Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1898-08-05

"Well go on"
"The fre," resumed Itzig, "started
in the basement, shoemaker shop,
Abram Koswinky, thirty.six years old,
married, three kids, Oldest four--do
you want names and ages?"
'If they did or suffered anything"
"No, they got out easy by the rear
window, through the area to No. 20
back. But the flames were just climb
ing up the stairways. Escape by
the front door was cut of when got
there. IL happened 10 he over that
way on suicide and heard the walls,
You know. Somebody had TO help,
or we'd had big story with q dozen
roasted TO death. Put in, Scared,
white faced looked out Of the windows
each second, then disappearing back
in the smoke. 1t was tough, tell
you. There was a way to get TO the
third story by the next house. You
could climb from one fre.escape to the
other and get in the window. Inside,
the flames was cutting the floor in
half. A man and woman aud two
children in the frontroom were passed
out by the way the man came. Their
names were"
Keep them till afterwards"
"The thing to do was get to the
rear rooms, where there was more Of
'em. The man--the fellow that had
come up to save the whole crew-had
TO get down and crawl along the floor
under the flames, and they licked his
back hair off and set his coat on fire.
But he got there. And he found two
men, three women and five kids
LIddled in one corner, one woman and
two babies unconscious from smoke.
The others were getting air by breath
ing low down on the floor
"The men had to be made to go
down the rear fre-escape with the
women and jump. This took time,
and the flames burst out of the rear,
cutting Off that way ont. So there
was the FIVE kids. II think the man
said that he grabbed two and was
going TO throw them out TO the old
people, but they had run away. So
he had to go front.
"He started 10 run for il; but he
was set fire to and had to lie down
and roll the flames out and crawl
again. The fremen had come, and
they caught the kids all right. The
fremen who caught 'em was Jerry
Sullivan, Truck Eleven, the first there,
and"
''Give us that later"
"The fellow inside sneaked back
the same way and got two more. The
firemen had a ladder up to take the
children. One was left. As he went
hack for that he seen the game was
up. He had to shake his coat, which
was burned, so he whacked it against
wall till il was out, and wrapped the
last kid in IL.
"Then came the fun. The flames
covered the back of the house and
coming in the window. House full Of
smoke, floors hot, Railways ablaze,
solid, You know, 'hemmed in by fire,
babe in arms'--that's the feature of the
storyl The stairways fell, the hall
floor curved, the whole building
shook. The fellow thought Of lot of
things, but they didn't have anything
to do with getting out of that hole.
There was an awful crash, and he just
sank in heap"
Itizg wiped his face. The perspira-
ton that had started TO it dampened
his handkerchief.
"The next thing that man knew, he
was in a drugstore, No. % Essex, and
the fire was out"
''But did he escape?" asked one OF
the reporters. Didn't he go down
with the walls when the crash came?"
"No, that part of the house didn't
fall, and you see, the fremen knew
him. When he didn't show up they
crossed the air-well from next door,
got through a window aud battered
down the door to the room where he
was.
"They found him asleep and-a
feature of the story is they couldn't
get the kid out of his arms TO save the
two separately. They had to carry
them out together"
The reporters laughed at Itzig.
whats the hero's name?" asked
one.
''Oh, he wasn't hero. He wouldn't
have done IL il he hadn't started to,
being there first. Besides, he didn't
save the last child, you see, but had
TO be rescued himself"
''Did you interview himp" queried
Chapman, who was writing the story.
"No, not much; he wasn't able to
talk"
"Not even TO tell his name2"
"He didn't want to" said Itzig.
''But the fremen, you said, knew
him."
"Yes-not very well-only his first
name"