The Plymouth tribune., 1902-05-08
EIGHT WOMEN KILLED
Victims Crushed TO De0th ON Stairway,
and rl0ny Others Seriously
Injured.

y
forty and fifty others were seri-
ously injured. This terrible list
of deaths and injuries was due to
a senseless panic that took place
IN the cigar factory of Hamburger
Homan & Co., a branch of the
American Tobacco company,
whose big factory building. cov-
ering an entire block of ground,
is located at Tenth street and
Washington avenue. An eleva-
tor accident in which a deaf and
dumb boy, Isador Baccus, was
injured, caused some one to give
the alarm of fire and then a wild
stampede set in among the thous-
and or more employees in the
building.
The building in which the dis
aster occurred is a hve-story
brick structure. Twelve hun
dred persons were at work at
the time of the accident, 90 per
cent OF whom were girls whose
ages range from II years up
sward.
The trouble began on the fourth
floor of the structure. Baccus.
who was janitor Of the building,
started for the fifth floor for a
ball of twine. Tnc elevator was
at the top of the shaft, and Bac-
Gus pulled the rope to bring it
down. He opened the door lead.
ing to the shaft and leaned for
ward to see where the carriage
was. AS he did so. the elevator
which was descending slowly.
struck him across the back of
the neck, pinioning his head be-
tween the elevator and the floor.
A stock boy released Baccus
and cried for help. The foreman
rushed from the building to call
an ambulance anu Immediately
there was panic among the en-
ployes. Some of the younger
girls tainted, while others, not
being able to control their feel
ings, cried fire.
Instantly there was d mad rush
for the stairway leading into
Tenth street. The girls rushed
down the narrow staircase until
they reached a bend IN the exit
between the second and third
floors. In their eagerness to es-
cape the frightened leaders fell.
Others Immediately followed
tripped over the struggling mass
of humanity and in less than a
minute there were hundreds of
children and young women
struggling in the passa geway.
The shrieks anG screams of ter
ror- stricken girls could be heard
for a block or more.
During the excitement an alarm
of fire was turned in, but before
the engines could reach the scene
several of the occupants of the
building had rushed to the win
dows and jumped to the street, a
distance of over fifty feet Hell
en- Tolini, one of those to Jump,
was almostinstantly killed. When
the fremen and policemen arrived
every effort was made to quiet
the terrorized girls. The fire.
men rushed up the stairway and
begged the girls to be calm, tell
ing them that there was abso-
lutely no danger, but the sight
of the firemen seemed only to add
fuel to the flame.
After few minutes the men
were enabled to check the awful
crush on the stairway, and then
began the work of rescuing those
who had been trampled and
crowded between the second and
third floors. The alarm for am
balances had been turned in, and
as quick as the dead and injured
could be carried from the build.
ing, they were hurried to hospit-
ais. The number of ambulances
were entirely inadequate, and pa
troll wagons were brought into
use to carry the victims away for
treatment.
While the work of rescue was
going on the scene about the
structure was heartrending. The
building is located in a section
largely inhabited by Hebrews.