New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-08-05
MORE BODIES IN THE RUINS.
TWO FOUND. AND OTHERS MAY BE THERE

Men women and children Yesterday hung around
the scene OF the fearful fire in Chrystic-st. some
fearing what the day would bring forth; others,
the vast majority being brought there from NOR
hid curiosity. Policemen guarded the entrance
from the Bowery and at the several passaseways
leading into the deatl-trap from Chrysfie ST. i1e
crowds fingered long, for more charred oooles h"o
been found in the morning. and'thc firemen dd not
cease their search until late in the day. Two
bodies, burned beyond recognition, were 'ound
thus increasing the list beyond the reports on
the night OF the fire Yet there were fewer people
employed in the burned building than was at first
published One authority puts the number at
eighty the lowest estimate. while Abraham Stern,
the owner of the building believes that so people
were az work there when the fire broke out.
Hook and Ladder Company No. 8. under COM
mand of Captain Bradley, began their work OF
searching the building yesterday Mt a. m. -Four
blachcncd walls. filed with charred beams ashcs'
BACKED and soaked refuse and clothing, fragments
of furniture. tin and iron bent and twisted out
of shape charred ceilings, dripping with water,
were the CHASTITY reminders Of the horrors OF the
day before The men slowly proceeded from story
TO story digging mp all the rubbish. carefuIy
examining everything. On the third floor they
found what purportcd to be the remains OF two
bodies fcarfully burned There WAS nothing by
which they could be identified One body was
carried down stairs and on the way it fell to pieces
The other fragments were placed in the passage
to the Bowery wrapped up in blanket. ana
later sent to the Morgue
THE FIRE ESCAPE WAS DOWN.
fireman went to the wall between the build
ing and the Chrystie-st. tenement-house. Once
there was fre-escape there which extended to the
top of the building. The people who worked in
the building complained that it shut out the light,
and Mr.. Stern had it taken down to the sec
ond story, and placed double fre-escape on
the front Yet there is no means OF egress from
the well, except through the windows of tic ad-
joining tenement-house. and how could woman
save herself that way? The fremen found at
the foot of this fire-escape the body of woman
who had persisted in the we'll like rat in trap.
Mr.. Stern said that one way to account for the
fearful loss of life was that Wolf. tenant told
him that he begged people to go to the rear fire
escape. Some refused. Two of his men went back
for some of their property and persisted. Another
cause of the loss of life was that the iron fence
which runs from Simpsons building to the tailor
shop prevented people from crossing from the
burned building. The building is insured for
$4,000 in the Newark. and Merchants Union
Company, of Newark But the loss cannot be de-
tcrmned until it is decided what will be done with
the building Mr.. Stern will pay the expenses Of
burial for those bodies which were not identified,
and for those also whose relatives cannot afford it,
The top floor was occupied by Levien, the next
by Wolf, the fourth by Klein & Marks. the third
by Grauft. the second by Cohen, and the basement
by the ianitor Their losses would he hard to
estimate. Grauft, the man who lost his wife and
children. had his cloalls insured for $500.
Amelia l.. Goodman, the housekeeper TOT Nol,
who keeps the gin.mill which fronts the Bowery,
said that she heard a cry and rushed toward the
Stern building and saw flames bursting out OF
the first floor Mrs Stevenson, the lanitor's wife;
lives there She used double oil stove and
Mrs Goodman believes that the fire was caused
by the stove.
WHAT EYEwITNESSES SAW.
DR.. T. III. Luthen who has drugstore below
the Peoples Theatre saw girl jump from the
third floor into the well behind Simpsons store
She was Ida Frank man who had been sitting
in the window of the fourth floor was suddenly
driven out by the flames. lie jumped, and landed
on the girls head, killing himself instantly and
probably fracturng the girls skull DR.. Luthen
and DR.. Heller helped four or five people out OF
the well and dressed their wounds in his store
II was denied everywhere that any man in the
adjoining tailoring establishment shut the Win
dows in the faces of people who were trying to
get through. A. Schneider, William Levine,
Isdore Levien and Abraham simon all SAD that
they helped everybody through who came TO the
windows looking into their floors. hen tney
closed their shutters to prevent their building
from catching fire. ran TO the ROOF ana assisted
ment is believed TO be true, and IT is Thought that
fright, ignorance, greed and the rapidlty with
which the flames spread caused the wholesale
loss of life, rather than any neglect
of people near by. The building was an old tin
der box and the fire-escapes did not give as much
aid as people might imagine, because the flames
were beating on them. One woman in the Chrys-
test tencmcnt-house said that the iron shutters
IN the tailor shop were red hot, ana she wondered
what the condition of the fre-escapes must have
been.
Coroner Levy said that the burned building
was the worst deathtraP that ne ever IS bern
on Monday. badge marked Merchandise;
No 1915" WAS found near the woman who died
in the well Fire Marshal Frank WAS at the scene
Of the fire in the morning. He would advance no
theory as 10 the cause Of the fire.
SCENES AT THE MoRGUE
All day long groups of excited Hebrews were
roing from coffin to coffin in the dingy Morgue,
and il was hard to tell which were the more mis-
cradle those WHO found what they wanted or those
who did not. Sobs and means came from those
who had found the bodies for which they had been
seeking, while the agonizing suspense OF those VINO
could not recognize their dead was perhaps even
more pitiful. Especially was this the case when
friends were almost they had selected the right
body and then suddenly discovered some other
one that seemed in some respects more IKE
The suffering OF these bereaved people was maze
even more intense by the wretchedly inadequate
Accommodations which the city provides for such
occasions There not even a screen TO keep
The flies ont of the barn-likc M0rgue, and they
gathered in thousands upon the various bodies
Which gave forth hideous smell. Fifteen BODIES
had been taken from the ruined bulidlng on Ell trl-
day evening and one more sufferer died az Belle;
yue Hospital in the night. and two additional
bodies brought from the ruins yesterday sWeliea
the number to eighteen The body OF isalan
Spunde, who had died at OouVerheur hospi'"i'
was not taken TO the MorGue.
WON or THE DEAD
The death list as revised yesterday. therefore
embraces nineteen persons, all put the TWO CHI
dren being tailors. or these, Twelve n"o oeen
identified, the list being as follows:
pPpNsTrIN BENJAMIN age twenty seven. Of No. 80
ITtst Recognized yesterday from some blts OF cotes