St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-08-04
tenement HORROR.
Fire Attacks a Death Trap
in the Bowery in New
York.
The Flames Make Such Rapid
Progress That Escape
Is Impossible.
Desperate Leaps for Life
Made by the Gagged
Inmates.
Bodies SO Badly Burned That
They Fell to Pieces When
Removed.

New YORK, Aug. S.-Thirteen peo-
pie were burned to death in siX-story
brick building in the rear of 1877 Bow
so badly that they will probably die,
were removed to the various hospitals.
The house was ramshackle af-
fair, hidden in the middle of
the block, the only entrance to it
being narrow alley from the Bowery.
In front of it was four-story building,
on the first floor of which was a saloon
called the ''White House." Adjoining
this is Harry Miners Peoples theater
In the rear of
THE BURNED BUILDING
were two houses, hemming it in on the
Christie street side. In this caged-in
building lived about $50 people. Each
of the six floors was occupied by a
single family, the head of which was a
tailor who made clothing for the cheap
wholesale clothing houses and en-
ployed from fifteen to twenty men,
women and children, in addition to his
own family, in making up the clothing.
They were all Polish Jews, and en-
ployers and employed worked, ate and
slept in the crowded rooms of
THE DINGY TENEMENT.
The tenants who rented the apart
mentS were S. Coon, s. Graft, Klein d
Marks, s. Harris and Ii. Levine. About
4 Is o'clock this afternoon, while all the
occupants of the building were buSily
at work in the closing hours preceding
their Sabbath eve, flames broke out on
the lower floor. The fire nad, when dis
covered, already gained such headway
that it was in full possession OF the
stairway, and escape by it
SEEMED IMPOSSIBLE.
A stout German woman rushed
frantically into the street, wringing her
hands. and screaming, 'Mein Gott,
mein Gott, dose PEBBLES are burning
up"
This was a startling reminder that
lives were in peril, and great excite
ment ensued. The police reserve was
called out, and in short order 100 blue
coats, in charge of Inspector Williams,
were on hand ready to assist the fire.
men.
ALARM AFTER ALARM
was sent out for ambulances, and in
very little while surgeons rolled up
from st. Vincent, Chambers street,
bellofuo dHu NeW lOIh HOSplldiS'
while the department of charities
their ambulances. Their services
were badly needed. Many of the
frightened inmates rushed down
through the flames and escaped to the
narrow courtyard 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, per-
pendicular iron ladders running down
the front and rear of the building, but
before any of the inmates had tried to
assembled through the house and
were reaching from the windows.s so that
descent by the fire escapes was lmpOS-
sible. One man, already half-burned to
death, leaped from fifth story window
and fell mangled mass of flesh in the
little court yard. Others jumped from
the second story windows and
ESCAPED WITH BRUISES.
The enormous crowds that gathered
shrank with fearsome dread and
sympathy as some wounded Shrieked
and others groaned with the pain, then
others feebly moaned out with anguish.
One poor woman lay upon her back in
little store in the Bowery with not only
her clothing, but the hair of her head
burned off. 1t seemed as if she must be
dead, but slight upheaval of the bosom
told 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 mad jump from one of
the windows she had received an in
ternal injury and also cut 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.
The spectacle as the various ambu-
lances received their human freight
and drove rapidly away was sad one,
and naturally enough, attracted an
enormous crowd, which
KEPT THE POLICE BUSY.
A. H. Sheldon, manager of the Peo-
pies theater, on discovering the fire,
sent out an alarm, and the firemen re-
sponded, but when they arrived the
flames already had complete possession
of the house and nothing could be done
to save it, and little to save its inmates.
the Peoples theater, with several of his
comrades, ran to the roof of the theater,
carrying small ladder, which they
stretched over to window of the burn
ing building. A woman with her hair
and
CLOTHING ALREADY ABLAZE
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
flames drove him back and he could
not save her. Afterwards the
charred bodies of the mother and
two children were found in the build
ing. Three men, however, availed
themselves of the ladder and escaped
to the roof of the theater. When the
firemen had at last drowned the flames
so that they could enter the house they
searched floor by floor as they ascended,
and OH the third floor they
FOUND THE BURNED BODIES
of a man, a 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. The fifth floor, no bodies were
found, but on the sixth five more bodies
were found, and they also were burned
so that it could not be told whether
they were the bodies of 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, those in the