New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-01-02
SUFFOCATED BY SMOKE.
FIRE IN THE ST. FRANCIS XAVIER COL
LEGE.
BROTHER GoRMLEY. AGED AND INFIRM. LOSES
HIS LIFE-LOsS ABOUT $4,000.

In fire which partly destroyed the handsome
building of the Jesuit College Of ST. Francis
Xavier, in West Sixteenth-st., yesterday Brother
Thomas Gormley, q feeble old man, met death
by suffocation. That more lives were not sacrt-
feed is due mainly to the presence Of mind shown
in the face Of death by the Fathers and brothers
of the college and the admirable work OF tho
flremen.
All through Saturday the younger members ei
the college had been in a pleasant state OF ex-
element over the representation OF Shakespeares
Henry VIII," which was TO be given on Wednes-
day night, in which they were TO be the actors
At one end of the college theatre-which takes
up the basement of the building, had been erected
the stage, with all the necessary scenery ana ap-
pliances. Early yesterday morning Peter Mccarthy
and David II. Buell. went into the hall to CON-
plete some Of the details Of the show. They were
standing side by side in front OF the stage gazing
at the pretty set" before them, when, as If by
a magic torch, blaze Of light flashed out from
the wings and in the next instant Buell. and
Mccarthy were fleeing from the room shouting
the alarm to those above, and fighting their way
| to the door through the flame and smoke. Once
clear of the building Buell. ran to Fifth-ave and
sent in an alarm.
| But quick as the iremen were the flames were
quicker In the theatre and just back OF the
! burning scenery were three open shafts used to
yentiiate the building Up these the flames and
smoke sprany, and In a minute had command OF
the whole building. The fathers and brothers of
the order had been warned In time. The stair
ways were broad and of stone, and all scrambled
down and reached the street in safety-alS out
one Fathers William OBJ Fardow, Peter Cas-
! sidy H. c. Denny, Professor j. NJ Matthews
and J. r. Ray rushed in heap from the top
| a lit and ,red foyvD Ia
Behind them was Brother Gormey. who, bent and
stiff with the weight of his sxtysix years, could
only limp feebly after them. Fathers Pardow
| and Cassidy glanced around once they went
down and saw Brother Gormley at the door OF
! his room Then the smoke hid him from their
sight
Three alarms were rung in, and soon twenty
streams of water were playing on the building
| from front and rear. In the church next door
Father Henry Van Rensselaer, was celebrating
the morning mass Before him the girls and the
little children knet In prayer Yet though they
heard the screams, the rattle OF the engines, the
roar Of the fire that every moment threatened
| to strike at them, they never moved, never Ht
| o cry escape their lips Not until the priests
voice uttered the last words Of the service did
they rise and slowly file out of the church into
| the light outside
The tremen worked so Wen tldt ouiy the thed.o
and two floors were destroyed, with loss OF
S3o. 900. Then going through the house the fire.
men came to the top floor. There in bedroom
| lying face downward on the mattress, was Brother
| (;ormley Dazed by the smoke, he had reelea
back into the bedroom and there sunk down.
Still breathing, he was carried out into tic street,
| and while Father Gelinus administered extreme
uncton. sighed heavily once and died.. ;.
1t was Just twelve years ago that halfcTateea ,ea
] iran
church. and caused panic in which SIX women
| lost their lives.