The San Francisco call., 1899-12-23
DEATH BY
FIRE ENDS
THEIR PLAY
Horrible Tragedy Attends a
Christmas Rehearsal
of Children.
ELEVEN LIVES LOST
Class Of Little Girls Enveloped by
Flames Communicated From
a Gas Jet.
Special Dispatch to The Call.


- UINCY. H.. Dec. 22-while the
school children of St. Francis Paro-
chial School at Seventeenth and
T. i Vine streets were rehearsing this
afternoon for an entertainment to
be given next Tuesday e<ening the dress
of one caught fire from a gas jet. Within
ten minutes four of them were burned to
| death, two died an hour later and five
others died before midnight. A half
dozen others were burned more or less
severely. The dead:
IRENA FREIBURG.
MAY WAVERING.
MARY ALTHOFF.
BERNADINO FREUND.
COLLETTA MIDDENDORF.
MARY HICKEY.
WILHELMINA GUTTENDORF.
OLIVIA TIMPE.
ADDIE FUTTERER.
JOSEPHINE BOHNE.
MARGARET WARNER.
All these are between and II years of
age. Helen Soebbing and several other
teachers. Father Nicholas and Professor
Musholt were painfully burned in trying
TO save the children.
The fire started in a little dressing
room Three or four little girls were
there dressing for the rehearsal and
laughing gayly among themselves. A
Of the stage near the foot of the stairs
descending from the dressing-room The
girls in the dressing-room had nearly
completed their costumes when one of
them brushed against the gas iet Which
child II was will never be known A
touch of the flame was sufficient and in
an instant her dress of cotton and light
cloth was In a blaze.
She screamed and ran out of the room
4 ~.
ran. One Of the girls. with her dress
ablaze jumped out of small window on
to the stairs leading TO the stage and
down the stairs. A flaming torch she was
as she almost fell down the stairs and
rushed into the groups OF children stand
Ing In he wing They were All clad like
her, IN fancy costumes of cotton lace and
SILK and the fire spread with incredible
rapidity from one to the other.
There were fourteen children in the
caste of the Christmas entertainment and
only few escaped. II was all over in
ten minutes and in that time four had
perished. seven were dying and others
more or less severely burned.
The school hall was filed with children
and many more would have been killed
IN the panic which followed mad 1T not
been for the efforts of the teachers and
Sisters who were in charge of the enter
tainment and were present. The children
rushed for the doors. but prompt efforts
quieted them and no one was injured
Frank Musholt, teacher OF the school,
was standing at the foot OF the stairs
from the dressing room when he heard
the cry of Fire and saw the flash OF
flame in the dressing room. He was half
way up the stairs at one bound, when he
met a child rushing and tumbling down.
a mass of flames from head 10 foot. Tear
ing of his coat. he threw il around the
blazing child and endeavored to extin-
guish the flames. Crazed by pain and
fright, the little girl jumped out of his
arms and rushed on down past him. still
wrapped in his coat into the group of
other children standing about In the
wings of the stage.
The shrieks and screams of the unfort-
unates were agonizing. The little ones
lay helpless and impotent on the floor
and writhed about in their agony. The
dead were charred in most cases beyond
recognition. Doctors hurried about fon
their missions of mercy, seeking to sup
ply soothing lotions 10 those who were
still alive, and seeking also to cover the
bodies of the dead with blankets.
The excitement inside the building was
soon intensified by the situation without
Crowds congregated and parents came
searching anXiously for their little ones
The landing at the third floor was a com-
bination of hospital and morgue
All telephone lines in the neighborhood