Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1876-03-16
Great Loss oil Life by Fire In Brook.
lyn, N. Y.


| New York, March T.
:, The House for Aged People, conducted by
sne Iathoiic community known as the
/ Little Sisters of the Poor and loca..d IN
| the Eastern District of BROOKLYN. was
burned this morning. The house Comprised
iour-story building, with two wings. and
contained lS5 inmates.
The fire was discovered in the south wing
by person ON the street, who gave the
! alarm by ringing the bell of the institution
awakening the Sisters and the aged inmates
When the firemen arrived the flames were
sweeping through the south wing in every
| direction, and 1t was not until about nine
O'Clock, and the fire had been reduced to
smotdering embers in the basement, tha.
| the bremen were enabled by ladders TO ex
anime the upper stories OF the burned wing.
In one OF the rooms in the third story
second tier, horrible sight presented itself
10 the fireman who first was able to make
MS way through the smoke and flames into
IL. There, stretched upon their pallets. the
mattresses, quilts, and even pillows of which
had been singed by fire, being partially
covered with the water that subdued the
flames around them, were the eorpses of nine
unfortunate creatures, some of whom were
paralytic, and all of whom were unable
| to leave their beds. A few of them
were burned, and the hair upon their
heads singed, but all doubtless died
from suffoeation caused by smoke.
old man was found dead seated in a
chair. He also died of asphyxia, and had
been so infrm that he was unable to leave
his seat After the firemen saw the flames
were subdued, q trying duty awaited them.
In the ruins it was certain were the bodies of
many who had persisted in the most terrible
manner, but what number il was impossible
to determine, for the men, as fast as they
could escape, were either housed in the resi-
denees of neighbors or were wandering
about In alf-craZed, and in some instances
half-clad, condition. The firemen however,
continued the work of pouring water on the
embers, and when these cooled they began
the search for those who were burned. Their
labors brought from beneath the debris
the charred and mangled bodies of eight
men, whose remains fell with the floors on
which they persisted. This made in all eight
cen victims of the holocaust, including
those who died from suffocation Those
burned were, of course, unacceptable,
and their blackened remains presented
sickening sight as the tiremen dragged them
out and gave them in charge of the Sisters,
the clergy, and brethren from st. Johns
College. These in turn conveyed the remains
to the basement of the institution, and there
wrapped them up in sheets and blankets to
await the arrival Of the Coroner.
During the progress of the fire the as
pect within the building, as seen from the
outside, was tragic in the extreme. "Save
me-" "Sayc mem rose with piercing en-
phasis from the cracked and feeble voices of
old men who were bed ridden, re echoed by
women who were crippled. With the energy
Of despair, and in the wild effort to avert
death, the mere thought of which makes the
heart stand momentarily still, the aged
creatures besieged the windows, and, open
ing them, allowed current Of air to pass in
and fan the flames. Their screams were
dreadful.
toward him, where he stood in a third story
window, got upon the wooden window sill,
and jumped, or rather threw himself down
upon the ground. He was killed instantly;
and his example came near having "a fatal
effect upon another of his companions, who
initiated it, and was carried from the spot
with his bones broken and his joints dislo-
Gated suffering terrible agony. In the
woman's department, after the panic had in
some degree subsidized, many Of the females
sank into inertia, and, after the police dragged
them away from their cots on which they had
lain down, they returned to the room and in
sisted on going to bed again. 1t was with the
greatest difficulty that they could be induced
to leave, and when they were led outside,
they wandered about aimlcssly until many
Of them were picked up by charitable per-
sons in the vicinity, and provided with
shelter. Others of them insisted on saving
the beds on which they had slept; others be-
walled the sad condition Of the Sisters, and
all of them gave way to idiosyncrasy wholly
foreign to the supreme necessity that i'm
PEELED the officers to get them out as quickly
as ssihla