, 1888-08-04
Terrible Fire at a Tenement in
New York City.
$50 Human Beings Caught in
the Burning Trap.
Heartrending Scenes in Their
Endeavors to Escape.
A Long List of the Dead and
Injured.

building IN the rear OF 1877 BoWery this
afternoon and six more were burned so
badly that they will probably die. They
were removed to various hospitals. The.
house was "a ramshackle affair hidden in
the middle of the block, the only entrance
to it being in a narrow alleyway from the
BowerY. Incaeed in the building lived
about
N HUNDRED AMI FIFTY EoPLE
The sixth floor was occupied by a single
family, the head of which was a tailor who
made clothing for cheap Wholesale cloth
ing houses, and he employedefrom fifteen
to twenty, men, women and children in
addition to his own family in making up
clothing. They were all Polish Jews,
and employer and employed
WORKED, ATE AND sLEPT
in the crowded rooms of the dingy tene-
ment.
About 4:l5 o o'clock this afternoon while
all the occupants of the building were
busily at work in the closing hours pre-
ceding their Sabbath eve flames broke
out on the lower floor. The fire had
when discovered already gained such
Roadway that it was in full possession of
the stairway and escape by it seemed i'm
possible. Many of the frightened inmates
rushed down through the flames and es-
capped to the narrow courtyard with their
clothes ablaze and their hands and bodies
burned. Six of them were so severely
burned that they we're taken to the hos
pital and may die. There were fire es-
capes on the front and rear of the house
and perpendicular iron ladders running
down the rear of the building, but before
any of the inmates had tried to escape by
them the flames had assembled through
the house and were reaching the front
windows, so that descent by the fire es,
capes
WAS IMPOSSIBLE.
One man, already half burned to death,
leaped from a fifth story window and fell
a maugled mass of flesh in the little
court yard. Others jumped from the
second story windows and escaped with
bruises. The enormous crowds that had
gathered shrank with dread and sympa-
thy as some OF the wounded shrieked and
others groaned with pain, and then others
feebIy
MoANED Il IN ANGUISH.
One poor woman lay upon her back in
a little store in the bowery with not only
her clothing but the hair of head burned
off. 1t seemed as if she must be dead,
but a slight upheaval of her bosom told
that life still remained. She was uncon-
%scious, 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 TAI JUMP
from one of the windows she had
received internal injuries and also had a
terrible cash in the side of her head from
which the blood gushed forth, giving her
a ghastly appearance. She raved and
screamed and had to be held by two
attendants while her wounds were being
dressed.
A IL. Sheldon, manags r OF the IeO-
pies theater, on first discovering the fire
sent out an alarm and the tiremen respon
ded quickly, but when they arrived the
flames already had complete possession OF
the house and nothing could be done to
save il. and little to save its inmates.
q. w. Norman, property man OF the
Peoples theater, with several OF his com
rides, ran to the rear of the theater, car
rying a small ladder which they stretched
over to a window of the burning building.
A woman with her hair and clothing
ALREADY ABLA2E,
appeared at the window and Norman
called TO her TO cross over on the ladder.
She cried back that she could not leave
her two children. Norman tried to cross
over on the ladder but the flames drove
him back and he could not save her.
Afterwards the three charred bodies Of
the mother and her two children were
found in the building. Three men, how
ever, awaited themselves Of the ladder and
escaped to the roof of the theater.
When the iremen had at last drowned
the flames so they could enter the house
they searched the house floor by floor as
they assembled and on the third floor they
found the burned bodies of a man, woman
and a 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 floor five
MORE ROBES WERE FOUND,
and they also we're burned so that it could
not be told whether they were men or
women. This made thirteen bodies found
in the building. With chat ofthe woman
who leaped from the fifth story window
increased the death list 10 iourteeh, WINE
il is feared that the death OF some, If not
all those in the hospitals, will make the
plumber grsater.
Several bodies were burned so badly
that
THEY FELL APART
when they were removed and the hremen
were Obliged to lower them from the win
dows on nets.
The names Of the dead as far as known
are Philip Talaple, AZ years old. who
Jumped from the fifth floor and Mrs. Adelia
Gruft and her two children, Joseph I
years old aud Celia 4. The mother is the
woman who refused to escape because she
would
NOT DESERT T. CHILDREN.
Her husband escaped with an infant in
his arms and was almost crazed with grief
at the loss Of his wife and two other