The evening times., 1899-06-28
MRS. FELLOWS TO THE RESCUE
Rushes Into n Burning Church to
Save Altar Vestments.

/
Rushes Into n Burning Church l.
| Save Altar Vestments.
| New York June 2S.-When the news fe,
around Washington Heights at sunset yes
| terday that the Church of the Intercessiol
was on fire one of the first persons to hea
it was Mrs. John r. Fellows. the widow O
! the late district attorney. 1t appealed t.
| her with peculiar force, because she wa.
the chairman of the altar committee an,
had recently presented to the church il
memory of her husband costly set of en-
broidered sacerdotal draperies.
Without waiting to put on a hat, Mrs
| Fellows seized her key to the church anC
ran from her home at No. SO West 1926
Street to 15Sth Street and the Boulevard
where, surrounded by an unfenced lawn
stood a tall, spired building from the wesi
windows of which were rolling gusts oi
black smoke. Near the door. keeping the
crowd back. were two policemen. unwilling
TO take the responsibility of breaking in a
church door, and listening anxiously fol-
the ciangor of fire engines.
Unheeding these guardians. Mrs. Fell
lows. who had been followed from home
by Miss Bonnie Fellows made straight for
the door. The policeman seized her, but
she wrenched herself free. crying:
Let me alone, I've got the key,
They let her have her way after that
Still followed by her daughter. she threw
open the door and led the way into the in
terror. The church was filed with smoke.
Mrs. Fellows bent her head and fitted
swiftly toward the altar, guided around
pews and long aisles by her memory and
nothing else.
She climbed the pulpit steps and snatcned
UP the handsome cloth that hung there
Descending she stripped the lectern of its
gold cover. Miss Bonnie Fellows mean
while had been securing other articles OF
value. including the embroidered book
marks in Bible and prayerbook, which
formed part of her mothers memorial gift
to the church.
But the most costly object of all. and the
one for which Mrs. Fellows felt the great
est concern. was the dorsal which hung
at the back of the altar. This was cur
tain OF green brocade embroidered most
elaborately with gold and rubies. Its value
was $1,000.
The two women were gasping for breath
and half blinded by the smoke. The floor
was hot under their feet. They could
hear the roar Of the flames shooting up
from the cellar TO the organ loft. Yet they
made q united effort to save the precious
dorsal. The task was too much for them.
With their last strength they retraced their
steps to the door and emerged among their
friends and neighbors, laden down with
valuables Fully half the congregation was
assembled there. and they cheered the
courageous women.
For Heavens sake, somebody go back
and get that dorsal," exclaimed Mrs. Eel
lows when she had recovered her breath.
William Grinnel. a lawyer, who lives in
the neighborhood. answered her appeal by
going into the building. He. too, found MS
way 10 the altar, and he succeeded where
the two exhausted women had failed.
stumbling back with the priced drapery
under one arm. he overturned a brass
crucifix three feet high. Undismayed by
this accident. he seized the opportunity TO
remove two valuable candlesticks from the
altar.
Others were engaged in salvage work by
this time. still in the absence of the fire
men. and there was a growing heap of
ritualistic articles on the lawn, guarded by
the women and girls of the congregation.
Triumph found expression in shrill
che ers when W. H. Cromwell and Sexton
Balmford staggered into the open air
bearing between them the richly carved
pulpit one of the chief ornaments Cf the
church. Lawyer Grinnel made a second
trip into the smoke and returned with the
Iitany desk. Then the firemen came. and
they added the lectern to the collection on
the lawn.
1t was a stiff fight to subdue the blaze.
which had already destroyed the beautiful
organ. Aiming at the seat Of the fire.
several firemen dived into the cellar. Six
Of them were overcome by smoke. They
were carried out by their comrades and
laid upon the lawn. The women of the
ministered to the brave fell
lows until they were relieved by ambu-
lance surgeons.
In order to reach the flames in the organ
loft, the firemen smashed stained glass
window worth $4,000. The fashionable
church, when they had done their work.
presented a melancholy sight. and it will
be long before the odor of smoke fades
rom it.
There was to have been a wedding re-
,earsal there last night. and the marriage
would have been solemnzed this morning
~ the rector. the Rev Laurence A. Schwab.
Yhe prospective bridegroom. DR.. Palmer
H. Lyons, hurried about in search of an
,ther church for rehearsal and wedding
md at II o'clock to-day he and Miss Grace
hamilton Jones were married at st.
Auke's, One Hundred and Forty-frst Street
md Convent Avenue.
The fire is considered to be of suspicious
,rigin and it will be Investigated by the
authorities. In the cellar. where it start
d. a solid silver communion service was
stored 1t was found undsturbed in its
afp