Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-03-21
A TERRIBLE FATE.

S.d Tragedy Attending the Burning Of
r,ckety Recommendations in New York;
Family of Five Persons Lose Their,
Lives. -,
NEW York, Feb. 29.-Five persons in
one family lost their lives in a tenement
house fire OH Stanton street yesterday morn
inc. The family of Cornelius Van Ripper
occrnied two front rooms on the third floor
of 1926 Stanton street, one of two frame ten.
ements densely crowded with poor families,
Frank Weaver, a single man living in the
rear rooms was aroused by smoke about four
o'clock yesterday morning. He rushed out
into the hallway and there found
Van Riper and asked him what was the
matter. "My God! my God! the house is
afre!' exclaimed Van Ripper. land [ must
save my wife and children" Saying this,
he ran into the front apartment, while the
flames burst out in the hallway, only giving
Weaver time to tumble downstairs. Van
Riper was never again seen alive. Mean
time the flames had burst through the roof
of 326 and were licking at S24.
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 defied
entrance 10 the building by that means, and
the fire-Iadders had not yet arrived. Sud-
denly the window of the Van Ripper apart
ments was raised, and heartrending shrieks
came from it. For a moment the crowd
could see nothing. Then a gust of wind
cleared away the smoke from the window,
and the form Of a woman, clothed in her
night-dress, stood like a ghost.
''Save my husband, save my children??'
babies!'
The crowd in the street moaned, and sent
back cries of despair. ''My children are
burning up!' the woman shrieked, evi.
IDENTIFY undetermined as to whether she
should go 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 a despairing,
Shrek and jumped from the window. land
ing on the sidewalk on her head and shoul--
ders. The crowd rem to her and picked
her up. She gave two OF three weak means
and died just as the police ambulance
dashed up. She was within a week Of con-
finement.
BY this time the entire upper part of 326
was in flames, and the fire department was
hard at work. just at daybreak the fire
was eXtinguished, and the tiremen and po-
lice forced their way to the rooms of the
Van Ripers. The family had evidently
been half sutfocated before they were
aroused to find escape from an
awful death cut off. The bodies
were all found in different places,
showing that the ~unfortunates.
rushed wildly and blindly around the rooms
in their efforts to escape. In the rear room
was found the girl Jennie, with her night
clothes burned off. Her'arms and hands
were terribly burned. Her hands were held.
to her face when the body was found, show
ing that she had made all 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
b%lackened, was found near his fathers
body In the front room.
The face and head of Van Ripper were
horribly burned and the features were
scarcely recognizable.
The remain 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; Kebecca Van.
Ripper, aged %thirty-two; Jennie Van Ripper,
aged ten: Albert Van Ripper, aged seven:
frankie Van Ripper, aged two.