The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1877-05-28
Two Children Burned
to Death.
Henry G. Towers Dwelling in Clar-
endon Burned Over His Head-Two
of His Children Perish in the
Flames-Narrow Escape: of the
Other Members of the Family-To-
tai Loss of Home.

tirely consumed and two sous of Mr..
Tower, Clayton Henry Tower, aged twelve,
and Herbert Alden Tower, ten years old,
persisted in the flames. Eight persons were
sleeping in the house at the time. The
others escaped with nothing but little
clothing hurriedly caught up as they fled.
The hired boy, Walter Clark, aged seven
teen, who slept in the room next to the
Tower boys, nearly shared their fate. To
understand how 80 horrible tragedy could
happen it is necessary to know
THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE HOUSE.
1t was a two story and half frame
building with an L, running north and
south, seventy feet long The parents and
three children slept in the front or north
part of the house down stairs, fully fifty
feet from the fire when first discovered,
while the two boys and Walter Clark occu-
pied two chambers over the kitchen in the
L, and reached only through stairway in
the wood shed back of the kitchen.
THE FIRST TO DISCOVER THE FIRE,
as far as known, was Walter Clark, who
was awakened suddenly and found his room
filled to suffocation with smoke. Rushing
to his window he broke through the sash
and sprang out upon the roof of the house
which was lower than the L and ran under
his window. He slid to the ground and
warned Mr.. Tower who was still sleeping.
Mr.. Towers first words were the father
cry,
"wHERE ARE MY BOYS ?"
One glance showed him where, and told
him their great danger. The wood
shed through which lay the only
access to their room was even
then in flames and escape by the stair
way was impossible. Rushing to the barn
opposite he seized a ladder, placed it
against the wall, and in an instant had
reached and broken in their window.
"They are safe, my boys, have reached
them," thought the father. But no
Through that window poured flood OF
dense, black smoke, that no human being
could pass through. Even a fathers love
must pause at that barrier. Holding his
head beneath the rolling cloud of smoke, he
8 reached one arm into the blacknees and
| CROPPED until he found the bed. Drawing
{ it to him he searched in vain for the forms
of his children. Catching the clothes he
' drew them to him. No weight held them.
g The boys were gone! With one last lone
look into the sitting darkness he descended
and the room broke into mass of flames
There was nothing to do but wait. Wait
: powerleFs, outside, while his sons per
ished in the flames Wait, and watch the
few ,ighhors, summoned in this .briei
e time by the frenzied energy of the boy
? ark,-savlng clothing and furniture
i while two hum IN lives persisted. OF thu
= many willing hands not one could enter thu
: furnace where the boys lay. Time Wort
e on. The whole building was in flames. A
t half hour passed and
THE FRAME OF THE L FELL.
, All rushed forward and gazed into thu
. burning ma 8, hoping yet dreading to fine
the confirmation of their worst fears. Yes
there in the very center of the flames wher'
:, none could reach them lay the
BODIES OF THE TWO BoYs
The outlines of the forms were distinctly
/ visib C, though the flesh had parted from
+ the bones and withered away in the heat
t Each had an arm up over his head as if t.
u avert the danger. On one hand the finger
: extended separately were seen, the bone
d white and crumblipg with heat. And OF
y the brink of that furnace, gazing at the hor
:. rible cremation, stood the father, mothe
o and two sisters. Staring, while joint b.
b Joint the skeletons fell asunder, crumble,
away and mingled with the ashes of tn
u burning timber. Who ehall measure tn
d agony of those hours? Thank God tina
g He sends such suffering into the world Blu
le seldom. To mJst of US it is given /
= soothe the last hours OF our beloved, t
smooth their dying pillow and hallow thei
% last resting place; to this father and moth
1. err, to stand mute ard helpless by and sc
their children perish, their very bodie
crumble away into dust before their eyet
,f REMOVING THE BODIES.
Almost five hours it lasted. Not unit
d. seven o'clock in the morning were th
8. ruins cool enough to be examined. The
,d A. s. Wilson, William G. Marsh, l.. {
ID Sauier and other neighbors who had gail
of cred as rumors Of the calamity spread, 81
n, tered the spot to gather up the remain
en- The two bodies had been seen lying abol
d. four feet apart, and on the very spots tw
,al small piles of ashes were found lyiI
lie somewhat in the shape of human form
es They were gathered up carefully, place
ST. in two separate recep,acles and removed
nd the house of Lauriman @. Squier, the ne,
neighbor north, whittier the family had r
moved for protection. Perhaps six quar-
of ashes, with very small pieces Of bon
-, were gathered in each place. The large
"a piece of bone found was about four inch
u long, apparently fragment Of jaw fro
~ which the teeth he'd dropped out, and
IN blackened bone nearly as large as mar
clenched fist, which may have been skul
Il THE ORIGIN OF THE FIRE.
he Nothing is positively known as to Il
he origin of the fire. Many people believe tn
W. 1t was incendiary, and there are two wa.
in which It might have taken accidental