The evening world., 1890-07-08
Fourteen Families In Deadly Peril 10 q
Burning Tenement
Babies Nearly Smothered to
Death.
Blazing Stairways Drove All to the
Roof-Arson Suspected.
A string of mothers with sleeping babes in

A string Of mothers with sleeping babes II
their arms sat Oh the curbstoue at Thomas
street and West Broadway all this morning,
blessing the saints that preserved their little
ones from a cruel death.
Phe faces of two Of the babies were
smudRel with smoke. and one was blistered,
showing how narrow had been their ESCAPE.
They were all at home in the tenement.
~ Thomas street. that shelters fourteen
famil es OF ongshorsmcn an llaborers about
the big warehouses along the river.
1t was ! O'Clock in the morning when the
cry of fire rang out from the second IGOR.
The housckeeror's wife, Mrs. McCloskev.
had opened the door and found tile stairs
ablaze. The fire had come mp from the
cellar, right under the stairs. where il
would 10 the greatest harm in the briefest
spare of time.
Howl it started no one knows br probably
ever will know. The street door i, always
open, so that in case of fire you may run
ont quick. the landlord tod the tenants
when they asked him TO put on a lock.
As 1t happened that was the one way out
that was not open when the fire did come.
Mrs. McCloskey, whose husband had been
downstairs fifteen minutes before the out
break. insists that she heard the door slam
and somebody going to the cellar; their
stealthy steps. AZ though of stockinged feet,
came mp the stairs, halted in front of her
door. and went on up through the house.
She thinks the fire was set to burn her and
her husband. but can or will not guess by
whom.
When she discovered the peril OF the ten
ants escape by the lower stairs was cut of.
The lowest landing was burning. Flames
licked up the wall of the house i'll the rear
and broke her windows. Thus, literally be-
tween two fires, Mrs. McCloskey bravelv
held the landing by he. front door until she
had yelled herself hoarse and reused every
sleeper in the house.
Then Hlie made for the front of the house
and came down the tiie-escapr.
Some OF the tenants had already gone to
the roof. The smoke was 81 thick that they
reached 1t all hut smothered. The children
especially suffered.
Mrs. Richard Brandt, wife of the grocer
escape with Ter baby in her arms. The
little one was almost in = spasin; it's fore
head was blistered and the mothers hand
was badly cut and burned when they
reached the street.
Mrs. Malone carried away her baby from
the third ionr. likewise half Sense.ess from
the o~verpowerinG smoke:
wife of Daniel Hogan, 4 wharf hand, awoke
to find the hallway impassable when ALE
trloi flight that way. Turning back to
rouse her husband, who breathed heavily,
her senses numbcd, she was unable to lind
her way in the dGuse smoke.
Wrapping lcr six-mOnthR-old babe in a
sheet she shouted with all her might a. long
az she could. Her screams guided the fire.
men to the rcCm. Just as her strength and
her courage wore giving mt together.
They carried her and her child down the
fre-escape, Her husband, at last awake,
stumbled along.
The baby. little Lizzie. was sent to the
hospital. 1t was fearet that 1t would never
recover it's breath, but ii did, and was Sleep
ing with the other little ones the sleepo VI ex-
haustion tp-lav on the street corner, where
tho wind blew fresh and cool.
The damage done by the fire can be re-
paired with slight EXPENSE. 1t Ia for the
police and the Fire Marshal to discover its
cause.