Daily globe., 1883-02-21

to see one of the pupils in the fifth class,
which is on the second floor, and the doc r
which opens into it is almost opposite, and
within five feet of the closet in which the
speepings were burning. The visitor
Knocked at the door, which was opened by
one of the sisters or Notre Dame, by whom
the school is conducted. Scarcely had the
door swung back on its hinges when
THE FLAMES BURST OUT
from under the stairway. The sister has
tily shut the door, but not until some of
the children under 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 rushed
out of the closet in great volumes, and in
a few seconds spread to all parts of the
| building. A scene of the widest confusion
ensued. The school building is five sto-
ries 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 stairWays, one
on the east and the other on the west end
of the building. These stairways are
about three and one-half feet wide, and
opened almost at the doors of the class
rooms, but from the play rooms in the
center of the building we're approached by
A MARROW, DARK PASSAGE WAY.
When the girls in the second floor of the
school rushed from their class rooms they
had hardly reached the head of the stairs
when the boys and girls from the upper
stories were upon them. All frantically
fought to get down the narrow stairway,
and the first were thrown headlong to the
bottom. Then as the crash came from
hundred children trying to get down from
the upper floors on the east side of the
building, the balustrade gave way, the
balusters going with it, and fully fifty
children were thrown to the floor beneath.
On these others fell, until they were
PILED FIVE FEET HIGH
on the top of each other. Officer Lambert,
of the Society for the Prevention of Cruel
ty to Children, happened to be on East
Fourth street, nearly opposite the school
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
citizens arrived and went to pulling the
poor children out of the hallway. The
cries from some of the children at the bot
tom of the pile
GREW FAINTER AND FAINTER
and then ceased altogether.
Detective Robinson said: ''The fire broke
and was easily extinguished. examined
the place andit seems to me some matches
must have been swept with papers under
the stairway and been ignited by friction
with the 1oor.''
Policeman Reid said son the floor be-
hind the staircase lay struggling mass of
screa ming children. They were piled on
top OF each other. AS quick as possible
we pulled them out and passed them, one
by one, through the window. Those on
top were still alive. When we reached the
bottom we came upon ten dead. It was
AN AWFUL SIGHT TO SEE
them lying there with blanched faces,
mouth and eyes wide open, and dresses all
in disorder. One little girl, Minnie Trupe,
was still alive. She died, however, on the
way to the station house. 1t was the most
awful scene ever passed through. The
~ +Io
on Fifth street and First avenue, where
they were laid in row on the floor in the
back room. They were all quickly identified
by sorrow-stricken mothers, and little
brothers and sisters and the removal Of
each to the afflicted home of the family
was promptly permitted by the authorities.
The scene in the class-rooms and in the
halls after the panic was indescribable
Torn books and broken school apparatus
and fragments of torn clothing were scat
tered upon the floors, a terrible evidence
of the wild struggle of the children to es-
cape from the building.
THE SCHOOL BUILDING
is five stories high, shallow in depth, and
frontage Oh Outbn 5JE6obs anu oI1bloClIS
several numbers, is the adjunct of the
Church of the Most. Holy Redeemer. On
the east side is the convent of the Sisters
of Notre Dame, who have general Icharge
of the school. Father Hespelein is school
director. Five hundred girls under twelve
years of age, and 200 boys attended school,
and they we're all in their classes when panic
occurred. A survey shows that every rule
and precaution for safety in the school had
been disregarded. On four floors there are
nine class rooms opening into two hall
ways, with stairs running east and west
reaching either end of the building
Through the class rooms access can be had
to either stairway, but halls and stairs are
separated. In nearly every room the
DOORS OPENED INwABD,
and there is only one door in the
room for egress for from thirty to eighty
children, mostly young girls, and doors
only 212 feet wide, stairways likewise
narrow, and at the top of the highest flight
there is stout wooden gate, not easily
moved. Actual measurement showed that
the inward opening door came within
eleven inches of the end of the nearest
benches, hardly room to squeeze through.
The backs of the benches were within
| twsnty-four inches of the rear wall and
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