Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1892-09-28
PANIC IN A TENEMENT.
Frightful Stampede Caused by a Cry of
ssFire.''

Frightful Stampede Caused by a Cry of
'Fire."
New YORK, Sept. 23.-There are four
Jewish synagogues in the tenement
house q Ludlow Street They were
all crowded this morning with devout
Hebrews attending the festival services
Of the new year, when some per-
son in one Of the places of
worship raised q cry of fire. In
med1aJely there was a panic, and
everybody rushed tor the doors. The
stairway, which'is not very wide, be-
came packed with people. They piled
right on top of one another on the
stairway. Some person out on the
street had enough presence of mind to
send In fire alarm that brought the
department to the scene. The fremen
succeeded in extricating the people
from the blocked stairway and found
that there were four dead and about q
dozen Injured.
The scene of the tragedy was six
story tenement q Ludlow Street.
There is a synagogue on each of
the first, second and third floors.
The one on the first floor
is behind a store. A narrow, dirty
flight of stairs leads to the two above.
1t was in the synagogue on the third
floor, where the Congregation Talmud
Torah worshiped, that tire, panic began.
This synagogue, like the rest, is plain
tenement room, filled with wooden
benches. A partition divides it Cross
wise In the middle. In the partition is
door just the width of two boards.
l,, yI,a
to the front had to pass together within
sight of the stairs.
At the front partition door there was
a jam, then a crash, and q part of the
board wall gave way. The mass poured,
fell, rolled down the steep stairways
More than l 1000 people were in the
building. They heard the rush over
mead, the crash of the rending boards,
the shouts of fire and cries of anguish,
and, with common impulse, did what
the others had done-ran for the stairs
for lie.
At the second floor landing there is a
sharp turn. There again the mass
stuck for moment, but worked loose
presently and the first onset occurred.
The blind and human avalanches met,
one coming down stairs, the other cut
ting in under 1t aud trying to get ahead
-hCA dhu "OAnOA UuL Will
the madness of despair, and the weak
est went down. Down there it brought
UP against rush from the rear room
synagogue, the biggest Of all and came
to dead stop. The stairs did not give
way.
The shrieks Of desperate women in
the store had called help. When all
had been cleared out, four women lay
dead on the stairs and nine more or
less badly injured. These were sent to
the Gouverneur Hospital.
Someone threw the cende that
caused all the trouble out of the win
dow up stairs and put an end to the
fire.
The four dead taken to the station
house were identified as follows:
FREDA BECKER, Al years, a Russian, of
$50 Ludlow Street.
NAOMI ROSENTITAL. so years, of 175
Ludlow Street, married.
TUEBE BoYUM, aged so, of 140 Forsyth
Street.
BALK PoRTMANN, 20 years old, of 222
Madison Street.
The injured are:
II. COHEN, 10 years old, 178 Madison
Street.
RACHAEL EoRFUK, 81 years, 90 Norfolk
Street.
ANNIE COHEN, So years, % Essex Street.
SIMON GREENRURG, residence I'M
known.
ALBERT WOLF, "a years. 136 Monroe
Street, injured by Jumping from window.
SIMEON GREENBERG. 115 Monroe Street.
IDA COHEN, 222 Madison Street
RACHAEL BACKowITZ.
JULIUS ALTMANN, 20 Essex Street
woman, about 30 years old, still re-
mains at the hospital unidentified.