Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-06-12
TALES or PLUCK
And ADVENTURE.
A Hero of the Windsor Hotel Fire.

"A nero OF the WINDSOR Hotel Fire,
During the terrible fire which de.
stroyed the Windsor Hotel, in New
York City, on March II, there were
performed a number of heroic deeds
as splendid as any ever done in war.
All these can not even be mentioned;
but what was perhaps the very brayest
deed of all should be recorded.
Edward Ford, fireman of Exten-
sion Truck No. 20, has the honor of
having been the last fireman to leave
the hotel, bringing down the last per-
son rescued alive. The brave man
would not talk for publication himself,
but comrade who witnessed the res
cue told the story partly as he saw it,
and partly in Ford's own words.
1t appears that Ford was going
home on the elevated railroad, when
he saw the smoke of the fire. At the
Fiftieth street station, he broke from
the train and rushed to the scene of
the conhagration. When he arrived
the smoke was pouring out of every win
dow, and the building apparently about
ofall. II pushed my way through the
crowd" he said, "and had begun
work with the hose company, when
some one shouted that there was an
old woman in a room on the sixth
story on the Fifth avenue side. 1
could not see any one at the window.
l saw one fireman up there, but he
was in the room to the north of where
the woman was said to be, and he
could not see her, or know that she
was there. I determined to go up my
self. There was scaling ladder
from the second floor up to the room
where the fireman was, and I took q
thirty-ive-foot ladder and placed it
inside the hotel railing, and started
up"
In few minutes he had reached
the top, and found comrade there
named Bill Clarke. The room was
full of smoke, and the men could hear
the fire roaring and cracking outside.
Thinking to get into the next room by
means of the hall, Ford threw himself
against the hall door and forced it
open, but storm of flames and smoke
busrt into the room, almost suffocating
him. He tried to force the door
closed again, but the hinges were
broken, and it fell outward into the
flames. Then he tried the windows.
II stood on the stone Intel of the
window below" he said, "and grasped
the woodwork with my left hand.
Then 1 reached for the next window,
but it was too far off. I stood my feet
firmly on the Intel on which L was
standing and made jump for the
other one. Fortunately I caught the
sill firmly, drew my body up, and
looked in. There was woman on the
floor on her knees. AS sprang in she
turned and grasped me convulsively.
Save me, for Gods sakep she cried"
The brave fellow took her up and
dragged her to the window, calling to
Clarke for help. He grasped her
firmly around the waist and climbed
out on to the Intel of the window be-
low, holding himself close to the build
ing. Clarke was already outside Of
the window, and tried to reach, but
the distance was too great. The
woman was afraid that she was going
to fall, and kept praying and Shrek
ing to be saved, at the same time grasp
ing at everything within reach, and
greatly hampering the movements of
the men. cat last" said Ford, "I
shook her free from her hold on the
window-sill. She then became un-
conscious, and was dead weight on
my arm" All this time the fire was
eating on the woodwork of the room
toward the window, and the part to
which Ford was holding began to
scorch. 81 shifted my hold" he said,
''for another on the top of the sill,
and bent my head and shoulders be-
flames, which were already sweeping
out of the window. 1 called to Clarke
to reach over to me, as I could not
hold any more. He leaned as far rs
he could hold on with his left hand,
and reached out with his right. 1
lifted the woman toward him with all
the strength I had left, and he seized
her around the waist. Clarke is big,
powerful man, and succeeded in get
ting her TO the top of the ladder.
Clarke then took the woman down to
the sidewalk and brought her to
drug store. She was found to be Mrs.
Choisholl, a gray haired lady OF fifty
or sixty years. This was the last Per
son taken from the building, and three
or four minutes later the walls fell in.
Helped Out by n Bear.
An odd although rather brutal story
of mans adventure with bear, is
told in the "History OF Williams
County, Ohio" John Gillet had made
up his mind, from various signs, that