Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1876-03-17

New York. March z.

NEW YORK, March z.
The House for Aged People, conducted by
the Catholic community known as the
"Little Sisters of the Poor" and located in
the Eastern District of Brooklyn, was
burned this morning. The house comprised
a four-story building, with two wings, and
contained 1S5 inmates
The fire was discovered in the south wing
by person on the street, who gave the
alarm by ringing the bell Of the institutions
awakening the Sisters and the aged inmates.
When the firefnen arrived the flames were
sweeping through the south wing in every
direction, and it was not until about nine
o'clock, and the fire had been reduced to
smoldering embers in the basement, that
/ the firemen 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
to the fireman who frs. was able to make
his way through the smoke and flames into
it. 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 corpses of nine
unfortunate creatures, some of whom were
paralytc 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 sutfocation caused by smoke.
On the second floor, likewise, one
old man was found dead seated in a
chair. He also died of asphyxia, and had
been so inirm that he was unable to leave
his seat After the fremen saw the flames
were subdued a 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 it was impossible
to determine, for the men, as fast as they
could escape, were either housed i'll the resi-
dences of neighbors or were wandering
oI~o, hale and in siam
half clad, condition The fremen, 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, unrecogn1Zable,
and their blackened remains presented
sickening sight, as the firemen 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
mel" "Save me!' rose with piercing en-
phass 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.
One poor old man, as the flames rushed
| 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 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 bedagain. 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, apd 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
/ os DosSible