The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1883-03-01
CRUSHED TO DEATH.

chfal school Causes a Panic Among the
Little SehoIars-The Frightened Chill
dren Leap or Fall Down the Stairway,
and sixteen of Them Killed and Sew
eraI Others Seriously Injured-PitiabIe
Scenes.
NEW Y u7K February 20.
An outbreak of fire under the stairs on the
second floor of the school-hOuse attached to
the erman r mn Catholic Church of the
Most Holy Redeemer. ON Fourth street, bo-
tween Av nue A and First avenue, at 3:15
o'clock this arterno IN. caused panic VIII ch
resulted in the death of fifteen little girls and
the manning Of many others. over seven
hundred scholars, mostly children Of he poor
er classes, ranging from six to eleven years
in age, attended the school and were in
their class rooms whel an alarm of fire
was given. The sisters quickly marshaled
thes ch ldren, aud before half q min
ute hal elapsed half of them had reached
the street by stairwaY. the other
being useless by reason of the fire and smoke.
The other half would have quickly marched
cut unharmed, but that the sister in charge Of
Nd. class, overcome by the peril of her
charges, swoOned away. This class immedi-
afely became panic-strckeD, broke away from
aakrestraint, threw the other rapdly-marching
& asses into confusion, and all rushed for the
hallway. On the stairs, already crowded,
EzGlas2l4y crush took place. 4 he railing of the
stairs broke, and mass of struggling children
was precipitated to the floor below. I he little
ones fell in packed mass, one upon another,
| from four to FIVE deep. The poic9 and fire
men, who had alrl ady been summoned, ar
/ rived; but their work of rescue was much
| hampered by the frightened children, who
continued to fall or leap from the stairway.
4 those in front being crowded over the broken
| balustrade by those behind, still struggling to
re eh the exit
The fire f. ON which the smoke spread
| thro lgh the building bring ng such terrible
resul s to the innocent pupils, of most
! tr vial character 1t started among a mass of
i swccpiugs in the closet beneati the stairs
/ leading from the second to the third floor, on
| the cast side of the bui'd ng. 1t had been
Il smOldering tor some me, and had eaten its
! wall dividing the hall from the class room in
4 front, and had crept up toward the third floor
ment a visitor called at the school to
! see one OF the pupils III the fifth
| door of whicl opens almost opposite
| to and within five feet of the closet in which
! Knocked at the door, wh eh was opened by one
| of the sisters of NOtre Dame, by whom the
! school Is conducted. Scarcely had the door
| sWuIS PACK on us hinges Wntn the names
| burst out from under the stairway. The sister
| hastily shut the door; but not unit j some of he
/ chIdren III ner care had caught sight Of the
fire. All efforts to quiet them in vain,
and they ushed madly from the classroom.
smoke now rolled out Of the closet in 9eat vol
uwes and in few seconds $ oread to all parts
| I the bun ding, and a scene of the widest con-
! The school building is FIVE stories h 'gh ana
| has nine claSS-r5Om5. seven for girls and two
| for boys. The rear of the schO abuts Mt the
| rear Of the Church Of the Holy Redeemer,
| VIII ch fronts on Third street. there are two
! stairWays, one in the east a I'd the other in the
| west end UI Il @ building. These stairwayS were
about thrs ana a half feet wide. an opened
| almC ST at the o of the cass-rOoms FIR N
the pIay-room, in the center of the building
tn was approached by narrow, dark
Iassage way. When the g'rIs in the second
TO of the school III he'd from their
cl, IS Iooms they had hardly reach the head
Of the stairs when the boys and girls fro n the
upper IOOr we upon tl-In All trautiCQ!iV
fought to get down tn narrow stairway, and
Then the crush came from the hundreds of
children trying to get down from the upper
+ floors on the east side OF the building the bai-
ustrade gave way, the balusters going with il,
Il and fully fifty children were thrown TO the
| floor beneath on these others fell until thew
were piled five ieet high on top of each other.
Officer Lambert, of the Society for the Pre-
vention of Cruelty to Children, happened to be
on East ith street, nearly op Eosjte the school,
when the alarm was given. He says: . l
rushed into the build NJ, an terrible sgat
met my eyes. Packed into narrow hallway
on the first floor were from fifty to seventy
hVe Ettle girls. Thsp or things were scream
this time other police and cttizens hadarrived,
and we began pulling the poor children out of
at the bottom of the pile grew fainter and
fainter, and then eased altogether"
Detective Robin on said: The fire broke
out und r the stHircas e on THE secord hoor and
was easily ext ngutshed. exam ned the
have been sw pit with the papers under the
stairT a :, and been ignited by the friction With
Policeman Reid said: t'On the floor behind
the staircase lnv a mass of struggling scream
u ing CHILDREN. They Were piled On top of @ lch
other As quickly as poss. bic we pulled the N
| out, and Ta@s q them one by one through the
we reached the ottoIn we came upon ten
dead. II was awful sight to see them lying
there with their blaDche1 faces, mouth and
eyes wide open, and their dresses all in diso--
der. One little girl, Minnie Truke, was still
alive. She died, however on the way TO the
station-house II was the most awful scene ]
ever passed thTaugh.. The dead were removed
! TO the olice station on Fifth street and First
avenue, where they were laid in a row On the
floor in back room. They were all quickly
J ident fed by sorrow-stricken mothers aud little
brothers and sters; and the remoya! of each
! t the at1icte ho ne OF the family prompt
ly permitte by the authorities.
) From the heap of children in the west hal
six dead girls. from seven fOaea years of az p,
were taken and carried in o the church. wlier
they were la In front OF & sanctuary and
atten PTS were m de to res 1sCitatc them
Motheis Ioiclhg ne T Way IN, : plte ihc Iar9e
force OF police, tiled the sacred building with
/ pttful cries. One racO2ni ed her dead child
and frlI upon it with agoniziug shrieks The
policemen and monks turned away da1 e1 al
: the spectacle COnveyances arriving, the
bodies were taken Up in the arms Of the officer:
and carried out A clamoring shreking
hands ana streaming eyes followCd. Moth rs
finding their miss ng children still living, feI
upon their knees in the mud an SNOW giving
tt anks In the station house the frantic
sshrieks proclaimed the identification of each
: little dead one. The ages of the children who
are dead ard in ,ured range between seven and
; The scene in the classroom and in the halls
after the panic WIS ALMOST indesrribable
Torn books and broken school apparatus, anC
fragments of tOra clothes we're scattered upOT
the floors, terrible evidence of the wilC
struggle of the children 10 escape from tho
building. survey shows that every rule anC
D precaut on for safety in the school had beer
disregarded. On four floors there are nine
class-rOoms, opening into two Railways, witt
stairs running east and west, reaching eithe
end of the building. Through the classroom
access can be had to either stairway, but thu
D halls and stairs separated. In nearly eVery
room the doors open inward. and there is only
: one door in each room for the egress of frcn
I thirty to eighty child en-, mostly young girls
The doors were only two and a half feet wide
The stairways. likewise. were narrow. and a
, the top of the highest fight there is stou
den gate not easily moved. Actua
measurement showed the door when opel
L came withing eleven n hes of the end of th
nearest benches-bardiy 70 0m to s1ueez
through The backs of the benches were with
\ I IN twenty-four inches Of the rear wall. and tn
stove blocked all progress at the junction o
. the passage-way and the center aisle between
5 the row of benches