The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-03-17

were instrumental in saving many
/ lives The elevator in the front of the
building was a deliberate affair, in
good order, but not calculated 10 make
| much speed in such an emergency as
confronted it today.
BRAVE ELEVATOR BOY.
Gleason made one trip to the seventh
floor, carried down a load of women,
/ and. although the smoke was rolling
through the building in dense clouds.
he started up again. At the fourth
! floor he stopped to take on a crowd of
! girls from the rooms of the National
! Music company, being assisted in his
work by Miss Katherine Carney, the
forewoman. A man attempted TO force
! his way into the elevator, but Gleason
/ showed him back into the hall that the
women might have the first chance. The
/ man never came out. After reaching
/ the bottom with his load of girls, Glea-
son was about to start up again, when
I the supports of the elevator machinery
at the top of the shaft caught fire, and
seeing that they would give way before
his slow elevator could make another
trip, Gleason gave it up. AT the rear
St. John did equally good work, but
was not able to make more than one
trip, as the fire swept through that
part of the building before it attacked
the front.
ESCAPE CUT OFF.
In less than ten minutes after the ex-
plosion all escape of the inmates by
the stairs and the elevators was cut
off There remained only the windows
and the single fire escape, a narrow iron
thing not ove. is inches side to side.
This was quickly covered with a throng
of people, some on one side, some on
the other. AS they scrambled down in
frantic haste thew frnd
others fingers, and progress was slow
and difficult for them all. Many of
those who could not reach the fire es-
cape made their way to the front win
dows, and it was out of these that
Clark, Smith and Binz hurled them
selves TO death.
FAITHFUL TO THE END.
Clark was bookkeeper for the Ohm
stead Scientific company, on the sixth
floor, and remained to put the books in
the safe. He might have escaped had |
he run on the fire alarm. He was first
seen at one of the seventh story win
dows. and a few minutes afterwards |
showed himself in a window of the
sixth floor. The fire was close upon
him, the floors and walls behind him |
were crashing down. and it was GER |
tain death TO remain where he was |
There was no possibility of help. and |
he took his only chance. Three minutes |
later he was dead on the pavement be- |
io--.
Miles A. Smith, a salesman for the |
Olmstead Scientific company, also /
leaped from window in the sixth /
floor. He hesitated some time before /
taking the leap, but. ike Clark, under /
stood that it was his only hope He |
was instantly killed, his body being /
horribly mangled.
DEATH OF THE CASHIER.
Edward Binz, the cashier of Sweet.
Wallach & Co., on the sixth floor, fell |
a victim TO his desire to save others
and to protect his 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 jammed them into the vault Then
he started for the stairway, but the
flames were ahead of him and he turned
back. There was nothing but the win
dow, and to this he went. He clam
bereG upon the sill and stood there in
view of the crowd below. Clark and
Smith had already bedaubed the pave
ment with their life blood, and the I
crowd knew there was no more chance
for Binz than for them. They watched
him in silent horror as he stood de-
The building was a 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 his form shot down
ward through a cloud of flames and
smoke, and. in the drawing of a
breath, he was as lifeless as the stones
over which his blood and brains were
spattered.
DARING RESCUE.
One fireman distinguished himself by
a daring rescue. He was up on a lad
der close to the building when he heard
a cry ringing out above the roar of the
flames. He steadied himself on the
ladder and peered into the dense smoke.
Just then a gust Of wind cleared the
scene. The fireman saw a man in a
window of the fifth floor carrying an
inanimate form. That the man was
about TO throw the unconscious human
being into the street in the vain hope
5f saving the man from a death by
roasting. was evident The fire was
roaring 50 that no voice could be heard.
Putting up his hand as a signal to wait
until he got ready, the fireman again
oraced himself upon the ladder and
reached out his arms for the rescuer TO
drop the unconscious man to him.
With a shock that nearly knocked the
heroic fireman from his position upon
the ladder. the body Of the man struck
tie fire fighter. But it did not get away ]