The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-09-19
One MAN FIGHTS BACK PANIC.
TWO JEWISH CONGREGATIONS IN
JOINT FIRE SCARE.
Somebody Cried Eighth and q Multitude
Cried "Firey' and Lone Cop Had
His Hands Full-Pa nicky Conditions
in other Parts OF the East Side.

sOuleDOuy STleu 'rlBH' anu Mtuutuuo
Cried "Firep and a Lone Cop Had
Ills Hands Full-Pa nicky Conditions
in Other Parts OF the East Side.
Three thousand Hebrews were crowded
into two meeting rooms at Progress Hall,
2s and 80 Avenue A, last evening, in two
congregations assembled to celebrate the
beginning OF the Week Of Atonement In
the main hall on the second floor were
nearly 1000 Of the Neu Zandetzeter Verein,
while in the annex on the ground floor were
a thousand Of the Samborer Nerein.
According to Aaron Schwartz. son OF
Aaron Schwartz. the proprietor of the place,
two youths near the entrance OF the lower
hall got into an alteration and some person
on the street shouted Fight" The cry was
taken up and in the upper hal was mistaken
for the cry Of FIRE. There was rush for
the doors and fire escapes.
Detective Joseph Wasserman was pass
ing on his way from dinner when he saw
the crowd fighting its way downstairs and
caught sight OF two women apparently
about to drop of the fire escape He climbed
up to them just in time to prevent their
jumping and got them of the fire escape.
The stairway was jammed, the stronger
men fighting their way over women Was
serman pinned bis shield on his lapel and
fought his way up the stairs to the door,
shouting that there was no fire and threat
ening all manner Of violence to those who
did not stand still Immediately. He could
not stop the stampede, but he checked 1t
for a moment.
Somebody had turned in fire alarm and
the engines were arriving. There had been
eleven fires in the East Side district south OF
Fourteenth street within an hour, and some
OF the fire apparatus had to come a con-
siderable distance The belated arrival Of
every company started a fresh wave OF
fear that the Try Of NO fire." which Was
serman and his aids-were raising was false,
and there was a renewed effort to crowd
out of the building,
Wasserman after it was over showed
that he had been In fight His hat was
crushed, his clothing disarran ged and his
collar a rag. Aaron Schwartz and Edward
Klein, who keeps a hotel at 81 Avenue A..
directly across the street. said they were
going to write to Commissioner McAdoo
to-day about Wasserman. Klein said:
The possibilities OF the loss OF life that l
saw at the beginning Of the panic appealed
to me strongly, for lost four members OF
my family in the slocurn disaster, and the
way Wasserman stopped 1t deserves official
recognition
Schwartz did not know Wasserman. He
said That fellow in gray suit is peach
The congregation in the lower hall re-
sumed its services after the excitement,
but that which had been in the upper hall
did not return.
Fifteen hundred Jews were jammed
together on two floors Of the hall at liz
Cannon street last night when somebody
cried "Fire!" There was a rush for
exits and several were hurt by being tram
Piled on Reserves from the Union Market
police station were there when the panic
came and they stopped the rush with their
clubs.
Herman Felt Of 1874 Ridge street was
arrested, charged with being the one who
cried -Fire!"
Little Esther Greenman, who lived on the
first floor at 63 Columbia street, went up to
the third floor yesterday to play with some
Of her friends, and fell from the fire escape.
Thirty EIGHT families heard her scream
or saw her lying unconscious in the court
below. Cries of fire. were raised. Women
grabbed their babies and rushed out on
the fire escapes screaming for help. Neigh
toring tenements emptied themselves into
the street and filled 1t up The fire COM
panins arrived almost simultaneously with
the police reserves The police had plenty
to do, but the fremen nothing. The little
girl died in a doctors cffico across the
ctr