The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-09-23
SYNAGOGUE TRAGEDY.
A Blaze at the Altar Stam-
pedes a Ludlow Street
Congregation.
FOUR LIVES CRUSHED OUT
Women Trampled Upon by Hun
dreds of Terrpr-Stricken
Men-Many Injured.

New YORK, Sept. %, 1s92.-Fire and
panic caused an appalling catastrophe
this morning at No. 81 Ludlow street.
Four women are known to have been
killed and dozen or more other persons
SO seriously injured by being rrampled
upon by fear-maddened crowd that
some of them will probably die.
THE DEAD.
The dead are:-
Mrs. Freda Becker, As years old, of No
4S Ludlow street. Her body WAS identi-
fed by her husband. Jonas Becker, and
their son.
THE INJURED.
Following are the names of the injured
persons at Gouverneur Hospital:-
Julius Altman, years, No. 20 Essex
street, thigh fractured.
Rachel Borsuk. No. 90 Norfolk, aged
forty-seveu years; skull fractured.
Ida Cohen. .twenty-ore years, % Madi-
son street; fractured skull. Injuries
fatal.
Herman Cohen. brother of Ida Cohen.
fifteen years old. No. 178 Madison street.
wrist fractured and internally injured.
Annie Cohen. f1fty-eight years old,
widow, No. 25 Essex street. skull frac-
lured. lLJurieS fatal.
Simon Greenburg, thirtv-five years, No.
IT'S Monroe street, skull fractured. In
jures fatal.
| The building where this horror took
| place is now principally occupied as
temporary meeting place for Jewish con-
| gregations, who are now celebrating the
| religious feasts of Rosh Hashonah, the
| Jewish New Year.
There are four congregations. number
| ing nearly two thousand persons, men,
women and children, worshiping in this
| building. No. 27 Ludlow street, at ten
o'clock this morning.
Two of them were on the second floor,
| one on the first and the other on the
| fourth. There were from three hundred
to six hundred persons at each gathering
The alarm was caused by setting fire t o
| the cloth drapery over the altar in the
| Synagogue of the Tnlmud Tonah, which
| is on the second floor front, by one of the
| burning candles.
There was wild cry of ''f1re." and the
| entire aSsemblage jumped up and made
mad rush for the door,
| MARROW, UNPROTECTED sTAIRWAYs-
The Railways of the building are dark
| and narrow and the stairways steep and
| unprotected by ratings, for the building
which is a five-story brick structure, vas
| formerly used as tenement-house.
AS the crown sUrged into the narrow
| passageway it became blocked almost
| Immediately.
Women and children were crushed to-
| gether in the wild struggle to gain the
street, and tumbled over and trampled
upon each other as they fell and slid
| down the precipitous stairways.
SHRIEKS FILLED THE AIR.
| Their frantic shrieks could be heard all
over the block, and the alarm, quickly
| spread to the other congregations,
which were also gathered in the same
building. w
| on each floor and joined the panic-stricke
| crowd, adding a new horror to the situ-
| alton.
Roundsman Cotton and Patroiman
| Charles Nell, OF the Eldridge street sta
| ton house, were standing at the corner of
Ludlow and Hester streets. They heard
| the cries, saw the commotion at the en-
trance of the building. and ran to the
| spot
| PEOPLE TRAMPLED IN THE STAIRWAY.
For few minutes it was impossible
| for them to render any assistance
whatever. The scene was one of indie
scribable terror and confusion. The mar
row hallway was literally packed with
| lying on the floor, while the others rushed
over their prostrate bodies In a frenzied
| effort to gain the street.
| Women, bruised aud bleeding, and with
their clothing half torn from their bodies,
would be shot out of the doorway by the
tremendous pressure from behind and
would fall an the sidewalk exhausted and
| fainting.
1t was a mad fight for life. Many
crowded out upon the fre-escapes on the
second floor and leaped into the street.
| There was no fire to be seen. Only a
| thin film of smoke was coming from tn 9
! third story windows,
l rfoc ri Il, . f1,Nt L.
| interior of the building were horrible to
hear.
| The rush continued for several minutes,
| when the officers finally succeeded in
| makins some headWay against the stream
of humanity that was pouring tof the
building and edged themselves within
| the hallway.
When they reached the foot of the first
stairway they found that large. stout
| woman, VINO had fallen at the lowest step
blocked the way aud imprisoned those
behind her.
HAD BEEN TRAMPLED BY HUNDREDS.
Roundsman Cotton dragged her out.
She was unconscious and terribly bruised
and disfgured. for hundreds must have
tram pied over her body.
/ When she was taken out and restored
TO consciousness i'll O ne1ghboring drug
store she gave her name as Mrs. Annie
SmilowlIz, of 107 Hester streea Several
OIL uGI i1Db were UTOk6u.
The alarm, which was sent out from
| Hester and Orchard streets, brought the
| Fire Department, but there was little to
do.
AS soon as the building had been cleared
1t was found that no damage had beer
done to the structure by the fire, and its
only indications were the burned Thors
and charred top of the altar.
1t was fully fifteen minutes before al
the people escaped from the building ano
it was finally cleared. The streets in the
vicinity were thronged, and Capt. Gram
of the Eldridge street station called ou
all the reserves of his precinct to keel
back the excited people
Almost all the buildings in the neigh
borhood are tenement houses, occupied
principally by Hebrews, and the entire
population had turned out into the street
Ambulances had been summoned a
the same time the fire alarm was sent out
and there was work enough to keep then
busy for an hour.
FOUR DEAD OR DYING WOMEN.
Four women had been dragged out oi
the hallway dead or dying. They hac
been trampled to death beneath the fee
of The mob. One of them was taken to
drug store at No. 81 Canal street alive
but she died soon after. All four bodies
were afterwards taken on stretchers tx
the Eldridge station house.
In the panic friends and relatives had
been separated. and for a long time ne
one came to identify the bodies. All that
the police would say was that they were
all women.
Besides these, nine persons were 81