Daily camera., 1899-07-11
CURIOSITY SEEKERS.
Are Largely In Evidence at the
Ruins of Big Fires
Women Are More Interested Than
MAn-SOme Incidents of the
Windsor Hotel Fire In
New NOrL

such a fire as that which destroyed
the Windsor hotel" said veteran po-
Iiceman, has a side other than the
serious one. We who are detailed to
keep the fire lines have some odd ex-
periences, you may be sure. Take this
| last fire, for instance. One would think
that our chief trouble would be with
men whose curiosity leads them to try
to get access to the immediate neigh
borhood of recently burned building.
This is not SO. Any policeman of ex-
perience will tell you that women give
us more trouble, twice. over. This week
nearly one-half of those who tried to
pass through our lines to see what was
left of the Windsor hotel were women,
| and some of them did much to make
| our lives miserable. You can tell 8
man that admission is denied him, and
unless he has some real business to
| transact within the prescribed limits,
he will almost always accept the deci-
sion. But a woman is pertinacious.
And that" the officer continued,
fire that seems to fascinate the average
woman. 1t is not the pile of bricks
and half-burned wood they wish to see;
that's plain. They seem possessed by
| desire to get near enough to be within
sight when body is taken from the
ruins. It's a bad enough sight for those
who are accustomed to it, but how wom
en-most of them plainly of refinement
can have so much morbid curiosity
is more than can understand"
That this statement is not eXagger-
ated anyone who was present the last
few days can testify. During the
search of the Windsor ruins well-ap-
rearing women have stood for hours
at a stretch, one, perhaps two, blocks
away. where nothing could he seen
save huge piles of debris and. on rare
occasions, wooden box, surrounded by
dbOrers and policemen. Yet even that
much appeared to afford a good deal
Of satisfaction. One-an elderly Ger
man woman-managed to pass the lines
one day and got midway in the Fifth
avenue block just as a body WAS
brought to the police booth. She
pushed her way through those stand
ing about-nearly all present on busi-
ness-and did her best TO see what was
in the coffin, desisting only when an
officer took her by the arm and forced
her away. Even on Wednesday, in the
height of the storm, and when police
vigilance had been relaxed on that ac-
count, numbers of women made their
way through mud and water to the
bank at the southwest corner, plead
l.
Just one look" This was usually per-
mitted, but .one look" appeared rarely
to satisfy.
Some of the male sightseers showed
considerable ingenuity in devising eN-
cuscs for getting within the lines.
around the workmen were seen at vari-
Gus times men wearing the badges of
practically all the departments of the
city government; each messenger boy
Invariably had n message to deliver at
some house on the block, and even mo-
tormen were admitted at times, pre-
sumably on the strength of their blue
uniforms. OF out-of-town police and
tiremen there was any number. One
man got through the lines by show
ing an immense plated badge, maltese
cross shaped; he explained to a reporter
that he was member of the police de-
partment" of small New Jersey bor-
nugh. On another occasion IA mem
bers of Staten Island fire company
visited the ruins. All were passed on
showing their badges-''courtesy," the
policeman said-but came near disas-
ter by forming in line and parading
around the block. They subsidized, how
,ver, at the entreaty of n patrolman
who told them that the inspector was
about and would fire the whole push"
if they did not make themselves less
conspicuous.-N. Y. Post.