The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-12-01 00:00:00

A CRINOLINE TRAGEDY.

The folic:wine letter from "A Surgeon,"dated Sloane-
Street, London, bit November, wan published in last
Saturday's Time*, and furnishes a record of another
victim to the Moloch Crinoline :

At midday to-day, in the public street, in front of my
own house, and in view of • crowd of horrified apectators,
was enacted one Of those brief, hut awful, tragedies of
winch crinoline has been the too fruitfol author. It being
generally the lot of members of my profession to make
their r pnearance at a later period of the drama, suffer me,
who on thie occasion was almost at its c.nomenceonnt, to
tell you what happened.
I had just alighted at my own door at twelve this morning,
when I heard two or three piercing cries in the street, and
on running round the corner I saw a young woman fending
on a doorstep so entirely covered in flames that only her
uplifted hand. and her feet were visible. With the aid of a
reg and a great coat instantly given by a passer-by, we got
the poor young creature down on the pavement, and in the
Course of a few minutes every spark of fire was crushed out,
We then doubled up a blanket, awl with the tender help of
one or two strong fellows. I took her as on • stretcher to.
cab close at hand. The cabman refuted to take the poor
girl, and no remonstrance of mine or of others would iii.
deco him to open his door. As no time was to be lost land
no polceman naturally was at hand'. I immediately cleared
out my own hruntham, and, gently laying the miserable,
hale,harred girl on the knee of the man who helped me to
extinguish the Mimes, I mounted the coach-box and drove
to St Geo. ge's Hospital There I immediately obtained
admission for her, and we softly placed her in had, scorched
and blistered front head to foot She was—need I say it
in h rrible agony, but conscious, and gave her own simple
account of the event peolectly clear!y. tier half-burnt ran
of clothing were carefully cut away; and covered with
cotton wool, dressed and swathed after the kind. st and
sktlfullest meshed, she lay an awful wreck of what half an.
hour previously had been a handsome, well grown young
Women. This was the work of a few terrible minutes at
mi.nlay, and I have this evening lust been to see the poor
y, ung thing die,
Ito publinly of the situation, the period of Its occur-
rence, in the broad daylight, t.nd amidst the hum of a great
thoroughfare, and the dreadful spectacle of a poor young I
girl crying for help out of the burning Menace she carried
about her, make this a sad and shoeirmg event indeed. And
I venture to write to you the few remarks which on the in-
stant occurred to me while engaged hi arresting the cruel
bolocanst:.

--Tt;WTl's dress took fire behind, at an unguarded bedroom
fireplace; hence it attained some force without her know.
dge 'tied with bight on Its dticovery. she ran to the
stairs. up whioh there Is in every house a constantly
ascending current which drove the fire higher Thence she
rushed down, sag driving the flames upwards, until,
reaching the street door, she came into the open street, and
then. instantly fanned by the free air, she wee ablaze from
head to foot. Let your fair readers take note of all this,
and learn that a 'few lost seconds of time, a moment's wrong
impulse, made a living ucrtfice of this fine young woman.
Then, when we had her on the pavement, It was for me
to learn how hard a matter it Is to put out all • woman's
burning clothes. I found no difficulty In putting out the
Ware, but her poor limbe lay in a heap of red-hot tinder.
Indy resolute pressing out lOW of any avail, and I was
obliged to get several to assist me In eimeering out the hor-
rible Ore which clung to what was left of her clothes What
was left ! A blackened heap of ryes, and the unburnt wires
Of her crinoline —this was literally all.
. .

I am not going to reiterate the old warnings about crino-
-11,, nor to tell women what they ought to do when tire
grins them—they all know everything we can tell them on
tire sulf cts but I think few women have any notion of
what we medical men unfortunately know too well—namely,
that the affair is all over In a minute or two, that this poor
victim who now Ilea dead, charred almost to S cinder,
might have escaped scot tree had she possessed the courage
only to alt down on the flame on the iirst instant of its di,.
ccv.ty.
. . . . .

l'ut, sir, I should very much like to have • word with that
cabman I spoke of. and If be he disposed thereto he can very
easily obtain it of me. Unfortunately I did not take his
nunther, or I would have attempted to make that Interview
necessary to his comfort. It is not the first time that, not-
withstanding my otter to guarantee all expenses, a cabman
has refused to take a poor sufferer from accident to the hos-
pital I should like very much to know whether a cabman
can lawfully refuse a fare under such circumstance. But,
whether it be so or not, a man must be hard of heart indeed
who could deny the poor solace of a ride to a hospital in
such a case u that here narrated, the very crowd crying