The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-28 00:00:00

A Crinoline Tragedy.

A Surgeon, dating from Sloane-street, thus wrote
the other day to the Times:—

At midday to-day, in the public street, in front
of my own house, and in view of a crowd of horrified
spectators, was enacted one of those brief, but
awful, tragedies of which crinoline has been the too
fruitful author. It being generally the lot of mem-

hers of my profession to make their appearance at a
later period of the drama, suffer me, Who on this
occasion was almost at its commencement, to tell
you what happened.
I had just alighted at my own door at 12 this
morning, when I heard two or three piercing cries
in the street, and on running round the corner I
saw a young woman standing on a doorstep so en-
tirely covered with flames that only her uplifted
hands and her feet were visible. With the aid of a
rug and a great coat instantly given by a passer-by
we got the poor young creature down on the pave-
ment, and in a few minutes every spark of fire was
crushed out. We then doubled up a blanket, and
with the tender help of one or two strong fellows I
took her as on a stretcher to a cab close at hand.
The cabman refused to take the poor girl, and no
remonstrance of mine or of others would induce him
to open his door. As no time was to be lost (and no
policeman naturally was at hand), I immediately
cleared out my own brougham, and, gently laying
the miserable, half-charred girl on the knee of the
man who helped me to extinguish the flames, I
mounted the coach-box and drove to St. George's
Hospital. There I immediately obtained admission
for her, and we softly placed her in bed, scorched
and blistered from head too foot. She was--need
I say it ?—in horrible agony, but conscious, and
gave her own simple account of the event perfectly
clearly. ller half-burnt rags of clothing were care-
fully cut away ; and, covered with cotton wool,
dressed and swathed after the kindest and skilful-
lest method, she lay an awful wreck of what half-
an-hour previously had been a handsome, well-
grown young woman. This was the work of a few
terrible minutes at mid-day, and I have this even-
ing just been to see the poor young thing die.
The publicity of the situation, the period of its
occurrence, in the broad daylight,
and amid the hum
of a great thoroughfare, and the dreadful spectaclem
of a poor young girl crying for help out of the
burning furnace she carried about her, make this
a
sad and shocking event indeed.
on the instant
And I venture to
write to you the few remarks which
occurred to me while engaged in arresting the cruel
holocaust. at an unguardedfireplace;
attained some force
without her knowledge. Mad with fright on its dis-
The girl's dress took fire behind,
up up which there is in
constant every house a
T
cover she she ran to the
ustCtairsasending current which
drove the fire higher. hence she rushed down,
t
she the
camefl a flames uopwards, until, reaching the
d i voionrg ,
the open street, and then,
instantly fanned by the free air, she was ablaze from
street
i still driving
Let your fair readers take note of all
t a few lost seconds of time, a
•
head to foot. Le
this, and learn that
moment's wrong impulse, made a living sacrifice 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 a woman's burning clothes. I found no difficulty
in putting out the blaze, but her poor limbs lay in a
heap of red-hot tinder. Only resolute pressing out
was of any avail, and I was obliged to get several
me in squeezing out the horrible fire which
clung
itsot
what was left of her clothes. What was
iliterally left ? A blackened heap of rags, and the unburnt
yld aIL
warnings
wilesnoraf hernot crinolinet-0 trhete
is wasrate
the eralol
about crinoline, nor to tell women what they
ought
to do when fire seizes them—they all know every-
thing we can tell them on these
subjects ; but 1
think few women have any notion of
dical men unfortunately know too well—namely,
that the affair is all over in a minute or two, that
this poor victim who now lies died, charred almost
to a cinder, might have escaped scot free had she
possessed the courage only to sit down on the flame
on the first instant of its discovery.