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

turned white faces touched with the
glow of fire it seemed as if the COM
pany was unusually slow. Before the
ladders had reached a perpendicular,
before they had trembled, swaying
over toward the building, a dozen faces
''appeared at the upper windows beside
the child with her charge, reckoning
'frantically for help.
''See! See therer' Barton cried again
with the same nervous tension which
he had shown since leaving his rooms.
A figure leaped out Of the upper win
dow, whirled over twice. striking the
upper extension Of the ladders, and fell
into the street. The crowd groaned.
sill and, throwing up it's arms, with a
shrill cry more beastly than human,
dung itself out toward the ladders now
leaning over toward the building. 1t
was a woman. She actually touched
one Of the ladder rounds with her fin
gers and for a second the crowd
thought she had grasped it, but for
only second. The body shot down
ward, and Barton and Gordon closed
their eyes and involuntarily put their
hands up over their ears to shut out the
horrible sound. Again the crowd
groaned, and wild beast yell arose.
I "The life blanketv' some one Shrek
led, and it was only after the whole
thing was history that Bowen street
learned that owing to the narrow
courts and the broken pavements the
department was fatally hindered in all
its movements and the wagon carrying
the life blanket had overturned at a
corner, killing the driver and manning
one Of the horses so that it had to be
shot Make out another Indictment for
murder against municipality which
deliberately robs the people of its
rights in order to keep the wheels of
the political machine moving. What
are human lives compared with the
Spoils of Office and the plumber that is
part of political service to the powers
that be?
The ladder fell over and touched the
window sill where the child Of the
tenements was standing with her bur-
den, and then scene occurred that
will never leave John Gordon as long
as he tolls on bearing human woes on
his brave and bleeding heart.
The child suddenly disappeared, and
in her place could be seen two men and
woman fighting like wild beasts for
the first chance at the ladder which
rested on the sill. A fireman was climb
ing up and had almost reached the
maddened fighters. At the other win
dows wild, imploring faces begged in
agony for life. Two more forms were
seen to jump from the windows at the
corner farthest from the ladder. The
fire was now bursting through the roof,
and one group from the window next
the fighters above the ladder fell back
as If floor had given way-all this in
the few seconds it took to be burned
into Gordon with awful detail-when he
saw the ladder rise to perpendicular
as If some giant hand had pushed it
back. 1t rose until it stood straight, the
solitary figure of the fireman silhouet-
ted against the blazing wall, and then
the entire front of the house, with
roar that gathered volume in a sicken-
ing rush of death, fell over into the
street, burying in one mingled mass the
fireman who had been standing on the
ladder, his companion at the foot and
the crowd in the street that, caught in
a trap, could not escape even if there
had been time to give warning of the
danger.
For one awful second Gordon and
Barton, who had been standing just
outside the reach Of the falling wall,
looked into the blazing interior of the
tenement. Figures within that roaring
furnace leaped down into it from floors
and window lodges. Others jumped in
to the street. They looked like great
insects leaping into jets Of fame. Then
with deafening crash the remaining
side walls fell inward. The rear wall
remained standing for minute. then