The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-05-29
BY TELEGRAPH.
BURNING OF A CHURCH.
TERRIBLE LOSS OF LIFE.

SPRINGFIELD, Nav 28.-The French Cath
Ollie Church in South Holyoke has been
burned. A candle on the altar fired the drap-
cry. Most of those in the body of the church
escaped; of those in the gallery the majority
persisted. Service had nearly closed and
vespers were being sung. There was but one
exit FROM the gallery, which extended round
the building. There were seven hundred
worshippers present, seventy-fve of whom
persisted.
The efforts of the people to get into the
church to rescue their friends increased the
confusion and added to the disaster. Per-
sonal violence had to be used in several in
stances to keep women from rushing into the
flames to save their children.
The church was established seven years ago
and the parish included all the French Cath
olics in the vicinity, numbering 250O The
church was built in 1870. was one hundred
by sixty feet and two stories, entirely of pine,
and had galleries on the sides and north end
about twenty-five feet wide.
There wera two doors in the north end and
vestibule, from which two doors opened in
the body of the church. The galleries
was another door by which few persons es-
capped. Immediately upon the breaking out
of the flames all the occupants of the gale
ries rushed to the east door, and crowded so
that they fell upon one another and choked
up the doorways with their bodies, piled in
all ways seven or eight feet deep, and here
most Of the lives were lost
From this mass Chief Mullin rescued one
young woman, after taking off two dead
bodies from above her. It was almost i'm.
possible to face the flames, and Chief Mullin
and others had their clothes almost burned
from them, and were badly burned them
oh bands Tn fho If h<
| church was the priests residence, which was
also destroyed.
The walls we're pulled down after the fire
was nearly put out One woman jumped
from the highest window down upon the
front steps, breaking an arm, but she is moi
known to have been otherwise njured. A
man r. i two children in his arms, jumped
| from 3 window and escaped. One poor wo
| man, enveloped in the flames, shrieked out
"For Gods sake, save me" and she was
dragged out by John Lynch.
The latest dispatch to the Republican from
Holyoke says it is not quite certain that all the
| bodies have been taken from the ruins. Ir
| The haste to get as many as possible from the
short distance and it is possible that few
more may be taken from the debris.
HoLYoKE, Nav 28.-Fifty bodies have beef
identified in addition to fifteen or twenty tha
were at once removed to their homes. TIL
loss, as far as ascertained, is seventy dead
forty more or less burned and otherwise in
jured. A person who lost his wife an,
daughter has become insane.
Many changes are threatened by Attorne!
General Pierrepont in the South; his troubl
is in finding suitable Republicans to fill tn
places.
The President has recognized the following
Wallace Ogden, Consul of the Argentine Re
public, at New Orleans; Benz. P. johnson
Consul of the Argentine Republic, at Saltilla
Ga; Roman Salas, Vice-Consul of the Argen
tine Republic, at Savannah.