THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.100, NO.116
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
ADVERTISING: 864-1358
MONDAY, MARCH 26. 1990
(USPS 650-640)
Fire in NY social club kills 87
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — A man bounced from a Bronx social club for quarring with an ex-girlfriend returned with a jug of gasoline and set a fire that killed 87 people at the nightspot, which had been ordered closed, police said.
Most of the dead suffocated in thick smoke in the pre-dawn blaze Sunday, authorities said. Some people were trapped to death; others hole through a wall to an adjoining hall in a desperate attempt to live.
Emergency workers described bodies felled by smoke so quickly that they still had their legs wrapped around a bar stool, gripped
drinks or held hands. Only three people managed to reach safety by way of the two tiny exit doors on the front of the two-story Happy Land social club.
"People literally were stacked on top of each other," said Anthony De Vita, the Fire Department command chief. "It was a fireman."
Authorities early today began raiding and shutting down some of the 172 other illegal social clubs that were operating in the city.
It was the deadliest fire in the continental United States since the 1772 blaze at the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Ky., that
killed 164 people. A New Year's Eve 1966 fire at a hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killed 66.
The fire occurred 79 years to the day after a blaze at the Triangle Shriftwaist Co. in New York City that claimed 145 lives, many of them immigrant garment workers. That blaze led to reforms around the nation in workplace safety
Julio Gonzalez, a Cuban immigrant and former boyfriend of a Happy Land's ticket seller, was charged with arson and murder, Police Commissioner Lee Brown was to be arraigned later today.
Gonzalez, 36, was bounced from
the club after a quarrel in which he tried to woo back the woman, police said. After warning, "I'll be back," he returned and sprinkled gasoline on the floor, said Lt. James Malvey.
Gonzalez cried with remorse under questioning, said Lt. Raymond Donnell, police man in the town he saying he did it." O'Donnell said.
The impoverished Latino neighborhood near the Bronx Zoo was thick with mourners, who were asked to identify relatives from snapshots of the bodies posted on the wall of a high school.
Killed were 61 men and 26 women, most of them Honduran
and Dominican immigrants.
"Most of the bodies were in dance clothes," Emergency Medical Services specialist Christopher McCarthy said. "They were out to have fun."
Alva Romero, a Honduran immigrant, lost six relatives, including a daughter, both brothers and a sister. Jerome Ford lost five relatives. The local Honduran soccer club lost several players.
Happy Land was ordered shut in November 1988 and again a year later because of inadequate exits, sprinkler systems, emergency lighting and signs, Dinkins said. It had no liquor or cabaret license.
New count to increase federal aid for county
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You may not need glasses to see, but you might want to wear them anyway. Glasses are becoming a fashion statement.
The eyes have it
By Michael Brassfield Special to the Korean
20/20 vision is no excuse for passing on glasses
Special to the Kansan
"People want the look," said Martha Hendricks, an employee of Fashion Eyeland, 600 Lawrence Ave. "It's like wearing any other piece of clothing."
The look is so popular that some people buy glasses even if they don't need them.
Optical stores are displaying more expensive and stylish frames because people are willing to spend more money on them. Hendricks said.
"People sometimes come in here and pick out some frames, and when I ask them for their prescription, they say they don't have one," said Frank Schuddy, an employee of Visions, 806 Massachusetts St. "People say they want glasses that will make them look smarter.
"A girl came in just the other day and spent $80 on just plain glasses. She said she just wanted a certain look. Not a floral one. No burgers. Two a two月, or maybe a few more."
Hendricks agreed. "Maybe once a month we get somebody who needs
glasses without a prescription.
"Some people wear contacts and want plain glasses to wear over their contacts, but that’s very rare. Probably I do not wear them." Two and a half years I've worked here."
Certain styles have surfaced from the '50s and '60s but have been revamped for the '90s.
"Round glasses are especially big these days, especially the ones with the gold metal frames," Schuddy said. "They're very expensive, and I always call it 'the John Lennon look.'"
Hendricks said a lot of students were wearing round, tortoise-shell glasses, sometimes in a modified horn-rimmed style. These glasses have plastic frames that have two colors, usually brown and black.
"The older people who come in are saying that people are buying things that were in style when they were young," Hendricks said.
"The newest thing is the European look," she said. "These frames have a metal bar across the top. It looks kind of cool, but it's also kind of a classic look.
"They call it 'retro.' That's the '90s for you. It is the postmodern age; everything is a reworking of the old."
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Hungarv
Socialists expect to lose vote
The Associated Press
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Millions of Hungarians cast ballots yesterday in the first free national elections in 43 years, and many expressed hope for the future and fear of the Communist past.
Premier Miklos Nemeth, a reform-minded Communist and a key engineer of the nation's conversion to democracy, declared moments before he voted that he was relinquishing control with a clear conscience.
Despite occasional rain showers, voter turnout appeared brisk at Budapest polling stations, with election officials reporting a turnout of nearly 50 percent in some wards by more than four times.
As in East Germany, where Eastern Europe's first free ballot in decades took place March 18, the Communists were expected to fare poorly in the elections. They competed with 11 other national parties for parliament seats.
oil hours after the voting and eight hours before polls About 7.8 million people were to vote.
irregularities were reported m., when the voting officially. Several international ies monitored the election. th. who voted at a state-run arten serving as one of 11,000 stations across the nation, To predict the chances of his reference has beenformed it after defecting e Communist Party in Octo-
comments reflected wide-
acceptance, even among
is that his party would not do
them. But Hundreds of Fu-
democratic reform.
only thing I hope for is that a government is created," said, adding that only a not hamstrum by the ion could deal with the tailing economy.
of crediting the Socialists
inteering to play by demoles,
most voters remember
issues of more than four
of one-party rule that have
been popular in the Soviet bloc.
it consider it an act of God if make it into government," told reporters. "I will hand reins head high and with a science. I don't have bitterly heart but satisfaction."
ry's last elections were in en the Communists won a majority, largely through year later, they consolidatedd forced all other parties out ace.
about the monthlong camer 394 parliamentary seats, candidates attempted to com-
mute to a multiparty system.
e-election opinion polls indis-
Socialists would finish no
n than fourth place, with a
10 percent of the overall
of 5,000 news published by MTI news agency less than before polls closed indicated n-right Hungarian Democum would finish strongest, rats.
job
e and the Office of Student
90 for trip expenses. White
long-distance he took
to was the only student that didn't pay for trips body president
ten travels to Topeka and for meetings, he said he travel expenses.
, " White said. "Hope on this. I'm going to do power for the next student
stistant parking director, dy president was the only alified for a blue parking
paid $100 for his sticker.
street from the Union in lot
convenient because of his
di campus and out of the