The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1892-01-27
A HOLOCAUST
Helpless Women and Children
Perish in the Flames

INDIANAPOLIS, JAM 23--At midnight
Thursday night fire broke out in the
Office of the National Surgical institute,
at Georgia and Illinois streets. The fire
was burning some time before it was
discovered by the officers, and before the
engines arrived, the annex, containing
wards A, B and G, devoted to the care
of women and children, was in flames.
Escape Cut on.
They ran to the windows, but their
escape was stopped by iron bars across
the windows. Some gained the fire es-
cape, but were unable to descend on ac-
count of the mass of lamesissuing from
the lower windows.
Their rescue, the iightwilh the flames
and the final discovery of the charred re-
mains of the poor, dead children,
wrapped in each others withered arms,
make story rarely pmalleIed in the
annals of modern cities. It was almost
on the stroke Of II when Janitor GIL
gave the alarm of fire; Box 02 was
pulled. This always presages danger.
On if 90 is called the fremen expect
trouble. These alarms include the
surgical institute which has been looked
upon for years as fire trap.
The first alarm was instantly followed
by the second and third. The telephone
had conveyed to the chief the news that
the building of all others where fire was
dreaded was In flames. This meant no
ordinary danger. 1t proved to be
holocaust. BY the time the department
arrived the scene was one to blanche
stout hears. Poor, helpless crippies
were hanging on the fire es capes, and in
every window the heartrending cries of
those shut n the burning building min
gled with TIE shouts of the firemen and
police.
Heroic deeds of rescne were per-
formed, and for two hours the delusion
was entertained that all the inmates had
been saved. In the Georgia street
annex, third floor, the fire ragged furious
~ all this v nile and there was a sicken-
ing suspicion on the part of those first
at the scene, IN that raging furnace We're
Gagged some of the patients who We're
cut off by the flames before help could
reach Them. Soon after 2o'cloclS this
suspicion became a certainty, the fire
having been then subdued. The police
and fremen made their way into
building. In one room a mass of roast
ed humanity lay entwined VIII
their bodies Were disengaged it was
found that there We're seven persons in
that mass alone.
From that hour on up TO midday Fri
day other bodies were found, nearly all
in the Georgia street annex The list of
dead was further swollen by four, who
died from injuries received in leaping
from the windows. Identification be-
came difficult task: Many of the dead
We're charfei beyond recognition.
The books of the institution were in
the Office temporarily inaccessible. Sew
enteen dead had been found up to 8
o'clock IN the morning and at O'Clock
woman and child. wrapped in each
others arms, were discovered in the
annex. Thus the total grew to nine
teen
Killed.
Irma Payne, aged eighteen, OF Dexter,
Minnie Arnold. aged seventeen, Lam
caster, Mo.
William Ramstak, aged seventeen, of
Milwaukee.
Mrs. =. Bear and child.
Mrs. Lazarus, of Chicago.
Stella Spirole
e. NJ. Ellis, aged forty.
Kate L. S.raughan, relatives at 1874
Massachusetts avenue.
Mrs. Burns and nephew, of ST. Paul.
Q. Ill. German, of Mcdonald, Mich.
Hannah Brooke, of Taylorsville. Ills.
Frank Dockendorf, Of Saltwater,
Minnie Mcdonald, of Negaunee,
Fannie Breeder, of Memphis.
Martie DeClow, age three, of Farm
ham, Neb., died from burns.
Arthur Bayless.
Minnie Lazarus, aged seven, leg
ly injured.
Mrs. Thomas, 1874 Massachusetts ave-
nue., burned about the face and bod5;
. Fannie Breeder. Of Memphis, burned
Mrs. j. R. Guild, of Medaryville,
ind, internally injured by fall from a
ladder, probably fatally.
Mary 5tearns, ofssyNarren, Ia, terribly
burned about the feet in running out in
to the burning hallway ON the third floor.
in back.
Grant Van Hoesen, of Athens, N. Y,
hand and ear burned.
Clarence Mead, of Athens, N. Y, leg
slightly hurt.
William a. Albach, of DunkirlS, N.
T., slightly burned.
Leora Knowles, of independence, Ind,
back hurt by jumping out of third story
NJ. W. wydner, Troy, o., internally
injured by falling out of a window
while trying to escape
VIII Mansfield, Otsego, N. Y, foot
hurt while jumping from roof to roof
hll he reached the ground
Mrs. Johl S. Stokes, Danville. Ill.
sprained ankle. a1i y
Nellie Mason, of Walworfh county.
Wis, jumped out of a third story win
dow of the front part of the building.
and viii die from her injuries.
Mrs. G. j. Simpson and little girl
We're carried out by the fireInen and
were seriously burned by the FIRE.
r. Conner fell from the second to the
tirst floor and received serious if not ia
tai internal injuries
w. NJ. Widener, of Miami county. O..
terribly crushed and fatally injured.
Roy Harris, of New Orleans. not seri-
ously. -
What started the fire is not certain "
known, but it began in the Office of the
secretary about midnight. DIR. John
Wilson was called by the watchman and
saw the blaze, which was very slight
one. After turning in the alarm he was
driven back When the inmates first
awakened they saw the dining room on
the third floor of the annex abaze This
must have been very soon after DIR.
Wilson nadc the discovery But the fire
spread with amazing rapidity and soon
involved both buildings.
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