St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-08-23


walls. which fell upon and buried the
people. He saw two other men beside
the colOred man escape. II. G.
Stall, who formally was employed
by LiebIer q Mas, saw the
crash: I knew most of the men en-
plOyed there and 1 recognized one of
them as he fell into the street with the
front wall. he is Louis Bernard.
saw him drop with the shower of bricks
from the fourth story. He fell on the
ruins in the street. scrambled to his feet
and got away. l saw some other per-
sons 90 down in the ruin when the front
fell, but l did not recognize their faces.
They are dead beyond question" As
soon as the flames were under control
the work of
Recovering the Bodies
of the unfortunate persons who were
buried beneath the ruins was begun.
The firemen climbed upon the great
heap Of bricks that filled the street and
began the search for bodies. They
worked like fiends, every one of them,
seeming TO realize perfectly that on
their efforts depended the lives of many
of the poor WretcheS who were buried
beneath the heap of bricks. One min
ute's delay might decide the fate of
some poor fellow. After twenty min
uteS' work the men saw the dead body
of a man down in the heap or brick.
Then every man worked for all he was
worth The firemen lOOsened their
clothing and cleared away the mass in
an astOnishingly short space of time. At
2:20 O'Clock the body of man was
found. burned and chaTTed so that the
features were unacceptable. The
Chambers street hospital sent a corps of
physicians and surgeons. who assisted
the firemen in the search for bodies.
About fifteen minutes after the first
body was taken out the hTemen came
across another body of a man lying
under a piece of roofing near the
side entrance. His legs, hands and
face were badly burned. The fremen
were working bravely, when suddenly
they heard a low moan coming from be-
meath their feet. 1t was feeble and
sounded like that of a child. The fire
men redOubled their efforts in clearing
away the mass of bricks and timbers
from the spot whence the sound came.
After working heTOically Tor nearly
twenty minutes one or them
Raised 4 Little Girl
in his arms. That she was alive and
conscious after being buried under the
mass of bricks. seven feet deep, was
ulAlUcA a Allll 4tlt- i lit ltLlLE XII > ldCG
and arms were bleeding from cuts and
burns, but she was able to talk. As
soon as raised up she lifted her eyes to
a window on the upper floor of a build
ing across the street. and called in pit
eOuS tones: There's my mamma"
The mother, upon seeing her child, be-
came so frantic with JOY that had 1t not
been for the combined efforts of four
men standing near by she would have
jumped from the window When the
little girl was rescued tie crowd yelled
and clapped their hands in JOY. 1t was
a touching sight and one that will not
soon be forgotten by those who saw it.
The little 81 II was carefully placed in
/ an ambulance and taken 10 the Cham
bers street hospital. The mother,
whose name IS Mrs. Mary Heagney,
rushed through the streets crying
piteOusly, "Oh, my darling, nv
darling child: rescued, rescued"
The little thing told the men. as
they were placing her in the ambulance
that her brother and sister we're both
dead under the bricks. 1t seems that
she was playing in front of the hospital
that she was badly bruised. Another
body, burned fearfully, was taken from
the ruins at 2:45 D. IN. A few minutes
later the bodies of a little boy and girl
were found. They were the children of
Eugene f. HeagDey, mentioned by the
rescued child.
Searching the Ruins.
AIS D. m, when the ruins had been
cooled and the flames deadened. two
fremen, taking lanterns with them,
managed to effect an entrance through
! a small opening into the cellar. Work
ing along with difficulty, and in five
exploration of the cellar and the vaults
| under the sidewalks as the debris would
permit. Among the OYerhanging tim
bers and iron pipes they discOv-
cred two bodies. q few feet
from the line of the build
| dIng's front wedged in and held secure
/ ly by several wooden timbers. The
/ bodies were those of men. and were
more or less burned. They made an
] effort to get at them, but in their at
! tempt TO tear away some Of the OBJ
structiOns found that such a course
would result in bringing down upon
! their own heads the immense mass OF
/ brick above. and possibly result in their
death. At 9 o'clock a red glare
/ emanating from the utmost depths
| of the ruins proved that the fire was
( still burning in the rear part of the Gel
/ lar. Fireman SlaVin made his second
| descent into the cellar of the building
/ at $3.50 O'Clock by means of a ladder
/ through a hole in the sidewalk. When
! he reappeared he reported seeing three
! bodies, two men and a boy, but their
! positions,
Pinned Down by Tfmbers
and iron Orders made It dangerous
thing to remove them. Again a third
! time. with two to accompany him, SlaVin
went down. The party were gone ten
minutes before they reappeared, and
then Slavin came up the ladder strug-
CLING with a mangled and inanimate
| body in his arms. Upon d heap of bricks
/ and debris il was laid and revealed a
/ horrible sight. In life the victim had
been a man between fOTty-fiye and fifty
years, heavily built and standing
! probably SIX feet. From what remained
of his features. which were fearfully
mangled. one side of the face being
| crushed in by a beam. his general aD-
/ pearance indicated that he was a Ger
man. The hair was Siuged off. only an
| irOn-gray mustache remaining. A con-
| siderable sum OF money was found on
/ the body. A tag marked No. l was at
tached to the body by Coroner Hanley.
who proposes to number each victim
taken from the runs from this time out.
This body had hardly been disposed Of
when strange sounds, as of some one
moaning. were heard coming from the
ruins. Again there was a time of 5Us-
pense while the iremen again entered
the cellar. Soon they came up with Il
big black cat they found floating on a
plank in the cellar. Up to a late hour
nine bodies had been dug out OF the
ruins. The
List of the Dead
was as follows:
PATRICK SLATTERT, subway laborer, Park
avenue and Eighty-niuth street.
| ANNE HEAGNEY. three years old, of 81 Park
place.
JOHN GIBBS. seven years old, 237 Greenwich
street.
AN UNKNOWN WOMAN, charred beyond rec
ignition.
WILLIAM BERRY. forty-fve, carpenter, en-
plOyed by the Southern Publishing company
lie had been married only five months.
/ 10 Of aoI Of