St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-12-05
Incidents of a Recent Fire.

How little one knows what is going
on before his very eyes Last Friday
afternoon, about four O'Clock, as / was
crossing broadway, opposite Astor
place, / saw crowd of people running
I'D that direction, and heard the rattling
OF hose wagons over the cobble-stones,
Looking toward Lafayette place, l saw
red flames leaping into the air. s'What
is burning ?" | inquired of man stand
ing along the curb. ga building be-
tween Broadway and Lafayette place. p
he replied, carelessly. | stood there
awhile, and watched the immense fire
engines plunging along, leaving "a wake
OF Ournlngc Goals, and shooting red sparks
out into the dust. The magnificent
horses fairly flew down the street, flash
ing fire from their quivering nostrils,
The chief of the district came tearing
down Broadway in his wheeled
wagon, while the powerful horse that
pulled it, lifted it off the ground at ev-
cry bound. Husky-voiced captains
beloved unintelligible orders through
their brass trumpets, and the scene was
altogether one of intense excitement.
''What fuss these firemen make about
nothingm remarked one of the lockers
on. at is only Il little blaze, and they
act as though it was second Chicago
1t didn't seem to me to amount to
much, so | tucked my books under my
arm, and sauntered on. The next
morning on taking up the paper, / saw
that it had been most serious fire, and
that the lives of number of men and
women were in awful danger. The
building burned was the office and print
ing honse of the Churchman, and most
of the people escaped over the roofs.
AS one of the printers was about to save
himself, he looked back and saw one of
the proof-readers, young lady, be-
hind him. He was just about to de-
scend as the other men had done, hand
over hand down the elevator rope. The
poor girl looked at him with wild
despair painted on every feature of her
face. He went back like a hero, and
took her in his arms. Then, telling her
to cling tightly to him, he began to de-
scend the rope. But their combined
weight was more than he could hold.
He told her to seize the rope, which she
did, while he clung on with his legs,
too; but even then the weight was so
great that they went whirling to the
bottom, cutting their hands to the bone.
The wife of the janitor of the building,
a German, might have escaped with the
other women over the roofs but as she
was about to start, she remembered
that her husbands savings were left be-
hind. With true German thrift she
went back foI the money. When she
came back to the window again there
was no way to escape, and the smoke
was thick all around her. A man from
a neighboring house shouted to her to
hold on and he would get ladder. But
she did not understand English, and
seeing the flames at her back, she
sprang out and fell a distance of three.
stories. She was picked up insensible
and taken to the hospital, where it was
found that her ribs were broken and that
she was suffering from internal injuries.
The gold she risked her life to recover
was found, after the fire had been put
out, by Broadway trunkmaker, who
had picked up between 5000 and $500
OF the precious pieces and returned
them to their owner, who said that ev-
cry penny was there. And to think
all this was going on before my very
eyes, and thought it was only little
blaze, such as one sees nearly every
day l-Ne'v York Letter in Boston Satur-
day Evening Gazette.