Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1888-08-09
~ - - - y
a New York Tenement. Inhabited
x by Jewish Poles Destroyed
by Fire.
Eighteen of the Unf0rtunates Burned
~ to- Death-Maliy More Shockiagly
Injured.
The Ramshackle Building a Six Story
Fire Trap in the Rear of No. lot
Bowery.


We're burned to death in six story brick
building in the rear of No. 1877 Bowery
yesterday afternoon. Six more, burned
so badly that they will probably die, were
removed to various hospitals.
The house was a ramshackle affair, hid
den in the middle of the block, the only
entrance to it being a 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."
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 tailor who made
clothing for the cheap wholesale clothing
houses, and employed from fifteen to
twenty men, women and children in addi-
tion to his own family, in making up the
clothing. They were all Polish Jews, and
employer and employed worked, ate and
slept in the crowded rooms of the dingy
tenement
AT 4:I5 O'Clock in the afternoon, while
all the occupants of the building were
busily at work in the closing hours preced-
ing their Sabbath eve, flames broke out on
the lower floor. The fire had, when dis
covered, already gained such Roadway
that it was in full possession of the stair
way and escape by it seemed impossible.
A stout German woman rushed frantic
ally into the street wringing hes hands and
screaming out "Mine Colt, Mine Colt dose
peoples are burning up" This was a start
ling reminder that lives were in peril, and
great excitement ensued. The police re-
serve were called out and in short order
100 blue coats in charge OF Inspector
Williams were on hand, ready to assist the
firemen.
Alarm after alarm was sent out for am
balances, and in q, very little while sur
geons rolled in from st. Vincent, Chambers
street, Bellevue and New York hospitals,
while the department of charity and corr
rections sent two of their ambulances.
Their services We're badly needed. Many
of the frightened inmates rushed down
through the flames and escaped to the mar
row court yard with clothes ablaze and
hands and bodies burned. Six of them
were so badly burned that they were taken
to the hospital and may die. There were
escapes on the front and rear of the house,
perpendicular iron ladders running down
the front and rear of the building, but be-
fore any of the inmates had tried to escape
by them the flames had assembled through
the house and were reaching through the
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 mangled mass of
flesh in the little, court yard. Others
jumped from the second story windows
and escaped with bruises.
Charles w. Norman, property man of the
Peoples Theater, with several of his COM
rades, ran to the roof of the theater carry
ing q small ladder, which they stretched
over to a window of the burning building.
A woman with her hair and clothing al
ready 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 over on the ladder, 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. however, awaited
themselves of the ladder and escaped to the
roof of the theater.
When the firemen had at last drowned
the flames that they could enter the
house they searched floor by floor
as they assembled, and on the
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 bodies
were found, and they also were burned so
that IL 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
fourteen, while it is feared that the death
of some, if not all, of those in the hospi-
tails will make this number greater.
The death list, as corrected is as follows:
Adel Gruft, aged %, with her new born
babe, burned to death; Joseph Gruft,
years, burned to death; Celia Gruft,
years, burned to death; Philip Lalop, %
years, killed by jumping from sixth story;
Henry Schwartz, tailor, suffocated on
fourth floor; woman, unknown, at morgue,
burned beyond recognition; Abraham
SCHNEIDER, So years, burned to death;
Solomon Weinberg, burned almost beyond
recognition: ten bodies at morgue, burned
beyond recognition.
Injured-Michael Reubenhoff and Har-
ris Reubenhoff, father and son; the former
will recover, the latter will die. Asarias
Sonneta, Russian tailor, % years old, Sc
ribusly. burned, likely to die Bernard
Bethman, Russian tailor, 81 years, mar
ried; seriously burned. Phillip Torrello, %
years old, single; seriously burned. Mich
olas Reunef, Single, "a years old; serious
burns about body. Sarah -, tailoress,
single, 10 years old; serious burns, likely
to die. Ida Frank, Russian tailoress, sin
gle: fractured skull from falling, likely to
die. Vovolsky, Abraham, Russian tailor;
slightly injured by a fall. Mapostic,
Edward, Russian tailor; injured about
limbs by jumping from third story. Bris-
cheir, Morris Pole tailor; broke leg by jump,
ingfr6m third story. Leannie, Nathan, Rus
sian tailor, 60 years; burned about the
body. t.+ 49,.
Missipg-Prodrigal, Henry, Russian tall
or, 10 years old. Bernstein, Benjamin,
Pole tailor, 81 years. The missing are be-
Eaved tn be among the number of those
burned beyond recognition. The death of
Asias Spenet, at the hospital, at late
hour last evening, makes the seventeenth
death to midnight.