The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1883-02-21

way through TO the centre of the partition
wall dividing the hall from the class room
in front and erep' up toward the third noor
ere il was discovered. At this moment
visitor called at the school to see all OF the
pupils in the fifth class, which is oI 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.
Scarcely had the door swung back on its
hinges when the flames burst on, from un.
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 10 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
few seconds spread to all parts OF the build
ing, and scene of the widest confusion
ensued. The school building is i've 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 stairways, 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
at the doors of the class rooms, but from
the play-room in the center of the building
were approached by 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 irentically fought TO
get down the narrow stairway, and the first
were thrown headlong 20 the bottom. Then
A q tba ali put ma Econ, ht,nlraI. Of child
rem trying to get down from the upper
floors on the east side of the building, the
ballustradc gave way, going down, AMI
fully tiity children were thrown to the floor
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 to Children,
happened to be in East-Fourth street,
nearly opposite the scene, when the alarm
was given. He says: ~ rushed into the
building, and a terrible sight met my eyes.
Packed into narrow hall OF the first floor
were from fifty to seyenty-tiye 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 hallway, The cries of some children
at the bottom Of the nile grew fainter and
fainter, aud then ceased alto
gether." Detective Robinson said:
"The fire broke out under the staircase
on the second floor, and was easily extin-
guished. examined the place and 1t
seems to me some matches must have been
swept with the papers under the stairs and
been ignited by friction with the floor"
solomon Reid said: "On the floor behind
the stair lay mass of struggling, scream
ing children. They piled on top of each
other. AS quickly as 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 1t was an
awful sight to see 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. 1t was the most awful scene ever
passed through" The dead were removed
to the police station 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 their sorrow
stricken mo theirs and little brothers and
sisters, and their removal 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 almost indescribable. 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.