Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1884-01-18
THE LATEST HORROR.

Includes Twenty-three students and
Five Sisters, Among Them the Mother
Superior. ryTu f-fs eFtTsr ref
- y "a .e ST. LorIs, Mo, -dan. Z.
Among the many calamities VIII CD have
made memorable the first week of 1884 in
the United States, none comes VITA such
crushing force. or appeals more directly TO
our sympathies than tue terrible disaster
which overlook the Convent of the Sisters
OF The Immaculate Conception at b alleville,
ILL.,, on Saturday night the 9th inst, by
which twenty-three OF the young lady stu
dents and five of the Sisters, inc udin~ the
Mother Superior lost their lives. At a
quarter before eleven on the night in gues-
ton, as nearly as can be ascettained, fire
! started IN the basement, ami before the n
mates, who had for the most part retired
for the night, were aware OF the danger
which mcnaced 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
sble 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 sue ess
was met with
Mr.. 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 10 send a thrill of hor-
Tor through the stoutest heart. In their
night clio hes, about the windows stood a
large number of the inmates of the con-
vent, viii faces white as snow, screaming
for help and wrineing their hands in agO.
-, NJ. L
aroused from their SAUNDERS, and in their
fright and desperation ran 10 the first point
which offered the | asst possible means of
escape. But the building had already be-
come pretty thorough ly wrapped in flames,
and there was nothing lett but O jump, and
some of them accep.e the dreadful akerna-
tive. Soon afterward there was heavy
explosion and almost instantly the upper
portion of the building was wrapped in q
dense volume OF smoke. The exclusion 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
Sc again.
A few OF the girls, however, remained at
the windows, apparently determined to try
the ordeal of leaping for life. The first to
try the experiment was Miss Mary Camp
bell, of East st. Louis. Sc 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 lad
OtF uE lllc
under her, and for an instant it seemed
that she would be saved. The 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 winde w-siil, and falling
down struck the ladder about our feet from
tine Jop-and bounded off to the hard, frozen
pavement below. She was hurriediy
picked up and borne off 10 the office OF the
J. Harrison Machine Works, where, alter a
el,a. ho,I
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
sckening 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 ieapud
out of a window above and in striking the
roof were stunned. Being in their night
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 Schumacher and
George W..Merker- belongs the credit OF
saving them! They saw them in their per-
i.ous position and procuring ladder res
F'cupd them.
AT this time the flames were fast envel-
nping 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 tde
hremen. But Notwithstanding their super
human efforts, the inside of the building
began to surrender to the flames, and the
Gre, having originated in the basement in
the west end, all the floors in that depart
ment seemed to give way at once and COM
I mo 70 f,n hat oil
efforts to stop the flames and save tue
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 thefim-
bers and flooring of the different stories
and also the precious lives of the poor girls
WAC had sought safety in the rooms of that
part of the building. 1t is believed, how
eyer, 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
dren was abandoned. The fire then spread
| out through the halls and doors of the east
wing and seemed to embrace its work Of
destruc, ion as if it had 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
up 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 therfioors be-
low were carried with them, and when the
burning mass reached the basement a
solid mass of dense, black smoke, mingled
with red flames and millions of sparks, shot
up high into the heavens, and, floating off
on the frosted air, presented scene at once
awe-inspiring and wonderfully startling
After a 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 root andswalls came down
in dense shower Sn- the roofof the church.
The hose of one of the engines was turned
upon it, however, and deluge OF water
saved il. Que fortuuate circumstance that
contributed 10 the conf nement ofthe flames
| to the convent alone WINS based in the alb
sence Of much wind. The night was In
! tensely cold and the firemen worked at
! great disadvantage, yet they managed to
| get complete control or the conflagration in
| three hours after the alarm was sounded.
! After that not much could be done except
| throw water on the Burning mass and cool
it OF. This was continued until daylight
About eight o'clock a. m. Sunday several
volunteer corps OF workers were organized
under City Marshal Louis Williams and
! Captain Kaysing, Chief OF Police, and an
/ effort was made to recover the bodies of the
victims. The work continued up to four
/ o'clock, at which time the remains of
! fourteen of the victims had been re-
covered. Some of these were hud-
| He'd close together, indicating that
| in their despair they had sought conso1a-
! ton in each others arms. One young lady,
| identifi ed by her name on her undercloth-
| ing, had met death in bed, having undoubs.
edlv been suffocated by the smoke. Bed
and all had gone down from the dOrm.tory
TO the basement, and was quickly COW
cred over with falling brick that the bed
stead ana a portion OF the clothing OF the
bed remained in a tolerably fair state of
preservation. ~ ~ III - r~T
All those recovered were found immedi-
Etely beneath where the dormitory was To-
rated. One theory is taat. they sought