The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1881-10-22
MOTHER FIRE HORROR.

PHiLtDELrHfA, October 10.
A fire broke out at Landcubcrger' mill
last night which was disastrous to life and
property. l! originated in the finishing room
OF the 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 majority
were engaged in the spinning and weaving
departments on the upper floors. The
wooden stairways at either end OF the build
ing were soon ablaze. The bridge connecting
the building with another mill was shut off
from approach by tire-proof doors, and in
the absence of any fire-escape a panic in
stantIy ensued among the men and women
confined within the building. They rushed
to the windows, crying franticaliy
to the crowd below to save them.
1t was proposed by the crowd to
form squares i'm the street and catch the
men and girls as they leaped out, but be.
fore anything could be done young woman
leaped from the fifth story. 1t seemed that
every bone in her body was broken, for she
never breathed after striking the pavement.
After this the imprisoned people seemed to
have become frenZied, and though the
crowd outside sought to encourage them by
shouting that help would shortly 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 man, then a woman or
half-grown girl, until, in few minutes,
eleven human beings, one and all uncon-
Scious with fractured skulls and broken
limbs, were being carried by tender hands
to neighbOring saloon, on the floor Of
which body after body was laid in a row,
until vehicles were procured to convey them
to the hospitals.
BY this time the relatives Of the victims
began to gather outside the building, and
the cries OF mothers outside to their children
still in the burning rooms, and their lamen-
tatiOns over those who had jumped and been
literally dashed to pieces, were heartrending
TO hear. When the tiremen were able to
enter the building they found on the third
floor the bodies Of two females, burned al
most to crisp, and man badly scorched
and dead, but before they could search fur
Their the fourth floor, with its heavy ma
chinery, came crashing through, and they
barely escaped with their lives. The fire.
men were compelled, then, to desist from
their labors because the floors had gone
through TO the ground, and machinery,
charred wood and what remained Of the UNI
fortunate operatives. ten or twelve, were
mingled together in an unrecOgnzable
mass, which was seething and sending out
columns of steam as the cold water was
poured upon it.
The physicians say that the wounds of near
ly every one admitted to St. Mary's Hospital
will result fatally.
The total number of deaths will probably
exceed twenty, there being ten bodies in
the ruins.
Within an hour the flames were brought
under control, leaving the walls standing,
but the inside Quilted. lie
Some Of the workmen attribute the fire to
sparks from the electric lights falling among
waste, while others ascribe the sudden
spread Of the flames to the influence of
in 1872.