Los Angeles herald., 1890-05-07


peril, sent aid to the other side, and the
men were carried down on ladders.
The engineer of the building did good
work, saving nine patients, and every
man made a record of which he may
feel proud. In the first alarm the
engineer turned on the hose, but it was
entirely useless, as the fire leaped along
the ventilating shaft to the towers, and
burned in dozen places at once.
Heroines and Martyrs.
One of the tertiary nuns, Sister Marie.
lay sick in the infirmary on the fifth
floor, and to her rescue came three 9th
ers, Demerise, Gilbert and Lumiene.
They seized their companion and bore
her in a blanket to the staircase, but
they were met by sheet of flame, and
all perished. None of them were over
70 years of age. The sisters worked
with the persistency of heroines, by
turns imploring, beseeching and com
manding the patients, and finally saw
ing very large number, in view of the
inadequate facilities at hand.
Sister Therese, the superioress, is
broken hearted and being at present in
i'll health, her name may be added to the
already long list of victims.
Doctors Bourque and Baralet were
carried from the building unconscious,
and whatever must be said of the man
agement as a whole, individuals exer-
clsed every power to lessen the calamity
they had neglected to avert.
The Ruin Completed,
A loud explosion was followed by a
crash of beams. The interior was giving
way. Wild faces sank from the windows,
and the shrieks of the maniacs were lost
in the general uproar, and one by one
the walls toppled inward, and fierce
blaze burst up from the newly-added
fuel, that rose to the dark sky and shot
its glare over the st. Lawrence to the
southern shore, and even tinged the
crest of Mount Royal, ten miles distant.
Then it died down into blackness,
nothing but few broken towers remain
ing, and a burning, seething mass of
metal and debris, under which are now
not bodies, but the ashes, of hundred
victims.
By this time it was O'Clock and
growing dark and very cold. The spring
rains had converted the place into
quagmire, and only horsemen could get
from place to place. The poor sisters,
most of them young and delicate, stood
ankle-deep in the mud, securing and
experimenting the removal of such fur
niture as had been saved.
Dangerous Maniacs at Large.
The patients wandered about aim
lessly, clad in scant garments. When
released many of them leaped for JOY
and bounded like deer across the fields
to the woods. Patients of both sexes es-
capped, and though Gordon of police was
thrown around, not all were included,
and horribly suggestive tale was borne
in by an inhabitant who was coming
through the woods to the scene of the
disaster. Another new dread has come
upon the inhabitants from the presence
OF SO many escaped lunatics, and they
Will count themselves fortunate if they
are not visited by series of crimes such
as only mad men can devise.
All the time the fire was burning
every high housetop in Montreal had
its curious sight. The long road was
thronged with carriages. The transport
service OF Montreal was pressed into SER
vice, and every available cab, omnibus
and hack went out filled with people.
The Pecuniary Loss.
The Sisters of Providence spent in
founding and organizing this institution
81, 132, ,232, of which 100000 was spent
on buildings. The building was insured
by the government for 100000. With
the exception of the medical depart
ment, consisting of doctors, the sisters
retained complete control of all depart
ments of the asylum.
Premier Mercier has placed the Mon
treal exhibition building at the disposal
OF the nuns, and tomorrow the building
will be stocked with provisions.
The strangest wonder to the firemen
is that such an absence of fre-fghting
facilities could exist. Although appli-
ances were there they were utterly use
less. The institution had excellent en-
gines, ten good pumps and boilers, but
no connection existed between the
pumps and boilers.
At Least Fifty Victims.
At midnight the death roll is esti-
mated at fifty, although many more are
missing, but they are expected to turn
up. 1t is feared seven tertiary nuns
were burned, as three more are missing
besides those named above. They were
not, however, seen in the flames, and
the sisters prefer not giving out their
names at present.