The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1888-08-10
FIFTEEN DEAD BODIES RECOVERED.
4 tenement Fire In NeU York Attended With
Terrible Results.


Six more were burned so badly that they
will probably die. The house was ram
affair, hidden in the middle of a
block. The only entrance to it being n
narrow alley way from Bowery. In front Of
Il was q four story building, on the first
floor of which was q saloon. Adjoining
This is Harry Miners peoples theatre. Ia
the rear Of the building were two hous es
hemming it in on the Christie street side.
In this Gagged in building lived about $50
people. Each of the six floors were occu-
pied by a single family, the head OF which
was q taller, who made clothing
and employed from fifteen to
men, women and children
in addition to his own family. They were
all Polish Jews, and employers and en-
ployed worked, ate and slept in the crowd
ed rooms of the tenement. The tenants
who rented apartments We're: s.. Coon, S.
Graft, Klein and Mark Harris and II.
LAWN. About 4 o'clock this afternoon,
while all the occupants of the building were
busily at work,
FLAMFS BROKE L
on the lower floor. The fire had, when
discovered, already gained such head way
that it was in full possession of the stair
way, and escape by it seemed impossible.
The police reserve was called out and in
short order 100 blue coats in charge of In
spector Williams were OH hand. Alarm
after alarm was sent out after amhulances,
and in a very little while surgeons came
up from the st. Vincent, Chambers
street. Bellevue and New York hospitals,
while the department of charities and cor
rections sent two of their ambulances.
Their services were badly needed. Many
of the frightened inmates rushed down
through the flames and escaped to the
narrow court yard with clothes ablaze and
hands and bodies burned. Six of them
were SO severely burned that they were
taken to the hospital and may die. There
were fire escapes ON the front and rear of
the house, perpendicular iron ladders rum
ming down the front and rear of the build
ing, but before any Of the inmates had
tried to escape by them, the flames had
AsCENDED THROUGH Il HOUSE
and were reaching from the windows, so
that descent by the fire escape was impos-
sible. One man. half burned to death,
leaped from a fifth-story window and fell a
mangled mass of flesh in the little court
yard. Others jumped from the second
story window. and escaped with bruises.
The enormous crowds that had gathered
shrank with dread and sympathy as some
wounded person shrieked and others
grosned with pain. One poor woman lay
on her back in a little store in the Bowery
with not only her clothing but her hair
burned of. 1t seemed as if she must be
dead, but a slight %upheaving of the bosom
showed that a little life still remained.
She was unconscious and the surgeon said
she would not live to reach the hospital.
Another young girl was delirious with
pain. She was not so badly burned as the
others; but in a mad jump from one of the
windows she has received internal injur-
les and also cut a terrible cash in the side
of her head, from which the blood gushed
forth, giving her a CHASTITY appearance.
She raved and screamed and had to be
held by two attendants while her wounds
were being dressed. The spectacle, as the
various ambulances received their human
freight and drove rapidly away. was a sad
one, and naturally enough attracted an
enormous crowd, which kept the police
busy.
A. H. Sheldon, manage of the Peoples
theatre, on discovering the fire, sent out an
alarm and the firemen responded, but when
they arrived the flames already had COM
plete possession of the house. and nothing
could be done to save it, and but little to
save it's inmates. Charles w. Norman,
property man of the Peoples theatre, with
several of his comrades, ran to the roof of
the theatre, carrying a small ladder, which
they stretched over to a window of the
burning building. A woman with her
hair and clothing ablaze was at the win
dow, and NJ man dared to cross over on
the ladder, She cried back that she could
not
LEAVE HER TWO
One man tried to cross over on a lad
der, but the flames drove him back and he
could not save her. Afterwards the charred
bodies of the mother and two children were
found in. the building. Three men. how
ever, availed themselves of the ladder and
scaped to the roof of the theater. When
he firemen had at last drowned the fam es
so they could enter the house, they searched
floor by floor as they assembled, and on the
third floor they found the burned bodies of
. man, woman and boy. On the fourth
floor they found five bodies so badly burned
that it was impossible to tell whether they
were those of men or women. On the fifth
floor no bodies were found, but on the sixth
five more were found, and they were also
burned so that it could not be told whether
they were men or women. This made
thirteen bodies found in the building.
That of the man who leaped from the fifth
story window increased the death list to
fifteen, while it is feared that the death OF
some if not all of those in the hospital will
MAKE THIS NUMBER GREATER.
Several of the bodies were burned SO
badly that they fell apart when removed,
and the firemen were obliged to lower
them from the windows in nets. The list
of dead, as far as known, is:
Philip Talople, ~ years old, who jumped
from the fifth floor.
Mrs. Adelia Croft and her two children,
Joseph, I years old. and Celia, 4 years old.
The mother is the woman VINO refused to
escape because she would not desert her
children. Her husband escaped with an
infant child in his arms, and was almost
crazy with grief at the loss OF his wife and
two other children.
The other bodies are at the mOrgue
awaiting identification. The fire started
on the first fioorin the apartments Of Emma
Stevens. ianitress of the building, and was
caused by the explosion of a kesosene oil
stove. The burned building belonged to
Lawyer Abraham Stern. The damage 10
the building is about s.. 900. covered by
insurance. The loss on the stock of cloth
ing in the various apartments is estimated
at So, 600. 1t is believed it was not in
nv