Huntsville gazette., 1884-01-12
THE LATEST HORROR.

Burning of the Convent of the Sisters of
| the Immaculate Conception at Belle
| vile, IIIinois-A Frightful Holocaust
| Twenty eight Human Lives Sacrificed
The Search for the yictims-FulI List
of the Lost and Saved-The Death Roll
Includes Twenty-three Students and
Five Sisters, Among Them the Mother
Superior.
ST. LOUIS. Mo-, Jan. Z.
Among the many calarnities which have
made memorable the first week of 1884 in
| the United States, none comes with such
crushing force or appeals more directly to
! our sympathies than the terrible disaster
which overlook the Convent of the Sisters
! of the Immaculate Conception at Belleville,
| ILL.,, on Saturday night the 9th inst, by
which twenty three of the young lady stu
| dents and five of the Sisters, including the
Mother Superior lost their lives. At a
! quarter before eleven on the night in ques-
| ton, as nearly as can be ascertained, fire
started IN the basement, and before the in
mates, who had for the most part retired
| for the night, were aware of the danger
which menaced them, the building was en-
veloped in flames and nearly every avenue
of escape cut off. The fire department was
summoned by telephone as quickly as pos
sible and responded with three engines,
but when they arrived were unable to do
anything toward saving the building, and
all that could be done was to endeavor to
rescue the unfortunate inmates, in which
work, horrible to relate, but little suct ess
| was met with.
MIR. James Stout, Of the City Foundry,
who early discovered the fire, lost no
time in repairing to the scene,
He says on reaching the building, the
windows of the third story presented a
| spectacle calculated to send a thrill of hor-
| ror through the stoutest heart. In their
night clothes, about the windows stood a
| large number of the inmates of the con-
vent, with faces white as snow, screaming
! for help and wringing their hands in ago.
nizing despair They had already been
| aroused from their slumbers, and in their
| fright and desperation ran to the first point
which offered the least possible means of
escape. But the building had already be-
| come pretty thoroughly wrapped in flames,
and there was nothing left but to jump, and
| some of them accepted the dreadful alterna-
| tive. Soon afterward there was heavy
explosion and almost instantly the upper
| portion of the building was wrapped i'll a
! dense volume of smoke. The explosion was
| supposed to have been caused by coal gas.
| Most of the white faces at the window dis
| appeared with the explosion and were not
| seen again.
| fsSs- of el.o ssi.ls, however renained at
| the windows, apparently determined 10 Try
| the ordeal of leaping for life. The first to
| try the experiment was Miss Mary Camp
bell, of East st. Louis. She threw herself
| out of the window, but caught hold OF the
casing as she passed through. In the mean
time the brave firemen had thrown a lad
der up against the building Immediately
under her, and for an instant it seemed
that she would be saved. rhe lad
der unfortunately proved too short, and
she hung by her hands, her feet almost
reaching its top. Suddenly she released
her grasp of the window-sill, and falling
down struck the ladder about four feet from
the top and bounded off to the hard, frozen
pavement below. She was hurriedly
picked up and borne off to the Office OF the
Harrison Machine Works, where, after a
few gasps, she expired. Her back and neck
were both broken in the fall.
Soon after this fearful scene Sister Mo-
drata was found in the open court on the
south side of the building, silent and still
in death. 1t is not known how she died,
but it is supposed that she leaped from the
porch of the second story. Some Of her
limbs were broken and her body presented
sickening evidences of the fall. This court
was paved with brick, which of course add
ed to the chances of death in reaching it.
At the same time two of the girls were
saved from the top of the veranda Of the
second floor. They had evidently leaped
out of window above and i'll striking the
clothes they were very cold, but having
been rescued were borne off to a place of
safety and through restorativeS were soon
resuscitated. To Mr.. John Steinacher and
George w. Merker belongs the credit Of
saving them. They saw them in their per-
ilous position and procuring a ladder res
cued them.
At this time the flames were fast envel-
oping the building. All the engines had
been placed in position and were fighting
| the fire with an energy and determination
that reflected the highest praise upon tAe
| firemen. But Notwithstanding their super
human efforts, the inside of the building
| began to surrender to the flames, and the
| fire, having originated in the basement in
| the west end, all the floors in that depart
plent seemed to give way at once and COM
| menced to fall. The firemen that all
| efforts to stop the flames and save the
| building were futile, and they turned their
| attention to saving the walls. The walls ON
the west were the first to fall and as they
went down they carried with them the tim
| bers and flooring of the different stories
| and also the precious lives of the poor girls
| who had sought safety in the rooms of that
| part of the building. 1t is believed, how
| ever, that many of the inmates had met
| death before the falling Of the walls in this
| wing of the building. 1t is thought that
| they were suffocated in the first explosion
| of coal gas, as the smoke was seen TO shoot
| up the stairs leading from below.
! When the walls of the wing of the struc-
| ture gave way all hope of rescuing the chill
! dcen was abandoned. The fire then spread
ot.t through the halls and doors of the east
Ing and seemed to embrace its work of
| destruction as if it had a duty to perform
and desired to show the wonder-stricken
/ spectators how well it could be done. The
| flames reached out through the windows,
| insinuated themselves through the crevices
Of the cornices and shot their red tongues
u2 through the shingles OF the robson
| gliding the entire structure in a dress of
! lurid fire. Soon the fire burned great
holes in the roof, which began to fall in
sections. AS these portions of the roof
went down large portions of the floors be-
| low were carried with them, and when the
burning mass reached the basement a
solid mass of dense, black smoke, mingled
wiCh red flames and millions of sparks, shot
up high into the heavens, and, floating off
on the frosted air, presented a scene at once
awe-inspiring and wonderfully startling.
| After while the entire roof gave way and
went down with a fearful crash.
At this moment all eyes were turned
across the street to st. Peters Church,
which stands not more than a hundred feet
to the east. The sparks that had been sent
up by the falling roof and walls came down
in a dense shower on the roof of the church.
The hose of one of the engines was turned