Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1881-01-12
Misfellang.
The New York Tenement Horror.

The New York Tenement Horror.
Further details of the recent dreadful
holocaust in the New York tenement
house are AS follows:
The burned building was four-story
tenement house, 35 Madison street. The
victims are Ellen Sheridan, aged 43; Katie
Sheridan, aged IA; Maggie Sheridan, aged
s. Martin Sheridan. aged 3; John Walsh
aged l3; Thomas Cassidy, aged 6; Chas.
Cassidy, aged 8; the Cassidy baby; girl
named Eagan. aged 2; and Mrs. Sheridan,
age unknown. Several persons were in
jured. The fire started at the foot of the
only flight of stairs to furnish exit for the
tenarts. Plumbers were busy at the foot
of the stairs thawing out frozen water
pipes, and for this purpose used gasoline
apparatus. BY some means it was upset
and the inhammable material ran out
There was IA binding flash, as of an expIo
sion of powder. Il puff that blew in the
door of the saloon, and in an instant black
smoke welled up the long stairway, i'm
PEELED onward by draught setting toward
the open window in the top story. There
was momentary deadly hush as the
frightened plumbers issued into the yard,
then wild rush was heard overhead and
the sound of breaking glass and the air
was filed with the despairing walls of i'm
prisoned men and women, the shrieks of
frightened children and wild cries for help
of the barkecper and scOrched plumbers
who ran wildly through the street toward
the police station. The next moment the
claDgor of bells filled the streets, and the
narrow alley became janmed with
tiremen and policemen struggling to bring
help to the imprisoned and burning ten.
ants. They came too late, the fire fin ling
vent through the open doors and windows
ofthe untenanted ground floor of the house
and through the door, and seized upon the
shutters. window frames anu the wooden
floors of the balconies outside, licking
them up like tissue paper and reaching up
ward toward the floors where the frightcn
ed men and women huddled together,
afraid to venture out npon the fire-escape.
that seemed TO lead
INTO THE VERY JAWS OF DEATH,
and driven from behind by lurd fl lmes
that shone through chinks of frail doors
barring it out, and encompassed them with
black and sutfJcating smoke. Eight fami
lies occupied the house-tAo to each floor
On the second floor the inmates had, at the
first alarm, escape through the windows
On the floor above, the third, Mr.. Reagan,
who lived alone, escaped with his neigh
bors the McKenna family, likewise by
jumping. James, a ed 8. Hugh, aged 4,
and IA baby were thrown through the win.
dow by Charles. their oldest brother, a lai
of 13. The mother, Mrs. McKenna. was
,u,,n,,p,r in ba ri bar ha fra nl,,,
out. She rushed to the stairway, but wa,
met by solid sheet of flame, and, realz-
ing the danger of her children, reused
them by shouting, before they knew of
the deadly peril at the door. Jump,
Charles! Throw them down. the ago.
nized mother cried and stretched out her
arms to receive them AS their little heads
looked over the window-sill beside thei
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 window, obscuring the faces
of the children, who now cried aud held
out their hands towards their mother. A
babys call, Mamma, mammal" was
heard above the roar of the fire. The
mother could bear it no longer. "Charlie,
for God sake, jump!" she cried in despair,
and the boy hesltaled no longer. He flung
the baby into her arms; the others followed
with himself last, All
REACHED THE GROUND IN SAFETY.
On tine fourth floor lived the Cassidy
family and the Eagans, another family
than the one of the same name on the first
floor, and in the fifth and topmost story
Mrs. Ellen Sheridan. She was at break
fast with her four children. The men, as
in all the other families, had gone to their
work. At the first alarm, Mrs. Sheridan
had run to the door, and, seeing the hall
way effectually blocked, turned to the
window. The flames there met her also
and in despair she rushed for the scuttle
In the roof 1t was firmly hooked, and hel
strength, desperate as she was, did MOI
suffice to open it, Returning to her rooms
she closed the door on the advancing fire
but il was too late. The rooms were file
with smoke, growing more dense every
moment in which the woman and hel
children CROPPED about, vainly seeking tht
windows. They were found dead, ev
IDENTIFY choked, before the flames reache,
them. The Cassidy family had attempte,
to escape by the roof, but also failing, hat
reached the windows and flung themselve!
out. Only two of them, Charles ant
Thomas, boys Of 6 and 8 years, were left
They were suffocated, and when found
their clothes were burned. The contor
tions of their bodies showed the agonizine
struggle for life. OF the EtgAn family al
were saved but Il little girl Of 3
BRAVE BOY.
The bravery of little Charley McKenn
was the subject of much praise. Thougt
only Is years of age ne remained by hi
little brothers and sisters. and, wrappin
them in blanke $, he dropped them gent
from the second story window into tn
arms OF tiremen below. Then finding hi
retreat through the hallway cut off, b
grasped a clothes line that was suspende
between the front and rear houses, anC
walking hand over hand until he reache
the middle of the yard, dropped safely i
TO the arms of firemen.
The place is up a narrow alley, wher
two persons can scarcely pass abreast. Th
narrow passage way prevented the fire
men from putting up the ladders; an
h while they were making the attemp
some firemen clam bered up to the fir,
escape and brought out the children to I'll
air, but they could not descend the fire
escape, and the flames and smoke nearl