Mower County transcript., 1903-07-22

for Barton. When 1t came, he went to
help Barton get ready. To his amaze.
ment, hewas up and wa iting. When he
got up of the bed ON which he, was sit
ting, he reeled on his feet and would
have fallen II Gordon had not put an
arm about him. i. I. .ts5 4 81 ls3# 4. n
"YOu are not able to leavey' Sc 5sS
II am, tell you! I. will never die
here. I'll live long enough to get to my
rooms. And I'll live long enough to
write up this horror too. The day Of
judgment ought to begin today for
some Of the people in this God forsaken
metropolis, John. There's your friend,
Mr.. Marsh! / suppose the building was
insured. He never lost anything, eh ?
Not that sorty' RI: III. @s.s@5 s@ss.s I s$s4f s5{4f
Gordon supported him through the
kall, and Barton, in spite OF his tre-
mendous will power, nearly tainted mt
the sights and sounds there Miss, An
drewsSwas helping one of the surgeons.
A. great crowd thronged the entrance
togHope House, and Gordon had great
.di1nculty In getting Barton out to the
ealriaee ss'.r I'D IL NJ x
He put him into it and vas stepping
I'M himself when Barton pulled the
Seor and told the driver to 30 on.
Gordon hesitated. s-a- tssa~ ss+!s .sz.:+sta+f<
you're needed here Go on, driver.
I'll promise to live till tomorrow, John.
Go: in and help her. She needs some
0ne.'': j: :. lin. is.si i 81
The carriage started slowly on ac-
eonnt Of the crowd. Gordon waved 4
silent goodby. When the carriage was
ont Of Bowen street. Barton tainted.
He lay like dead man In corner Of
the carriage, and when the driver
reached his rooms and got down to
open the door he was frightened at the
sight Of what looked like a corpse IN
the carriage. He and Williams carried
Barton in, and, before noon Barton lay
In tremendous fever, which the doc
tor said was a clear case of pneumonia.
Cant save him. the doctor said to
Williams curtly. ''I'll send up the best
nurse we've got. But Barton might as
well shoot himself as do what he did
hast night 5s III
Down at Hope House all day John
Gordon, Grace Andrews, the assistants
and score of surgeons worked to save
1ife with heart breaking doubt in their:
souls as they labored as to the future
fate of the mangled, crushed, burned,
manned humanity that did not merci-
fully die. In the feverish horror Of 1t
all, as the work of searching the ruins
went on and dense thrOngs Of curiosity
seekers choked all the district, John
Gordon was aware of one prominent
figure that was apparently omnipres-
ent-Tommy Randall. He was on hand,
cheerfully encouraging those who had
lost everything, -. securing temporary
quarters for those who were wander
ing bewildered through the streets or
sitting dumb and stolid on their dam
aged piles of household goods, distrib-
uting wagon loads Of bread and coffee
and in several cases hunting up lost
children and bringing together families
that had become separated during the
confusion Il. ..5 \
Once as he stepped out of the hall for
a moment to get a breath of fresh air
Gordon almost ran into Randall, i who
had one child by the hand and another
In his arms, both of them devouring
sandwiches. Randall nodded to Cor.
don, but did not speak, and Gordon
stepped back without saying anything.
But all the rest of the day he had a
vision of Tommy Randall and those
children.
Both morning and evening papers
contained full accounts of the s"Tene-
ment Fire Horror on Bowen Street."
The News printed list of names Of
property owners, and Flailo III. Marsh's
name was prominent among them as
owner of the double decker fire trap,
as it was labeled. Every paper in the
city had an editorial on the subject,
but only one of them, the Index, called
attention to the fact that for years the
nature Of the construction had been
fully known and nothing done because
city politics did not wish 70 interfere
with property owners who paid a cer1s
tain amount of blackmail for the l,riyi-.
NSSoS - Aol is, 5SIt "
special mee ting Of the >city council
called to consider the condition Of the
people, in the rllinel dissti,: ct. opk q c-s
tion TO proyi,f, ;s sSs::,t f:
the homeless. MeanWj lille public indig-
nation cooled almost lis: asst as the
ruins in Bowen street. when it was irIl--
mored that several proni inent men and
women had subscribed ssey eral tthou-
sand dollars to the survivors and that
as one result Of the fire "a set Of model
tenement buildings would be built III
3 the burned district 4 j ohm Gordon, read
d ing all this in moments when lie rested
from the great train that continued
4 Tor many days, could not repress a
strong feeling chat nothing but Chris.
tan grace kept from being bitter. ha-
tired Of class that the real cause 81
!aall al the horror had not been touched bys
all the editors and all the public ex-3
cttement. The landlords M ere not ar
Tssted for anarchy in breaking ors1i.
a No r,cna X Ss5 "a 4 q