The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1883-03-01
ANOTHER HORROR.
A Number OF School Children
Crushed to Death.

of fire under the stairs of the second
floor in the school house attached to
the German Roman Catholic church
of the Most Holy Redeemer, Fourth
street, between Avenue a and First
avenue. at qurrter past three this
afternoon, was the cause of a terrible
calamity. NoleSs than fourteen chill
dren lost their lives. Over
seven hundred scholars, mostly
children of the poorer classes.
ranging from six to eleven years of
age, attended the school and were in
the class rooms when the alarm of
fire was raised. \ fearful panic soon
followed. The removal of the chill
dren ON the fourth floor began quietly
enough, and was progressing rapidly.
when Sister of Charity in charge of
class of girls tainted. Inme-
diately the alarm in the class
became panic and a rush
was made for the hallway on the
stairs, already crowded, and a deadly
crush took place. The railing of the
stairs broke and the mass of strug-
| Cling children were precipitated to
the floor below, falling in packed
mass one upon another from four to
| five deep. The police and tiremen. al
really summoned, arrived, but their
work of rescue was much hampered
| by the frightened children con-
| tinuing To fail or leap from
the stairway. those in front being
crowded over the broken balustrade
by the children behInd struggling to
reach the exits. Six children were
taken out dead from the bottom and
eight more died Immediately after the
rescue, making total of fourteen. a
large number of Others who were car
ried to neighbOring tenements were
reported dying. The excitement
when the news of the Ca
taStrophe spread was fearful,
and great throngs of people
blocked the streets surrounding the
school. Many children lost in the
excitement were reported missing.
Sister AprOmia, who had charge of
the fifth class of girls said: II was in
charge of my class when the fire first
broke out, in the hallway adjoining
my room. | heard IA commotion out
side, IA great confusion and hubbub of
voices, and at once turned towards
the room door, and then, for the first
! time, discovered smoke coming in
through the wainscoting. 1 immedi-
ately went to the door and as | opened
| it to learn the cause of the excite
ment the flames rushed in on me.
at once closed the door, and was about
to warn the children to keep calm,
when some men came bursting into
the room. In moment the children
ran out at the bidding of the men,
and / followed, seeing all of them
1 g
went to the stairs at the west side of
the building, and were injured by
falling over the stairs, where the
boys had broken down the banistters
before them. There were about 100
girls in my class"
The sister in charge of the first
division of the girls department, on
the fourth floor, said: Il was not
aware what was going on until L
looked out and saw the boys on my
floor running over to the west side
stairs and going wildly down. 1
heard the balustrade give way, and
then was about to turn to look
to my charges, when they all arose as
if seized with fright, dasned past me
and recklessly ran down the stairs
and Railways. l saw none of my
girls injured, and they disappeared so
quickly from my sight l hoped they
had all escaped in safety" The sis
ter appeared calm and COM
posed and seemed to have
retained her self-possesSion during
the trying moments of her narrowing
experience.
Another account says the fire from
which the smoke spread through the
building, bringing such terrible results
to the innocent pupils, was of most
trivial character. It started among a
mass of sweepings in closet beneath
the stairs leading from the second to
the third floor. on the east side of the
building. 1t had been smouldering for
some time and had eaten its way
through to the centre of the partition
wall dividing the hall from the class
room in front, and crept up toward
the third floor ere 1t was discovered.
| At this moment visitor called at the
school TO see all of the pupils in the
| fifth class, which Is ON the second
floor, and the door, which opens al
most opposite and within five
| feet of the closet in which the
Sweepings were burning, was
the one the visitor knocked at,
and it was opened by one of the Sis
tiers of Notre Dame, by whom the
school is conducted. Scarcely had the
door swung back on It's. hinges when
the flames burst out from under the
stairway, and the sister hastily shut
the door, but not until some of the
children in her care had caught sight
of the fire. All efforts to quiet them
were in vain, and they rushed
madly from the class room. The
smoke now rolled out of the closet in
great volumes, and in few seconds
spread to all parts of the building and
scene of widest confusion enSued.
The school building is five stories high
and has nine class rooms-seYen for
girls and two for boys. The rear of
the school abutS at the rear
of the church of the Holy Redeemer,
which fronts on Third street. There
are two stairways, one on the east and
the other on the west end of the
building. These stairways were
about three and one-half feet inside
and opened almost ut the doors of the
claSS-rooms, but from the play-room
in the centre OF the building were
approached by a narrow dark passage
way. When the girls on the
second floor rushed from their
class-rooms, they hardly reach
ell the head of the stairs
when the boys and girls from the
upper floors were upon them. All
frantically fought to get down the
narrow stairway and the first were
thrown headlong to the bottom.
Then, as the crush came from hun
dreds of children trying to get down
from the upper floors ON the east side
of the building. the balus-
trade gave way, and fully fifty
children were thrown to the floor be-
meath, and on these others fell until
they were piled five feet high on top
of each other. Officer Lambert, of
the society for the prevention of
cruelty to children, happened to be in
East Fourth street, nearly opposite
the school, when the alarm was given.
He says: IL rushed into the build
ing, and terrible sight met
my eyes. Packed into the narrow
hallway on the first floor were from
fifty to 20 little girls, and the poor
things were screaming and struggling
with all their might. BY this time
other police and citizens had arrived,
and we began pulling the poor chill
dren out of the hallway. The cries of
some of the children at the bottom of
the pile grew fainter and fainter, and
then ceased altogether"
Detective Robinson said: "The