Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-10-14
BARRIERS OF FIRE.
IMPRISONED IN THE FIFTH STORY OF
ABURhlN6 MILL.
sicksning Scenes and SorOwful Sounds at
a Philadelphia firs-PIunging Head
Long Into the laws Of Death
twenty Lives Lost for
Want Of a Fire
Escape.
TEN DEAD BODIES IN the RUINS.
LEAPING FOR LIFE.


PHILADELPHIA, October lS.-The IRE
a. Laudenburg's mill last evening, that
was so disastrous to life and property,
originated in the finishing room, second
floor, and spread through the building
with amazing rapidity. About forty
five hands, twelve Of whom were girls,
were at work on this floor, but the ma
jority were engaged in the spinning and
weaving departments on upper floors,
and the wooden stairways at either end
OF the building were soon ablaze. The
bridge connecting the building with an
other mill was shut of from approach
bv fire proof doors. In the absence OF
any fire escape panic instantly ensued
among the men and women confined
within the building. They rushed to
the windows crying frantically to the
crowd below to save them. 1t was pro-
posed by the crowd to form squares in
the street and catch the men and girls
as they leaped out, but before anything
could be done young woman leaped
from the fifth story. 1t seems that
Every Bone in Her Body Was Broken
for she never breathed after striking the
pavement. After this the imprisoned
people seemed to become frenzied, aud
though the crowd outside sought to en-
courage them by shouting that help
would speedily be there, they began
jumping from the windows like sheep.
A man, apparently bereft OF reason,
flung himself headlong to the street,
and while his body was still in the air
others followed. Now a man, then
woman, or a hslf.grown girl, until
in a few minutes eleven hu-
man beings, one and all unconscious,
with fractured skulls and broken limbs,
were being carried by tender hands to
a neighboring saloon, on the floor OF
which body after body was laid in row
till vehicles were procured to convey
them to the hospitals. BY this time the
relatives began to gather outside OF the
building. The
Cries Of Mothers
outside to their children still in the
burning rooms, and their lamentations
over those who had jumped and been
literally dashed TO pieces, were heart.
rending to hear. When the firemen
were able to enter the building they
found on the third floor the bodies OF
two females burned almost to a crisp
and a man badly scorched and dead.
But before they conld search further the
fourth floor, with its heavy machinery,
came crashing through, ana they barely
escaped with their lives. The firemen
were compelled then to desist from their
labors, because the floors had gone
through to the ground, and the machin-
cry and charred wood, and what re-
mained of the unfortunate operatives
item or twelve) were mingled together
in an unacceptable mass, which was
seething and sending out columns OF
steam as the cold water was poured
upon it.
The followingisa list OF the victims as
far as Can be learned now: Dead-An-
ME Brady, Mary Kelly, Henry Moran,
an unknown girl who died at the hospi.
tai, two unknown girls aged about lS
and Is respectively, and an unknown
German, dead at the morgue.
John w Dougherty, who
Jumped from the Fourth Story Window.
is dead. Among the injured are Mary
Klaus, l6 years old. fractured leg; Jo-
seph Reynolds, both legs broken; Geo.
r. Hutton, broken leg; VIM. Cooper,
back broken; Joseph F. Burns, bresst
hurt, injuries fatal; David Lspham,
fractured skull; Michael Lsrkins, frac-
tured leg; Frederick Kreler, injured in
terally; Matte Coulan, spine injured; /;
Harry Armstrong, legs broken and in.
ternal hurts-jumped from the fourth
floor; Thos. A. Edwards, shoulder blade
broken; Lizzie Franks, Mary Brady,
Samuel Langham, Annie Miller, NATL.
da Schultz, Kate Shaeffer, George Lep-
pam, David Hutton, Anna Staub, Mary
Kelly. The victims were carried of in
all directions, some to their homes, some
to houses close by and others to the
various hospitals, 30 that the exact
number cannot be stated.
The physicians say the wounds OF
nearly every one admitted to st. Mary's
Hospital will result fatally. The total
number of deaths will probably exceed
twenty, there being
Ten Dead Bodies In the Ruins
Had the fire occurred in daylight four
hundred people would have been com.
PEELED to fight for life with the flames
Within an hour the flames were brought
under control, leaving the walls stand
ing, but the inside was completely
Quilted. Some workmen attribute the
fire to sparks from the electric lights
falling among waste. Others ascribe the
sudden and repeated flames to the in
fiuences OF overheated fires. The same
mill was burned in 1877. Two bodies
we're recovered this morning from the
ruins, one that Of Lizzie Marks, Phila.,
the other supposed to be the remains OF
John Weeks, OF Ulster County, N. Y.