The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-12-15
MID FIRE AND SMOKE.
THREE DETROIT WORKING GIRLS
SUFFOCATEO.
Fire in Factory Causes Frightful
Panic-The Disaster oH the Rappa-
hammock Growing More Serious
Forty Lives Lost.

DETROIT, Dec !5.-Ttrse girls were burned
to death at ) O'Clock Friday afternoon in the
confectionery mandatory of Gray, Toyn-
ton & Fox on Woodbridge street, which was
partially consumed The building was de
void of escapes, and the fremen were
unable to reach the top stories in time to
save the girls on account of the network of
telegraph wires.
The firm occupied a four-story brick
block, the four floors and basement, at Is
Woodbridge street, as candy fac
tory and store-room for manufact-
ured goods. On these floors between
50 and 90 girls, mon, and boys
were employed Shortly after O'Clock the
occupants Of the building noticed the smell
of smoke, which seemed to come from the
elevator shaft and spread into every room.
This warning was followed by frantic cry,
which came from the first floor The alarm
was followed by general stampede An
alarm was turned in. BY the time the en-
gines had reached the scene the flames had
burst from the second-story windows and it
was at once seen that the firemen had a stub.
born fight ahead In half an hour every
floor was in flames.
When the cry of fire was heard by the oc-
cupants of the fourth floor, sixteen in mum
Der, Michael J. Leddy, foreman of the de-
partment, dropped his work. and, without
stopping to get his coat or hat commenced
pushing the frightened girls out of the rooms
and down the stairway. Belle Lynch,
forewoman Of the second floor, had
seven girls working under her,
They became frantic with fright. Miss
Lynch tried to quiet them, but they went
screaming and crying from one end of the
room to the other. In the midst Of the tu-
multi number of men employed in other
parts of the building rushed into the room
and dragged out several girls by main force
They hardly left the room before the flames
burst out in all their. fury, and those who
were trying to rescue the girls were obliged
to leave the room without knowing whether
all were saved or not.
The faces of three young girls ap-
psared at the window Of the second story.
Behind them could be seen the glare of the
flames. One of them tried hard to reach
the top of the lower sash of thu window, the
upper sash being down. She and her COM
panions must have heard the cries Of those
in the street beneath them to jump. The
faces were at the window but few brief
seconds when the flames gathered about
them and they disappeared from view.
John S. Gray, the senior mem Der of the
firm, was on the first floor of the building
when the fire broke out He assisted all he
could in giving the alarm to the inmates.
When the rumor reached him that a mum
Der of girls had been burned he broke down
with grief and wept like child.
The names Of the dead girls were: Frances
Nessmore, aged IA; Annie Lynch, aged IS;
Ellen COlgase, aged II. They mere black
ened with smoke but not disigured by fire.
The Disasters on the RappahannOck.
BALTIMORE, Md, Dec 15.-Over forty
lives were lost on the Rappahannock and
lower bay on Tuesday night. Seventeen
dead bodies have already been re
covered. The victims were mostly
colored men who, in frail open boats
were longing for oysters. A fish
ing fleet of fifteen canoes was swamped
The weather had been unusually calm until
about 2 O'Clock, when perfect hurricane
began to blow before the fishermen could
seek safety in ports The boats, being laden
with oysters, were soon swamped and the
icy water benumbed the strongest swimmers
OF Monoskin the loss of life wns greatest
and the people on the shore saw fully
twenty-five men drown before their
eyes, unable to save one One
colored man named Hawkins drifted
ashore clinging to a capsized pungy. He was
at first taken for dead, but afterward revived
Incoming steamers report wrecks all along
the shore in the wake OF the storm. They say
that not half the damage of the STORM has