The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1874-09-29
FIRE AT FAg4EI RIVER,
MASS.
sseayy Less OF Life andProperty.
EReartrending Scenrs--'s women
and Children the Victims.


day, is taken from a dispatch to the
Boston Journal:
Mills numbers one and two had been
running about twenty minutes, when
the operatives in number one were star
tied with the c'y Of fire ard the escape
Of smoke fiom the fourth story. In
this, next to the upper floor, was the
mule warp spinning department, and
there were nearly a hundred girls at
work under a male overseer. On the
upper floor, the fifth story, about thirty
girls we're employed spooling and warp
ing cotton These were the youngest
of the operatives with the alarm, the
flames seemed to leapto this attic, com
ling from the windows below and up the
great tower in the centre of the bull
ding, in which were all the stairs com
municating with each story. The fire
caught in the mule spinning story in
the northwest end of the mill, from
friction in the mule head, and spread
ing By means Of the oil on the floor and
about the machinery with great quick
ness, rushed towards the center tower,
the only means of escape for those in
the fourth and fifth stories, besides four
fire escapes, two on each gable end
Once getting into the tower, the flames
ran up to and through the single en-
trance to the fifth story; then springlEg
to the roof timbcrs, filled the two great
rooms, $50 by 80 feet, with dense black
smoke and flame. While the flames
were making such terrible headway the
operatives became fairly wild. The
overseers saw there was no way posi-
BILE to check the fire, and gave their sole
attention to those whom they had at
work. They called to them to save
themselves, and pointed out way Of es-
cape. Tue overseer Of the spool room,
who remained until nearly sufocated,
states that the scene in his room-and
it must have been worse in the rooms
bclow-cannot be depicted. Children
ran about crying and begging piteously
to be saved. yet wrcnching themselves
away when taken forcibly to the tower,
while yet there were some chance to
get to the iron ladder, which reached TO
the scuttle windows of the south end,
opening upon the roof of the balcony.
At the foot of Twelfth street there were
fire ladders, but there was an impossi.
bility to get great majority to take
even this method to save their lives -
As the fire frightened them away from
the ladders, they rushed to the windows
at the south gable end, nearly sixty feet
from the ground, but dared not jump
down. Cotton ropes were put out for
them to slip down by, but no sooner
would the rope be lowered than there
was rush for it from the story below.
Too many would take hold, when it
would break and all clinging to it would
come down in a bunch. Similar scenes
were going on in the mule spinning
room. The flames had assembled rapid
ly to the entrance of the tower on the
fourth floor cutting off this means of
escape, but the operatives had the two
ladders of the south gable directly be
fore them, and were urged by the over
seer and the citizens below to take them.
Some did, but others rushed headlong
upon the balcony and threw themselves
from the guards. There was ample
time for every one to have been saved
had girls taken the course directed
The superintendent, as soon as the
alarm was given, rushed to the upper
story, and with the overseers, did all
possible to save life. When the means
provided for escape in the mill were
rendered unavailable by the heat, flames
and smoke, the people procured beds
and mattresses for the poor unfortu-
mates to jump upon, and many did
throw themselves from the windows to,
in almost every case, receive fatal or
terrible injuries. The firemen worked
to keep the flames out of the south end,
whittier many operatives had fed. Lad
ders as long as at command were used
to rescue the girls; and it is said four
firemen lost their lives while thus enga-
ged. One fireman was lowered from
the roof by other fircmen, into the bull
ding, and remained 30 long trying to
drive the girls forth that he had to be
let GO by those who held his rope and
being driven away by the smoke be
was lost Morgues and hospitals were
speedily improvised, the Mission Chap
el being taken for the latter, and as fast
as the girls could be picked up from
under the windows of the mill stretch
ers we're ready to carry them to either
the Chapel or the Central Station. At
the latter place twenty-five bodies were
soon lying and other unfortunates had
been taken to the stations or to their
homes. In number Of instances the
bodies could not be recognized they
were so disigured, begrimed and dirt
covered. In the Mission Chapel were
those whose sufferings were intense
Every doctor in the city was summoned
at the earliest moment. 1t is not too
high to place the number of killed at
forty and the injured at twice that num-
ber. The fire was under control short
| ly before half past eight. Then the en-
tire roof had not fallen nor had the
walls crumbled much below the caves
of the north side. The flames had been
kept almost wholly out of the building
south of the tower and so portion of
the fourth and fifth floors were left
The roof north of the tower fell in and
took with it the tops of the gable end
wall, portion of the fifth floor and
some of the side walls, crushing through
to the third story. The carding and
two weaving floors remain intact.
F%Wo.Soa in an arficla takan from