St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-08
Heartrending Scenes at a Fire
in Springfield, Mass,
Yesterday.
Fpenzied Human Beings Es-
cape From the Flames
by Jumping,
And Find Swift Death on the
Frozen Ground Beneath
Them.
Six Persons Killed and Sew
eral Others Injured--Shock-
ing Incidents.
Special to the Globe.

Ing 1nClQ6uLS.
Special to the Globe.
SPRINGFIELD, Mass, March THE
new Office of the Evening Union, at the
corner of Main and WOrthington
streets, was destroyed by fire about 4
o'clock this afternoon, and the blaze
was attended by the most sickening
horror ever witnessed in this city, six
of the employees meeting with terrible
death, most of them jumping from the
fifth story and being crushed into a
shapeless mass in the street below. Six
others were badly injured. The fire
was first discovered in the mailing
room and clouds of smoke were pour
ing out of the lower story windows be-
fore the fifty souls on the upper floor
were aware of their danger. The
flames shot up an old elevator in the
rear. cutting off escape by the stairway,
and most of the employees who escaped
made their way to the ground by way
of the roof in the rear. The men and
women, who crowded into the editorial
rooms, found themselves cut off from
escape in the rear, and had to face the
horrible alternative of burning to death
or jumping to the sidewalk below and
being frightfully mutiIated. The fire
department responded promptly, but it
SEEMED AN AGE
before the firemen were able to reach
the windows on the fifth story. A lad
der was put to the fourth story, and the
sight of rescue SO near seemed to mad
den the suffering groups at the two
windows in the story above, who
dropped in succession to the sidewalk.
Six fell in this way, some of them
forced off and others madly leaping,
causing the crowd to groan and turn
their heads as they whirled through the
air. The following is a list OF the
dead:
HENRY j. GOULDING, foreman of the
Union composing room. burned to death.
Miss G. THOMPSON, proofreader.
Mrs FREDERICK E. FARLEY, editorial
department.. fell from window.
Mr. LAMZON. of Quebec.
w. e. HOVEY, of Boston, fell to the side
walk,
Mr.. BROWN, a compositor.
The injured are as follows:
THOMAS DoNAHUE, compositor, bad cut on
the head and left leg broken at the knee.
TIMOTHY DUNN, compositor, arm and leg
broken.
JOSEPH W. WITTY, compositor hands, neck
and ears burned. He clung to the window
until the fire forced him to drop. He fell on
ladder and was saved.
G.. +. ENswoRTH, composition, compound
fracture of the lew.
1t is thought that the fire started
among the lumber in closet on the
ground floor. The flames were drawn
up the elevator well and spread through
the composing room on the fifth floor,
where thirty compoSitorS, men and
women were at work, By the time the
fire department arrived the top windows
beings, who did not at first seem to
realize their dreadful position. The
crowd underneath cried to them to have
courage and on no account to try to
Jump OF climb down, and they at first
seemed determined to obey. There was
so much delay i'll raising the ladders,
however, that the unfortunate victims
BECAME PANIC STRICKEN
at their danger, and began to jump or
let themselves drop from the windows.
Shrieks of horror issued from the crowd
of spectators as the bodies were seen to
fall through the air, and eXclamations
of sympathy mingled with the grOans
of the wounded who were picked up
and carried away to hospitals or drug
stores. A large sheet OF canvas was
procured as quickly as possible and
Der of men held its edges. Three men
and woman fell upon it, but the
shock was so great that they struck the
ground with great force, though of
course the fall was somewhat broken.
They were picked up insenSible. There
were no pumps or buckets in the Office
which could have been used in Quench-
ing the flames. George G. Ware, cor
respondent. who had narrow escape,
tells the following story: 81 heard the
alarm sounded just at the same time
that l noticed the room filling with
smoke. Mrs. Farley, Mrs. Howard
New England editor}, Mr.. Warren
news editor), and Mr.. Hill (managing
editor, were in the same office
with me. We jumped to the door and
saw that the passage way was full OF
smoke and the escape by the elevator
cut off. Mrs. Farley started for the elo-
vator. shouted to her to go the other
way and pulled her out of the smoke.
She would have been suffocated in
IL
struggled to free herself from my grasp
and succeeded. She rushed out and
into the front of the building. l fol-
lowed Warren and Mrs. Howard through
a window to the roof on the east side"
Joseph II. Landlord, who was standing
on the sidewalk where Mrs. Farley fell,
reached out his arms to catch her.
SHE FELL ON HIS NECK,
bearing him to the ground and knock
ing him senseless. Mrs. Farley was in
stantly killed, but Mr.. Landlord was
not seriously injured. Mr.. Hill, the
managing editor, was in the news room
when the fire occurred. The forms had
just been sent down stairs and the men
were enjoying the relaxation after
the afternoon hurry, Four or five were
in the room smoking, chatting and jok-
ing. 1t seemed less than minute be-
fore the smoke burst into the composing
room, and the cOmpoSitOrs became
alarmed. Hill ran out and told the men
and women to start for the roof in the
rear. which many of them did. About
fifteen of the thirty-fve employees, how
ever. rushed to the front, six of them
going into Editor Shipley's room ON the
corner. With Mr.. Hill in the room. were
Dan Phillips. Sim Dunn, the galley boy,
Mrs. Farley, another woman and COM
positor. Hill opened the windows and
shouted, "For Gods sake put up lad
der" The. crowd below appeared to- be
dazed. He then took off his coat and
threw it. He picked up books and files
of the paper and hurled them out to at
tract attention. The smoke became so
dense that he could not breathe. A
crowd of compositors and others gath
cred around the window of the cOmpos-
ing room, in which the smoke seemed
still thicker. Fred Ellsworth was seen
trying to break through the partition
into the editorial room. where the air