Arkansas weekly mansion., 1884-01-12
THE LATEST HORROR.

the Immaculate Conception Mt Belie-
vile, IIlinois-A Frightful Hoioca"s'-
Iwenty-eight Human Lives Sacrihced
The Search for the victims-F"n List
OF the Lost and Saved-The Death Roii
Includes Twcnty-thres Students and
Five Sisters, Among Them the Mother
Superior.
ST. LOUIS, No, jan I.
Among the many calamities which have
made memorable the first week of 1881 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 5th inst, by
which twenty three OF the young lady stu
| dents and five of the Sisters, inc. .uding the
| Mother Superior lost their lives. AT
| quarter before eleven on. the night in ques-
| ton, as nearly can b. 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-
| yeloped in flames and nearly every avenue
| of escape cut off. The fire department was
summoned by telephone as quickly as pos
| s.b!e 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 ondeavor to
| rescue the unfortunate inmates. i'll which
| work, horrible to relate, but llttle sue, eSS
| was met with.
who early discovered the fire, lost no
iine He says " on t reachins the building, the
| windows of the third story presented II
| spectacle calculated to send thrill of hor-
| ror through the stoutest heart. In their
| night clio hes, about the windows stood a
large number of the inmates of the con
| vent, wi faces white as snow, screaming
tt,.,i,. d.
niz:ng 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 Luildin;s had already be-
| come pretty thorou- hly wrapped IN names,
and there was othng left but to jump, and
| some of them accepted the dreadful alterna-
| tive. Soon afterward there was 4 heavy
| explosion and almost instantly the upper
| portion of the building was wrapped in a
| dense volume of smoke. The exclusion was
| sunDo,ed to have been caused by coal gas.
| Most of the white faces at the window dla-
| appeared with tue explosion and were not
Sc N again.
few of the girls, however, remained at
the windows, apparently determined to try
the ordeal of leapinS for Iie- the nr'o 10
| try the experiment was Miss Mary Camp.
| he'll. of East st. Louis. Sc threw herself
| out of the window, but caught hold OF the
| casing she passed through In the mean
| time the brave tiremen had thrown a lad
der UP against the building immediately
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 windC w-siil, and falling
down struck TIE ladder about tour feet from
the top and bounded off to the hard, frozen
pavement below. She was hurrlediy
picked up and borne off to the office OF the
Harrison Machine Works, where, after a
few rasps. she expired. Her back and neck
were both broken i'll the fall.
| Soon after this fearful SC enc Sister Mo-
drata found in the open court on the
south side of the building, silent and stun
in death. 1t is not known how she dled,
but it is supposed that she leaped from the
porch of the seconl story. Some OF her
limbs were broken and her body presented
sickeninG evidences of the fall. Tnis court
was paved with brick, which OF course add
ed to the chances of death III reaching Ii.
At the same time two of the girls were
saved from the top of the veranda OF the
second floor. thy had evidently ieaped
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 place OF
safety and through rest storatlvcS were soon
| resuScitatrd. To Mr. John ) S,elnacher ana
George w. Merker belongs the credit of
saving them. They saw them in their per-
i!ous position and procuring ladder res
clr.d 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 tho ghest praise upon the
firemen. But Notwithstanding their super
human efforts, the inside of the building
| began to surrender to the flames, and the
Gre having originated i'll the basement III
the west end, all the floors IN that depart
nrent seemed 10 give way at once ana com,
menced to fall. The firemen saw that III
| 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
wno had sought safety in the rooms of that
| part of the building. lu is believed, now
ever, that many of the inmates had met
e&ath before the falling of the walls i'll this
wing of the building. II is Thought that
they were su1fpcated i'll 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 wav all hope of resCuing the chill
dren was abandoned. The fire then spread
out through the halls and doors of the east
| deStruc ion as if it had duty to pea form
and desired to show the wOnder-strlckcn
spectators how we'll it could be done. The
| flames reached out through the windows,
insinuated themselves through the crcvices
| of the cornices and shot their red tongues
| up through the shingles OF the roof-Soon
gliding the entire structure IN a dress OF
| holes in the roof, which began to fall in
sections. AS these portions of the roof
low were carried with them, aud 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, aud, floating off
| on the frosted air, presented n scene at once
awe-inspirng and wonderfully startling.
After Il while the entire roof gave way and
went d own with fearful crash.
At this moment all eyes were turned
across the street to st. Peters Church,
which stands not more than 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
upon it, however, and a deluge of water
| saved it. One fortunate circumstance that
contributed to the confinement of the flames
to the convent alone was based III the alb
sence of much wind. The night was IN
! tcnsely cold and the firemen worked at a
| GREAT disadvantage, yet they managed to
| get complete control OF the confiagratlon IN
| three hours after the alarm was sounded.
| After that not much could 5e done except
throw water on the burning mass anu cooi
| it off This was continued until daylight:
| About eight O'Clock a. m Sunday several l
| volunteer corps of workers were organized
, | under City Marshal Louis NllllamS ana
| Captain kavsing, Chief OF foilce, aii9 "a az II
| victims The work continu ID up to four
| o'clock at which time the remains OF
| fourteen of the victims had Eeen re-
covered. Some of these were hnd.
| in their despair they had sought consoia-
| tion in each others arms. One young lady, :,
| Miss Agnes Schneider, whose remains We're
| fdentifie ed by her name on her underclo,n-
| ing had met death in bed, having undoubt.
| edly been suffocated by the smoke. Bed
| and all had gone down from the dorrnitory
| to the basement, and was so quickly GOV
cred over with falling brick that the Deu'
| stead and n portion of the clothing OF the
bed remained in a tolerably talr state Oh