of love
left of those dear to them, and yet hoping against hope that they
might find nothing and that their beloved would appear, saved by
some miracle.

Gordon had promised a mother whose daughter was missing to help
her in the search. She did not know where her own child worked.
She only knew it was downtown near the City Hall. A building had
fallen in, and she had not come home.

Just as they approached the ruins a body was found and brought to
the enclosure for identification. The mother recognized her daughter
by an earring. She flung herself across the black-charred trunk
with a shriek that rang clear and soul-piercing above the roar and
thunder of the city's life at high tide. Above the rumble of car,
the rattle of wagon, the jar of machinery, the tramp and murmur of
millions the awful cry pierced the sky.