The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-01-11
DEADLY GAS STOVE
Two Men and a Boy Perish
in a Tenement House
Hall Room.
KICKED 1T OVER IN HIS SLEEP
And the Burners Poisoned the
Air Before the Household
Woke Up.

VOhO Y ps
NEW YORK, Jan. II, 1S95.-Three bodies
lay stiff and lifeIess this morning in the
little hall room of Jacob Rosenbergs
fat on the third floor of No S4a Grand
street. They were the corpses of Jacob
Rosenberg, the thirteen-year-old son OF
the owner Abraham Bensam, and JOS
eph jacobson, two salesmen in his meat
market at No. III Hester street. and the
three were the victims of gas asphyxI-
alton.
Usually Jacob Rosenberg was the only
one who slept in the hall room, but since
robbers entered Rosenberg's fat two
weeks ago, he had couple of sales
men Sleep in the house for protection.
The two men slept on the floor of the
room, while Jacob occupied cot. There.
was cheap gas stove at the salesmen's
feet to heat the room. The man went to
the room at half past ten o'clock and the
gas stove was lighted, but the cock was
only half turned on.
sMELT THE GAS.
About 4 80 o'clock this morning fellow
workman called at the hall room door
for the men to go to work, but after
knocking and calling loudly for Bersam
and Jacobson he was struck by the
strong odor of gas. He Immediately broke
In the door and called on the Rosenberg
family for help.
Rosenberg, his wife and children ran
from their rooms in alarm, but the gas
pouring out of Jacobs bedroom held them
back.
When they could enter, thirteen-year-
old Jacob was seen lying in the bed
breathing heavily The two salesmen
were stretched apparently dead under
stove was lying upturned on its side.
the gas escaping rapidly through its
burners. jacobson, while moving in his
sleep had evidently overturned it and
put out the light without awaAing either
of his companions or himself and the
gas had asphyxiated all three 9efore any
one discovered that it was escapingAW
Frantic attempts were made by the
Rosenbergs, who were wild with grief.
to restore the boy and the two uncon-
scious men, and the neighbors sent out
seven or eight people in different direc-
tions to find a doctor. One was dis
covered in Rivington street nearby, and
ne came and did all that was possible to
restore Jacob.
The men, who were nearest the stove,
seemed to be already dead, though their
bodies were still warm.
UNAvAILING AID.
In the meantime ten-year-old George
Lubliner, who lived on the floor below,
had run to the Eldridge police station.
He arrived there breathless at five o'clock
and told Sergeant John Herlihy that
three people in the fiat house were being
smothered by gas. The Sergeant sent in
a hurry call for an ambulance to Cow
erneur Hospital and fifteen minutes
later one ratified up to the house. 1t was
too late, however BY the time the Sur
geon got up stairs all three persons had
| ceased to breathe.
Abraham Bersam was twenty-five years
old, and Joseph Jacobson, twenty-five.
,Bersam, only eight days ago, had brought
his family, consisting of his old father
and mother, and two sisters, over from
Russia, and jacobson was about to be
| married so that they were anxious to
save their rent and very glad of the op-
portunity to do so by sleeping in Rosen-
berg's aat.
There was a scene of the widest grief
in Rosenbergs rooms over the bodies
of the asphyxiated men. Rosenberg's
wife and children, the cousins of little
Jacob, Bersam's sweetheart, a pretty
Jewish girl of twenty-five. and Jacob
sons newly imported family, with a
score of relatives, friends and neighbors.
wept and walled in German. Hebrew and
Yiddish for the dead to awaken, and
threw themselves down in the widest
| transports of grief before the silent fig
+ Nwes outlined beneath the coverings
under which they had slept for the last
time.
"A r.,