The Red Cloud chief., 1884-03-07
A TERRIBLE FATE.


Sad Tragedy Attending the Burning Of .
Rickety Teneinsnt-House In New York
A Family OF Five Persons Lose Their
Lives.
NEW YORK, Feb. 29.-Five persons in
one family lost their lives in q tenement
ing. The family of Cornelius Van Ripper
occupied two front rooms OIL the third floor
Of $50 Stanton street, one Of two frame ten
.nlents densely crowded with poor families,
Frank Weaver, a single man iiving in the
rear rooms was aroused by smoke about four
o'clock yesterday morning. He rushed out
into the hallway and there found
Van Ripper and asked him what was the
matter. My God! my God! the house is
afire." exclaimed Van kiper. ''and 1 must
save my wife and children" Saying this,
be ran into the front apartment, while tho
flames burst out in the hallway, only giving
Weaver time to tumble downstairs. Van
Ripper was never again seen alive. Mean
Tine the flames had burst through the roof
Of $50 and were licking at ia.
A great crowd assembled in Stanton
street, and when the cry was raised that
people were still in 326 many heroic efforts
were made to reach them by the stairway,
but in vain. The flames and smoke detied
entrance TO the building by that means, and
the tire-ladders had not yet arrived. Sud
denly the window of the Van Ripper apart.
mentS was raised, and heartrending shr.eks
came from it For a moment the crowd
could see nothing. Then 4 gust OF wind
oialral xta the SfnnEn from tina "a inHnNy
and the form of a woman, clothed in her
night-dreSS, stood like 4 ghost.
Save my husband. save my childrenT:
she screamed. FOR Gods sake save my
babieSv'
The crowd in the street molnei, and sent
back cries of despair. "My children are
burning up.' the woman ~shrieked, eyi.
IDENTIFY undetermined as to whether she
should 90 back to her children or JUMP
from the window. Another cloud of smoke
obscured her for an instant and all was still.
In another instant SHE gave q deSpiirins
shrek and jumped from the window. land
ing on the sidewalk Oh her head and shout
ders. The crowd ran to her and picked
her up. She gave two or three weak moan.
and died just as the poii,e ambulance
d:sled up. She was within a week of con-
finement-
BY this time the entire upper part OF SIC
was in flames, and the fire department was
hard at work. just at daybreak the fire
was eXtinguished, and the tirenlen and 20
lice forced their way 10 the rooms OF the
Van Ripers. The family had evidently
been half suifocated before they wer,
aroused to find escape from al
awful death cut OFF. The bOdie,
were all found in different places,
Il. ~ ~ e..
rushed wildly and biindly around the ooms
in their efforts to escape. In the rear room
was foundt the girl Jennie, with her night
were terribly burned. Her hands were held
to her face when the body was found, show
ing that she had made an effort to keep the
flames from her eyes and mouth.
The skin from the hands and arms of the
boy Albert hung in shreds, and his left arm
Was raised across his face. He was found
doubled up in a corner, and one side of his
body was badly burned.
The little child Frankie, charred and
biackened, was found near his father;
body in the front room.
The face and head of Van Ripper were
horribly burned and the features wert
scarcely recognizable.
The remains of the family were gathered
in blankets and conveyed by ambulance
wagons to the station house, where they
were laid out in a row. They We're: Cor
nelius Van Ripper, aged forty; l;e5ecca Vat
Ripper, aged thlirty-two; Jennie Van Ripper
aged ten: Albert Van Ripper, aged seven
frankie Van Ripper, aged two.
Later in the day the bodies were removed
10 the home of Mrs. Van Riper's brothers,
Charles and Edwin Carpenter, from whence
they will be buried on Sunday. There were
sixteen other people in $50 and eighteen
people in 324, all of whom escaped I'M
harmed, but lost their outfits of clothing
and household goods. Frank Weaver
says that after he left Van Ripper
he returned and pounded at the door. but
it was locked, and his shouts gained no
The houses 324 ard 326 Stanton
We're three-stOry frame dwellings, old,
rickety, and dilapidated. AMI hardly fit for
human habitatiOn, having no means of
escape from FIRE save W tumble-dOwn
Siairways. Cornelius Van Ripper WAS a
baker, and an intelligent man, and his fam
lily was much respected by their ~neighbors.
AT one time they were comfortably well off,
but business reverseS made the husband
and father poor, and landed his family in
the miserable f~ire-trap that became their