Elizabeth daily monitor. [volume] (Elizabeth, N.J.) 1868-1880, 1868-11-24

ON~~~
so that the only hope of rescuing the
worst class of female inmates from their
perilous position was by breaking
through the heavily barred windows,
or cutting a passage way through the
tin plated roof. Ladders were thrown
against the walls, the strong iron graft
ing covering the windows WIS torn
away, and the shrieking lunatics were
tenderly taken in the arms of strong,
brave men, and borne down the long
ladders to the ground. Some were led
along the steep roof of the conservatory
building, and thence banded carefully
down to a place of safety others were
dragged through holes cut in the cell
ings of their cells, and passing ont mp
on the high roof of the main building,
moved through the storm like spectres
in the air or upon the sea. Many of
entirely nude. Some had nothing on
but their night clothing, some had
sheets or blankets wrapped about their
heads ; others, with their hair stream
ing in the wind, looked like furies let
loose.
The feet of almost all were without
covering, and not few We're without
covering upon the upper portions Of
their persons A stranger spectacle
was presented in another part of this
extraordinary scene. All the female
patients whose rooms could be reached
had been assembled in the large amuse-
ment Hall, and had there been locked
in to prevent their escape. Almost all
the guards and attendants being en-
gagged in saving property and life, these
congregated maniacs were left to in
dulge all the wild fancies and vagaries
of their distempered minds. Some
kneeled down and engaged in earnest
prayer, some in loud exhortations, some
declared that they had just reached the
place of final torments, and that the
flames around them were the fires of
hell; while others INDUCED in loud
laughter and jests, now uttering in hor-
rid oaths, now lifting their eyes in sup
plication, and again dancing in per-
feet ecstacy of delight. One immense
woman sprang, with one bound, upon
the beautiful piano at the head of the
room, and, with her heavy shoes, dane
ed so long and with such violence upon
it, that although the lunatic's neck was
not broken, the instrument was com
pletely destroyed. In the removal of
these raving maniacs in carriages and
omnibuses they generally presented a
very quiet demeanor and gave but lit
tie trouble, except that some manifest
ed an unaccountable disposition to rush
back into the flames from which they
had Just been rescued. Sleeping in
the rooms next to the ones in which
the fires originated were the six ill-fat-
ed women who suffered death by suffo-
cation before help could reach them.
Their lifeless bodies were snatched from
the flames, and being borne out from
the reach of the devouring elements,
lay stretched amid the falling snow,
upon the grass, rendering more CHASTITY
and ghostly the narrowing scene. Be-
fore midnight the patients had all been
removed to the Hospital, the Deaf and
Dumb Asylum, and the Renitentiary,
and at this hour, if not before, all hope
of saving any part of this magnificent
structure had been utterly abandoned.
The flames had run along under I'M
der the tin roofing like fire along the
grass ON the prairie, and shot heaven
ward, muttering rythms of vengeance
up the sky. A river of fire extending
hundreds of yards, seemed to flow on,
when famed by the winds, likes the
waves of the sea. Soon after midnight
10, 900 people had reached the grounds.
Almost thousand of these set them
selves to work to save the furniture and
other movable property of the instit-
ton. Bedsteads, chairs, tables, pianos,
desks, mirrors, blankets, quilts dishes,
books, musical instruments and paint
ings, were carried out at the doors, or
hurled from the windows, and being
deposited in the yard, formed innum
cradle mounds and tumuli, like the
ruins and debris after an earthquakes