Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1881-01-08
TIE Corrr,AaRATroN.

Nluc lives WcIc lOoI. 1uO NhOViAAo es1S
Ellen Sheridan, aged AZ; Katie Sheri-
dan, aged IA; Maggie Sheridan, aged 8 !;
Martin Sheridan, aged 3; John Walsh,
aged 10; Thos. Cassiday, aged s.;
Charles Cassiday, aged s, and girl
named Egan, aged 2, and Mrs. Sheri-
dan, age unknown. Several persons
were injured, among them Jas. CASH
day, Mary Egan and Charles Walsh.
The scene of the dreadful holocaust,
the like of which has not occurred in
this city since the tenement-house fire
in Canon street more than a year ago,
and the dreadful Turner Hall calamity
about the same time, is approached
through a narrow alley hardly wide
enough to allow the passage of portly
man, between the two tall tenements,
Nos. SO and 80 Madison street.
In front of No. 35 is James Doyle's
liquor store it's back door opens directly
upon the narrow hallway in the rear
tenement where the start was given to
this mornings fire. Plumbers were busy
at the foot of the stairs thawing out the
frozen water-pipes, and for this purpose
used a gasoline apparatus. By some
means it was upset and the inaammable
material ran out. There was binding
flash, as of an explosion, that blew in
the door of the saloon, and in an instant
black smoke swelled up the long stair
way, impelled by the draft setting to-
wards the open windows in the top
story.
The fire finding vent through the
open doors and windows of the unten-
nantable ground floor of the house, had
seized upon the shutters, window-frames
and wooden floors of the balcony out
side, licking them up like 50 much It's
sue paper, and reaching upward toward
the floors where the frightened men and
women were huddled together, afraid
to venture out upon the fre-escape that
seemed to lead into the very jaws of
death.
Eight families occupied the house
two on each floor. On the second floor
Egan's and Muldron's had, at the first
alarm, escaped through the windows.
Mrs. Mary A. Egan, widow and her
four grown children, reached the ground
III safety by quick jump. Mrs. Null
doom, who is over eighty years old, was
less fortunate; selling her two grand
children, aged seven and ten, she
sprang from the fire escape, but in the
fall spraned or broke her leg land crawl
cd away with difficulty. On the floor
above, Mr.. Regain, who lived alone, es-
capped with his neighbors. The McKen-
ma family likewise escaped by jumping ;
James, aged nine, Hugh, aged four, aud
the baby were thrown through win
dow by Charles, their eldest brother, a
boy of fifteen. The mother was sweeping
in the yard when the fire broke out; she
rushed to the stairway, but was met by
a solid sheet of fame.
Realizing the danger of her children,
she reused them by shouting, before
they knew of the approach of the dead
ly visitor. slump, Charles throw them
down" The agonized mother cried and
stretched out her arms to receive them
as the three little heads looked over
the window sill beside their brother.
The lad measured the distance with his
eyes. 1t was more than twenty feet,
and he shrank from the venture with
the dread of instant death, but the
smoke was already filling the room and
pouring through the windows. The
children now clied and stretched their
heads toward their mother. The baby's
call, "MamnIa, mamma" was heard
above the roar of the fire and the clamor
in the street. s4###
The mother cried: "Charlie, for Gods
sake jump, and the boy was flung into
her arms. The other children followed,
himself leaving last. All reached the
ground in safety.
On the fourth floor lived the Cassiday
family and the Egans-another family
but of the same name as those on the
first hOor--and in the fifth and topmost
story Mrs. Ellen Sheridan was at break.
fast with her four children. stF
Another victim of the fire was found
this afternoon in the person of babe OF
Mrs. Cassiday. The little one was
Clasped to its mothers breast wrapped
in a blanket. The ten bodies were
| placed in collins and removed from the
station-house to the morgue.
Timothy Harrington, one of the
plumbers, to whose carelessness it is
CHARGED tho fra had its nririp ,rbar