The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-02-21

I
great volumes, and in a few seconds spread
to all parts OF the building, when scene Of
! the widest confusion ensued. The school
! building is five stories high and has nine
class-rooms, seven 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 stair
ways, one on the east and the other on the
west end of the building These stairways
were about three and half feet wide, and
| opened almost at the doors of the class
| rooms, but from the play-roCm in the center
of the building were approached by mar
| row, dark paSsageway. When the girls of
| the second floor school rushed from their
| classrooms they had hardly reached 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 headong
| to the bottom. Then, as the crush came
| from hundreds of children trying to get
down from the upper floors in the east side
/ of the building the baustrade gave way, the
balusIers going with it, and fully fifty chit
| dren were thrown to the floor beneath On
these, Others fell, until they were piled five
| feet high on top of each other.
TERRIBLE SIGHT.
Officer Lambert of the Society for Preven-
tion of Cruelty to Children, happened to be
| in East Fourth street, nearly opposite the
school, when the alarm was given. He says:
81 rushed into the building, and terrible
| sight met my eyes. Packed into the narrow
hallway on the first floor were from fifty to
seventy-five little girls. The poor things
! were screaming and struggling with all their
might By this time other police and citi-
zens had arrived, and we began pulling the
/ poor children 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: 1.-THE fire broke
! out under the staircase on the second floor,
and was easily extinguished. l examined
the place, and it seems to me some matches
] must have been swept with the papers under
the stairway and been ignited by friction
with the floor"
Solomon Reid said: "On the floor behind
the staircase lay mass of struggling scream
ing children. They were piled on top of
each other. As quickly as possible we pulled
| through a window. Those on top were still
alive When we reached the bottom we came
! upon ten dead. 1t was an awful sight
to see them lying there, with their
| blanched faces, with mouths and eyes wide
| open, and their dresses all in disorder One
! little girl, Minnie Truhe, was still alive;
she died, however on the way to the station
| house. 1t is the most awful scene l ever
passed through"
The dead were removed to the police sta
ton at Fifth street and First avenue, where
! they were laid in row on the floor in a
back room. They were all quickly identi-
fled by the sorrow-stricken mothers and lit.
| tie brothers and sisters
The removal of each to the afflicted homes
of the family was promptly permitted by
the authorities
The scene in the class-rooms and in the
| halls after the panic was almost indescriba-
| BILE Torn books, broken school apparatus,
and fragments of torn clothing were scat
J tered upon the floors p terrible evidence OF
the wild struggle of the children 70 escape
| from the building.
MURDERoUs TRAP
The school building is five stories high,
shallow in depth, and fronting on Fourth
street, and embracing several numbers 1t
is an adjunct of the Church of the Most Holy
Redeemer. On the east side is the Convent
| of the Sisters of Notre Dame, who have gem
eral charge of the school. Father Hespelein
is the school director. Five hundred girls
under twelve years of age and 200 boys at
tended the school, and they were all in their
| classes when the panic occurred. A survey
shows that every rule and precaution for
safety in the school had been disregarded.
On the four floors there are nine class
rooms opening into the Railways,
with stairs running east and
west, reached from either end of the brild-
ing; through the class-rooms access can be
had to either stairway; the halls and stairs
are separated. In nearly every room the
doors omen inward, and there is only one
| door in each room for egress for from thirty
to eighty children, mostly young girls, and
the doors only two and one-half feet wide
! The stairways, likewise, are narrow, and at
the top OF the highest flight there is a stout
! wooden gate not easily moved. Actual
measurement showed that the inward open
| ing door came within eleven inches of the
end of the nearest benches, hardly room to
squeeze through The backs of the benches
were within twenty-four inches of the rear
wall and a stove blocked all progress at the
junction of the passageway and the center
aisle, between the rows of benches
| Promptly upon the alarm of fire being
| given the sisters marshaled the children and
before half minute elapsed half of them
were in the street by one stairway, the other
being useless by reason of fire and smoke
The other half would have quickly marched
out unharmed but that the sister in charge
of No. class, overcome by the peril of her
charges, swooned away. This class immedi-
ately became panic-stricken, broke away from
all restraint, threw the other rapidly march
ing classes into confusion, and all rushed for
the stairway, with the sad results already
told.
From the heap of children in the west hall
six dead girls, from seven 20 ten years of age
we're taken out and carried into the church
where they were laid in front of the sanctu-
ary and attempts to resuscitate them made
The mothers, forcing their way in
despite the large force of police
filled the sacred building with pitiful cries
One, recognizing her child dead, fell upon it
with agonizing shrieks. The policemen and
monks turned away, dazed at the spectacle
Conveyances arriving, the bodies were taken
up by the officers in their arms and carried
out. The clamoring. shrieking, moaning
throng of women, with uplifted hands and
streaming ewes. followed. Mothers fndinp
missing children living fell upon their knees
in the mud and snow, giving thanks. In the
station-house frantic Shrek proclaimed the
Identification of each little dead one The
ages of the children dead and injured range
between seven and twelve years. Following