The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1883-02-22

o their work Oi rescue vas fnuo
. hampored by the frightened olildfe
K continuing 10 foil from the stairway, th0s
I IN front being crowded over ihe broke
J Lalnslrado by the children behind strua
r Cling to reach an exit. '1ildron yer
. taken out dead from th' YIitum, and eigh
: more died Immediately llter their ra1cue
making fourteen. A large number ~ th
, others who we're carried 10 Deighborinl
tenements, we're reported dying. The ex
! element when the news Of the catastrophe
; spread, was fearful, and great throngs o
people blocked the streets surrounding thu
school. Many children lost in the excite
ment are reported missing. Sister
Apromia, who had charge of the nth
class of girls, said II was in charge Of
my class when the fire first broke out in the
hallway adjoining my room. | heard q
commOtion and great confusion and O
hub-bub OF voices, and ut once l turned to-
ward the room door, and then, for The first
time, discovered smoke coming in through
the door, and as | opened it to learn the
cause of all the excitement, the flames
rushed in on me. | at once closed the door,
and was about to warn the children to
keep cslm when some men burst into the
room. In moment the children
ran out at the bidding of
the men, and | followed, seeing all were
|
| 10 the stairs at the west side OF the build.
ing, and were injured By falling over the
stairs, where the boys had broken down the
| bannisters before them. There were about
| 100 girls Ill my class" The sister in charge
of The first class of girls, in the department
on the fourth floor, said 81 was not aware
what was going on till | looked out andsaw
| the boys on my floor running over to the
west side of the stairs, and going wildly
down. / heard the balusters give way, and
then was about to turn to look to
my charge, when they all arose,
and, as if seized with fright. dashed
past me and recklessy ran down the stairs
and hallway; | saw none OF my girls IN
iured, and they disappeared as, quickly
from my sight; | hoped they had all es-
capped in safety"
| The sister appeared calm and composed,
and seemed to nave retained her selt-pos-
session during the trying moments OF her
| narrowing experience. Another account
says the fire from which smoke spread
through the building, bringing such terri
Bile results to the innocent pupils, was OF
most trivial character. 1t started among
mass of sweepings in closet beneath the
stairs leading from the second to
the third toor,,. 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 classroom
in front, and crept up toward the third floor
ere it was discovered At this moment a
visitor called at the school to see all of the
| pupils in the fifth class which is on the Sec
0nd floor and the door of which opens al
most opposite and within five feet of the
closet in which the sweepings were
burning. The visitor knocked at the
door, which was opened by one of the sis
tiers by whom the school is conducted.
! aItrb ol ha ha
hinges when the flames burst out from I'M
der the stairway. 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 thew rushed madly from
the classroom. The smoke now rolled out
of the closet in great volumes, and in
ing. and 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
sci DOL abuts at the rear of the church OF
| the Holy Redeemer, which fronts on Third
street There are two stGirvays, one on
| the east and one on the west end of the
building. These stairways were about
three and a half feet wide, and opened almost
AZ the doors of the class rooms, but from
the play-rOom in the center OF the building
were approached by q narrow, dark pas.
sage way. When the girls on the second
floor rushed from their class-rooms they
hardly reached the head of the stairs when
the boys and girls from the upper floors
were upon them. All frantically fought 10
get down the narrow stairway, and the first
were thrown headlOng to the bottom. Then
as the crush came from hundreds Of child
rem trying to get down from the upper
floors on the east side Of the building, the
ballustrade gave way, going down, and
beneath. On these Others fell, until they
were piled five feet high on top of
each other. Officer Lambert of the
society to Prevent Cruelty 10 Children,
happened to be in East Fourth street,
nearly opposite the scene, when the alarm
was given. He says: 81 rushed into thel
building, and q terrible sight met my eyes. |
Packed into narrow hall ou the FIRST floor |
were from fifty to seventy-fve little girls. !
The poor things were screaming and strug- |
Cling with all their might. BY this time
other police and citizens had arrived, and
we began pulling the poor children out of
the hall way. The cries of some children
at the bottom Of The pile grew fainter and
fainter, and then ceased alto !
"The fire broke out. under the staircase
on the second floor, and was easily extin-
guished. ! examined the place and II
seems to me some matches must have been
swept with the papers under the stairs aud
been ignited by friction with the floor
Solomon Reid said: "On the floor behind
the stair lay mass of struggling, Fcream-
ing children. They piled on top Of each !
other. AS quickly az possible We pulled
them out and passed them, one by one,
through the window. Those on top were
still alive, but when we reached the bot
tom we came upon ten dead. IL was an
awful sight TO sec them lying there With
their blanched faces, 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. Ii was the most awlu! scene ever
passed through The dead were removed
10 the police station on Filth street and
First avenue, where they were laid in row
on the floor in the back room, They were
al quickly identified by their sorrOC-
stricken mothers aud little brothers aud
sisters, and their removal each to the
afflicted home Of the family, was promptly
permitted by the authorities. The scene m
the class.roOms and in the halls after the
panic. was almost Undesirable. Torn
books and broken school apparatus and
fragments OF torn clothing were scattered
on the floors, terrible evidence Of the wild
struggle of the children to escape from the
building.