Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1903-04-18

The men rushed out to the Defense
and in that next hour Waterside dis
trict witnessed as heroic a struggle as
any age of chivalry ever boosted. 1t
ment to dictate any rules or methods
of procedure. The people made rules.
They tore down buildings, flung them
selves upon flaming fragments,
stamped under foot and literally beat
back the fury of the encircling fire.
And Hope House was saved. When it
was all over, the building stood black
ened, defaced, scorched, but intact,
and into it's archway came streaming
dark procession of forms bearing
dreadful burdens, which were laid in
straight rows through the hall and on
the library floor. Before the gray
dawn broke through the pail of smoke,
dripping with drizzling air that pen
etrated even the warmly dressed early
rlsers on the boulevards. there were
forty-seven forms lying side by side on
the floor Of Hope House, and under the
CHASTITY mound how many more no
man dared to guess.
John Gordon found Miss Andrews
still at work out by the ruins.
"You must stop and eat something"
he said gently, but firmly. And as he
spoke he laid his hand on her arm.
She was bearing on her face and per-
son the marks of her desperate energy
But she had never ceased to be Grace
Andrews, calm, self poised, patient, in
domitable, but never hysterical or
nervous.
A faint color appeared in her face,
and she let Gordon bring her some
thing to eat. She tasted it sitting on
beam near the ruins. The firemen, who
knew her, never thought of refusing
her place with the workers. Through
the dawn up into the increasing light
Of the awful day that revealed new
horrors she worked on, and Gordon
and Barton silently worked beside her.
The great excitement had kept Bar
ton nerved up to the occasion. AS the
dawn broke, however, the strain was
too severe for the frail tenement. He
felt something snap somewhere, and
his eyes blinded as he staggered over
the ruins. IIe brushed back the hair
that hung matted and dripping over
his forehead and tried to steady him.
self. There was a child's arm protrud
ing from mass of plaster and bricks
at which he had been working as in q
nightmare, sobbing and coughing, and
alternately cursing and praying Cor
don was several feet away, lifting
beam with Miss Andrews.
He Strengthened up and saw it all in
mist that darkened swiftly. Again
he brushed his hand over his forehead
and tried by all the exercise of his will
to keep from falling, but the next mo-
ment he reeled, stumbled against a
projecting timber and fell face down.
ward. The fingers of the child, which
had been moving slightly, touched his
warm cheek. When John Gordon came
over to lift Barton up, the child's arm
encircled Barton's neck.
Gordon gently unclasped the arm
and, lifting up his friend, carried him
into Hope House. AS he laid him down
Barton opened his eyes and whis-
pered, "Never mind me. save the 9th
ers."
Gordon kneeled and kissed Barton's
forehead, and, leaving him in charge
of one Of the residents, he went out to
the work. When he and Miss Andrews
had dug out the child, it had breathed
it's last. Miss Andrews kissed the dis
figured face, and the first tear that
Gordon had ever seen her shed fell on
the body.
zone of our children in the kinder
garten. Oh, my God! For this slaugh-
ter of the innocents who shall be
counted guilty?"
She carried the child into the house,
and when she came back there was an
added divinity of righteous indignation
in her blue eyes, added sadness In the
lines of her patient face.
Day broke on Waterside district,
Ward IS, over scene that had never
before been witnessed in any part of
the city. There had been very many
fires before this horror Of tenement
house fire, Ward Is. But no disaster
had ever before been marked by such
sickening slaughter Of children. In No.
81, Mr.. Marsh's double DECKER twenty
nine children were burned or crushed
to death. In the other blocks twenty
three more were victims Of the falling
wall or the nights exposure. Seventy
five families were instantly beggared,
saving only the clothes they wore, and
left without roof to shelter or cent
TO pay for bread. Great piles Of value
less furniture and bedding filled the
streets and alleys, soaked by the rain
which continued all day. Hope House
stood solitary and alone, choked with
the dead and the living, among whom
Miss Andrews moved with an angels
pity and commanders frmness. She
was perfectly self possessed and knew
just what to do next. Under her lead
ership order grew out of awful confu-
sion, and Hope House, transferred into
, hospital, knew at once that she who
had been the gracious head of the set