The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-07-24
CENTENARTANS IN A FIRE.


 Aged Woman Carried Her Husband Out of the Flames--Were at Morning Prayers When the Woman Stepped on Matches.
 New York, July 23-While Jacob and Mary Black, who say that they are 104 and 102 years of age respectively, were at their devotions early this morning the woman caused a fire, as she be- lieves, by stepping on a box of matches and igniting some oakum that was ly- ing upon the floor. Her attention was
 taken up In following the words of the Scriptures, and she did not notice what | she had done until warned by a dog. | The fire occurred in the rear of the plumbing shop on the ground floor of l the tive-story tenement at 138 Clinton street 4:15 o'clock The shop is kept by
 Russian by the name of Henry Black Across the alleyway on the same floor
 is the grocery store of Aaron Feldstein 1 The rooms on the four floors above are occupied by about fifty families. | In the rear of the plumbing shop a little room is partitioned off where Ja- cob and Mary Black, the parents of the i plumber, live. The old man is very
 feeble and weak minded, but his wife is bright and alert
 Mrs. Black says she and her husband were walking about the room repeating
 some lines from a Hebrew prayer book when she touched off the matches.
 Their little pet black and tan dog
 Nellie was alive to the danger. The
 animal smelled the smoke and at once
 began to bark furiously. The aged wo-
 man turned about and saw their little
 room fast filling up with smoke. The
 partition was in flames. Her husband
 was still totterlng about the floor,
 mumbling his prayers. SeiZing him
 about the body under his arms. and
 half supporting and half carrying her
 burden, Mrs. Black staggered through
 the narrow passageway to the outer door, where she fell.
 In the meantime Patrolman Frye had heard the dogs barks and came running to the scene. With the as- sistance of several street cleaners the policeman burst open the door just as the aged woman reached it from the inside with her husband in her arms
 Ihe other occupants of the house were now awake and panic stricken They came running down the stairs or were climbing out of their windows to the fire escapes in their night robes.
 The aged pair were brought out into the street in a state of collapse. Two chairs were found for them, and brandy and water were obtained to revive them. The woman soon regained her senses and insisted that some of the brandy be given to the dog.
 Henry Black, the proprietor of the plumbing shop, lives at 5S Norfolk street, where his parents were taken
 Mrs. Black was positive that she was l02 years old when seen this morning, and that her husband was two years older than herself, but she was unable to give the year of her birth naming only the month. She had been married so long, she said, that she had forgotten her maiden name She said that she distinctly remembered Napoleon's inva- slon of Russia, and how the little Rus sian boys were impressed into the army. She was little girl at the time
 Her husband was tin peddler and was once prosperous, but had suffered reVerses and they had lost nearly all they had. They came to this country sixteen years ago with about S1 ,OO0, which they divided among their three sons, who are now living in this city.
 Their family name. it is said, is the Russian word meaning black, and on their arrival in this country they An- glicized it.
 The damage by the fire was $500.