The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-17

W. II. MURPHY. engineer, burned about
face and shoulders.
JOSIE BAXA. right ankle broken in jump
fns from second story window.
ANNIE BAxA. jumped with her sister
from second floor; seriously bruised.
DAVID SCHAEFER, arm broken trying
to catch A. E. Mccullough. who jumped
from third floor.
ANDREW NySTR0M, face and hands
burned.
A. J. NYsTRoM, face bands and legs
burned.
FRED SMITH, face and neck cut by fall
ing glass and head bruised by falling brick.
JACOB KERCHIN, letter carrier, jumped
from second story; back injured and ankle
sprained
JOHN M'DERMoTT, jumped from second
floor and disloeated his left shoulder.
JAMES w. WALL pipeman. head and
back injured from falling wall.
KATE CARNEY. forewoman for the Ma
tional Music Company. face and head burned
in descending from the fourth floor.
EDWARD d. HILL, employed by the
Presbyterian Publishing Company; severely
burned about the face and neck.
CAUSE OF THE FIRE.
The building was seven stories high, had
q frontage of fifty-eight feet on Wabash
avenue and extended back 100 feet to an
alley 1t was Of what is known as Mill
construction, had two elevator shafts, one
in front, one in the rear. and reaching from
the third story to the roof was a light shaft
which gave the flames every chance, and it
was because of this shaft that the fire
spread with such awful rapidly. The
building was occupied by a number of con-
Germs, some Of them employing large num-
bers Of people. 1t is estimated that four
hundred people were at work in the build
ing when the fire was discovered. The orr
gin Of the fire is in dispute. By some it is
said to have been caused by an explosion
Of coilodion in the wallpaper warerooms of
Alfred Peats, on the third floor, and by
others to have been the result of an ex-
plosion among some Photographic chemicals
in the Photographic supply house of Sweet
Wallace e. Co., on the sixth floor. EN-
ployes of both concerns deny that there was
any explosion in their vicinity. The weight
of evidence seems to be, however, that the
explosion was in the lower part of the build
ing, for the flames shot up the light shaft
at once. There was no eating down.
The sound of the explosion threw the in
mates Of the building into panic and on
several floors a wild stampede began for
the stairways and elevators. To add to the
panic the men in charge of the elevators
ran their cars up to the top of the building,
shouting Fire" at every floor. When they
reached the top both elevators took on
load of frightened women and started for
the bottom. The front elevator was in
charge of Harry Gleason, a boy, and the
rear one was handled by William ST. John,
young man. Both of these kept their
neads, showed much GOODNESS and bravery
and were instrumental in saving many lives.
The elevator in the front of the building
was a deliberate affair, in good order, but
not calculated to make much speed In such
an emergency as confronted it to-day
Gleason made one trip to the seventh floor
carried down load of women, and, al
though the smoke was rolling through the
building in dense clouds, he started up
again. At the fourth floor he stopped to
take on crowd Of girls from the rooms of
the National Music Companv A man AZ.
tempted to force his way into the eleya tor
out tIleason showed him back into the hall
that the women might have the first chance.
the bottom with his load of girls, Gleason
was about to start up again, when the sup
ports OF the elevator machinery at the toy
OF the shaft caught fire, and, seeing that
they would give way before his slow ele-
Vator could make another trip, Gleason
gave It up At the rear st. John did equal
~ good work, but was not able to make
more than one trip, as the fire swept
through that part Of the building before IL
attacked the front In less than ten min
ntes after the explosion all escape of the
inmates by the stairs and elevators was cut
on. There remained only the windows and
the single fire escape, narrow, iron thing
not ever eighteen inches wide This was
quickly covered with a string of people
some on one side, seFAe on the other. AS
thSy scrambled down in frantic haste they
tred upon one anothers fingers bumped
into one another, and progress was slow
and difficult for them all
JUMPED TO DEATH.
Many of those who could not reach the
fire escape made their way to the front
windows and it was out of these that Clark.
Smith and Binz hurled themselves to death.
Clark was bookkeeper for the Olmstead
Scientific Company on the seventh floor and
remained to put the books in the safe He
might have escaped had he run upon the
first alarm. He was first seen at enc of The
seuenth-story windows and a few minutes
after showed himself in a window ae the
sixth floor. The fire was close upon him.
the floors and walls behind him were crash
main where he was. There was no possi-
Dlllty OF help and he took his only chance
Three minutes later he was dead on the
pavement below.
Miles A. Smith, salesman for the Ohm
stead Scientific Company, also leaped from
window in the sixth floor. He hesitated
Clark, understood that it was his only hope
fte was instantly killed, his body being nor
ribly mangled.
Edward Binz, the cashier of Sweet. WAL
lsch q Co., on the sixth floor, fell a victim
70 the desire to save others and to protect
MS books from harm. He, upon hearing the
alarm, ran TO the rear of the store to warn
the employees TO run for their lives He
then rushed back to his desk, gathered up
his books and damned them into the vault.
Then he started for the stairway, but the
danes were ahead of him and he turned
back. There was nothing but the window
ana 10 this he went. He clambered upon
the sill and stood there in view of the crowd
below. Clark and Smith had already he
daebed the pavement with their lifeblood
and the crowd knew there was no more
chance for Binz than for them. They
watched him in silent horror as he stood
celebrating. The building was Il roaring
mass of flames and Binz's face and hands
were badly burned before he jumped. He
pondered the matter but a few seconds,
then mis- form shot downward through a
cloud of flame and smoke and in the draw
stones over which his blood and brains were
epattered.
HEROIC ACT OF A FIREMAN.
One fireman distinguished himself by
daring rescue. He was up on a ladder close
to the building when he heard cry ring
ing out above the roar of the flames. He
steadied himself upon the ladder and peered
into the dense smoke. Just then a gust of
wind cleared the scene. The fireman saw
man in a window of the fifth story carry
ing an inanimate form. That the rescuer
was about to throw the unconscious human
being into the street in the vain hope of