Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-02-04
TERRIBLE SCENES AT THE LATE
NEW YORK FIRE.
Hanging from Ihe NfndoWs-A
Shocking Death-The Hero of the
Day.
Nelc York Times.

NelC York Times.
The spectacle was one which will never
be forgotten by those who witnessed 1t.
Suddenly the upper windows on Park Row,
Beekman street and Nassau street were seen
to be full of living forms. Terror stricken
faces OF men and women peered down
through the smoke upon the thousands Of
their fellow-creatures below, stretching out
their hands for aid and shrieking loudly for
rescue. The mingled smoke and flames
gave to the faces an unearthly hue, and the
shrieks mingled with the roar of the fire
and the hoarse calling of the firemen. came
to the ears of the surgiug crowd be-
low like voices from the tomb. The fire
men were doing all that men could do, risk
ing their lives fearlessly in the effort to
save those of the imprisoned sufferers, but
their movements, rapid as thev were, seem
ed slow enough to the suffocating creatures
in the burning building. To reach them by
the stairway was impossible, so quickly
had the fire done it's work. The hremen
raised ladders, but they only reached to the
third story, and time was necessarily con-
sumed in raising the shorter ladders to In
crease their length. Meantime those in the
building saw death steadily and surely ad-
vancing upon them from the rear, and the
preparations to save them from the outside
seemed endless. Some craWled out of the
windows and hung by their hands on the
lintels, thus shortening the distance be-
tween them and the ladders. Oshers stood
In the windows aud franticaliy sho ok their
hsnds and shouted. A cOlored woman, Ellen
Bull, who had been working on the fifth
story, was seen standing in one Of the
windows which had been broken out. She
shrieked and moaned, and swayed to and
fro, in danger OF falling continually She
was evidently crazy through fear, and the
great throng below stood and watched her
motions, unable to help her. Suddenly she
gave piercing scream and leaped beadloDg
from the window. Mr. Ii. L. Goodwin, of
the Scientific american, who had escaped
unharmed, stood below with three other
men holding a tarpaulin, but the woman
fell at one side and struck with heavy
thud on the hard pavement. Tender hands
bore the unconscious form to the Times
publication office, and she was soon re-
moved to the Chambers Street Hospital,
but she died within half an hour after
reaching IT.
On the Nassau and Beekman street sides
OF the building the same terrible scenes were
being enacted. Nassau street was blocked
from Fulton to Beekman, and Theatre alley
was crowded with spectators. From the
windows OF the fourth story on Nassau
street four men were clinging, and In one of
was seen standing, frantically waving thin
shawl. The fire was dartIng on every side
of her, and finally approached SO near that
it licked up her hair and threatened to
engulf her In flames. Suddenly she gather
ed up her clothes as II preparing for
spring, but while the almost breathless
crowd looked to see her drop to the ground
she dropped back into the furnace and was
seen no more. On Beekman street an
aged man was hanging from a fourth story
window, and the ready hands of the firemen
were hoistiDg a ladder to reach and save
him. He clulg with death-like grip, but
the flames were stronger than he. They
were seen to burst from the window by the
Intel Of which he was hanging. The fire
men were almost within reach of him, when
suddenly deep grOan escaped from a
thousand throats-the old mans hand was
seen to relax, and his body came tumbling
to the hard pavement below. The man
was Richard s. Davey, compositor on the
ScOttiSh-AnlericGn. The unconscious body
was taken to the Chambers Street Hospital,
where death relieved the man from further
suffering in a short time. Such scenes as
this held the crowd with resistless power,
Notwithstanding the storm, which was now
cold and piercing. They nerved the arms
of the firemen, too, and citizens who were
eager to help them. The ladders, extended
by shorter ones, at last reached high enough
to do good service, and the men and women
clipging to the windows were rescued by the
fremen. How many were suffocated or
burned to death, however, before this relief
reached them 1t is impossible to tell until
their charred remains are unesrthed or their
absence is reported by their friends.
While the excitement was at fever heat,
Charles Wright, a young bootblack, who is
well known to people doing business around
Printing House square, looked up to the
burning building and saw three men wildly
gesticulating at the windows of the fifth or
upper story. From one of these windows
a wire rope was stretched to a telegraph
pole on the opposite corner of Beekman
street. 1t had held banner during the last
campaign. A means OF escape for the three
men shot across Wright's mind in an In
slant, and in ano'her instant he was engaged
in putting it into execution. The telegraph
pole was slippery with snow and ice, but &
dozen strong arms raised the boy
and pushed him up until he reached
the slight projections which serve az
foothold for the line men. Up the
pole the young lad Skinned" as he ex.
pressed it, until he reached the wire rope
1t was the work of moment to sever itE
connection with the pole, and the wire then
fell to the side Of the burning building. The
three men on the fifth story seized this rope
and slid down it, one after the other in
safety to the ground, although their hands
were seriously injured by friction in the de-
scent. Young Wright was received with
cheers as he reached the ground, and he
became the hero of the day. But for his
timely action there is little doubt but the
men thus saved would have been consumed
before other aid could have reached them