St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-02-18
THREE HUNDRED WOMEN AND
GIRLS IN A BURNING SHIRT
WAIST FACTORY.
DESPERATE LEAPS FOR LIFE
OR FEARFULLY MANNED ON
THE PAVEMENT.
THE DEAD ARE NUMBERED.
jured and Other Bodies Yet in
the Ruins.

TROY, N. Y, FeD. ia small boy
carelessly throwing match into a pile
of oily waste, blazing mass of flames.
300 girls and women frenzied with
fright, fighting for life as the flames
chased them with hungry tongues, was
the beginning of a fire tonight that
consumed thousands of dollars worth
of property and caused the destruction
of many lives. From the outside of the
high building, the first notice of i'm
pending disaster was the sight of a
body of girls as they rushed out upon
who were more fortunate crowding out
the entrance. Following them was a
mass Of smoke, with flashes of flame.
Then the mass of frenzied humanity,
finding the egresses too small for in
slant escape, began climbing over the
sides of the escapes and bundles of
clothing filed with writhing humanity
dropped at the feet of Mortified passers-
by. Within twenty minutes after the
fire started there were three dead
women laid upon the floor of an ad-
joining store. and at least a dozen
burned and manned girls and women
taken to the hospital or to their homes.
Of the $50 girls and women in the
building. it is presumed that at least a
half-doZen are in the ruins, for it is i'm
possible to locate all, and the number
fixing at late writing as twenty may
be exaggerated.
1t was just thirty minutes before the
closing hour in Stettheimers & Co. s
shirt waist factory on River street, and
the $50 girls and women were working
rapidly to finish up. In the cutting
room on the fifth floor, the $50 girls
We're closing up their days ASST i-nments
and preparing to leave when the whis-
tie blew. Tillie Kreiger, who was work.
Ing near a machine, called to a small
boy to light the gas over her work.
The boy struck match, and threw the
burning stub of the match to the floor.
1t struck a pile of oily rags, and in
an instant the girl was wrapped in
flames. With her clothes and hair
burning, she rushed to the window,
and in an instant the room became a
struggling,
SHRIEKING MASS OF HUMANITY,
filling the windows, the fire escapes
and only stairway. Jamming and
pushing, tearing each others clothes
from their backs, turning in narrow
corridors to find a sister or mother or
friend, the number in the exit aug
mented every minute by those from
the other floors, these girls and women
fought for their lives to get away from
the fiery flames that seemed to grow to
monstrous size. With rare presence of
mind, Policeman Farrell, who was on
the street, seeing that in the panic a
number were liable to jump, let down
the awning over the entrance. Barely
was it down when two or three forms
came flying down from the fifth and
sixth stories and, bouncing from the
awning, fell to the side walk.
Lille Krieger, over whose machine
the fire started, was one of these. She
struck the awning, fell son her back
and bounced to her hands and knees
on the walk. She got up and stag
gered about until people assisted her.
By this time nearly every window had
a female form dangling from it and
when the firemen arrived there was a
hustle to get the ladders up. At the
center window on the sixth floor,
woman hanging by her hands was
forced out by the flames licking her
face. With a last shrek she let go and
came tumbling over and over until she
struck the pavement. When picked
up, it was found that she was Mrs.
Margaret Carroll. Her spinal column
was forced through into her brain.
Just below her, in another window
hung a woman turning appealing
glances to the crowd The black
smoke was pouring from the window,
but as yet no flames were visible, and
the crowd yelled encouragingly to her
to hold on, but a high red flame
reached out just then and licked her
face and in an instant her body was
rebounding from the pavement. She
was Mrs. Foley, a widow, and when
picked up, was dead. On the same
floor, hanging from another window
was woman, and salvation in the
shape of a ladder was most within her
grasp, when her strength failed and
she went
TWIRLING DOWN TO DEATH
The firemen and police worked like
heroes and to their energy was due a
great saving of life. At least a dozen
women and girls were carried down
the ladders or dragged out Of the cor
rldorS, the officers, and flremen going
into the midst of the smoke and flames.
The fire burned SO fiercely by this time
that no detailed search of the building
could be made, and from what can be
learned, there were many girls and
women on the three upper stories,
either lying in fainting fits or over
come by smoke. 1t was this fact that
led to the rumors that there were at
least twenty women dead, and the
story even at this writing does not
seem improbable.
The flames ate down through three
floors so quickly that the Western
Union Telegraph company, Jessup &
Goopner Crockery company and Van
zandt & Jacobs collar manufactory
had no time to save anything. One
house. after the fire started, caught
from the falling Of a portion Of the roof,
and from it small buildings on the
south caught. About s O'clock the fire
men heard shrieks coming from the
two-story building on the south, and they
discovered a peddler, named Joseph
Rcssi, who kept a stand in front of the
building, pinioned lby the legs under
heavy beam. Three policemen started
to assist him, and witha fireman work
ed three-quarters of an hour. They had
just about gotten him loose, when with
a roar, the great south walls came
crashing down, and the Mortified spec
tators saw the brave little group bur-
led from view. Whennthe smoke and
dust cleared, there was rush of will
ing workers, and in as1ittle while the