The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-04-17

Stella, who operated on yesterday.
She swooned away amid the excitement.
and is in a very critical condition. Sister
Nordica. aged 81. the oldest inmate OF
the hospital. was on the top floor sitting
in chair. She was too weak to move and
had to be carried down by two policemen.
Fatal results are also feared for her
CRIES OF INMATES.
In the topmost window of the northwest
corner of the hospital came the plaintive cry
of Mrs. Kate Beach. She was I'm her night
gown and hanging far out the sill of the
window. Her voice was raised. shrilling
above the others. crying for help. Come
help me. Please somebody come and help
me. Help. Help" she cried over and over
again while from below men shouted back
to her, fearful every moment that she
would jump-"Stay where you are. We're
coming
| Repeated efforts were made to reach her
from within, but the smoke seemed too
heavy. Twenty minutes passed and still
| she cried, her voice weaker and weaker
BY that time the fire department had sue
ceeded i'm reaching the window with its
| extension ladder. Suddenly the form dis
appeared from the window. Frank Lowry.
| Journal reporter. had wrapped a towel
| around his head and. feeling his way
| through the dense smoke. had reached her
Z, room. Taking her limp form upon his
| back he made his way downward and sank
on one of the lower floors almost exhausted.
| However, ready hands were awaiting TO
| take charge of the woman and she was
placed i'm one of the lower rooms with many
other patients. Such was but one of the
many heartrending incidents that hap
| pened at the hospital.
RESCUE OF WOMEN
| Within the scenes were still more touch
| ing. Men were toing down the winding
stairs with wasted and moaning forms
! struggling and lying limp i'm their arms.
| The patients were carried to the lower
| floors and placed in the rooms there. which
I soon were filled to overfiowing Some lay
| upon the beds. others the floor. Some
| remained sitting up. but leaning against
| the walls. their heads dropping and moan
| ing If in the last stages of life. The
| smoke filtered into these rooms and made
their breathing hard and increased their
| fright
From the doors of rooms on the upper
hall patients crawled out along the floors
! seeking refuge and imploring for help AL
| though the firemen and men worked rapid
| ly the force could not clear the upper
| floors until after half hour of work.
| The sisters of the hospital seemed stupefied
and stood aside and silently watched their
| pale and wasted patients, which dropped
| in the arms of their bearers like wrcaths.
carried below. Throughout the whole hos
| pital was the stencil of the sick.
| In the hospital booths on the second and
! third floors the nurses attempted 10 hold
| the frightened patients in their beds Some
| of them were too weak to move and need
| ed no watching. but others. wild with hys-
| terics. screamed and struggled to get up
and run out.
| JUMPS TO DEATH.
Harriet Leahy. the old employe OF the
| hospital who jumped to her death from
window in her room on the fifth floor. had
called and screamed for five minutes TO
the crowds below to come to her rescue.
A light was burning i'm her room and the
distorted features of her face could be
clearly seen by the few beneath Once she
turned and rushed back into her room. but
! immedia tely unable to breathe in the dense
smoke. sprang back TO the window
Screaming to the crowd again she could
not hear the shouts of the fremen to
saved. The crowd beneath saw her lift
herself to the sill of the window and pre-
pare to leap. They screamed back for her
TO wait just a second. as firemen were in
the building and coming to her rescue
But the woman. frightened into hys-
terics. did not heed the advice. and with
one loud scream threw up her hands and
leaped from the window. A second after
her fatal jump dozen people were stand
ing over the PROSTATE body
Death was instantaneous and by the
| time the first person reached the woman
life was extinct. A small cash in the FORE
head where the head had struck the brick
pavement of the alley was the only mark.
The body was lifted tenderly by two fire.
men and carried into the first floor of the
| hospital.
BODY UNIDENTIFIED.
For nearly half an hour after Harriet
Leahy jumped to her death her body lay
in the engine house near the hospital un-
identified. The nurses and patients who
were taken into the building were not
positive i'm the Identification until one Of
the sisters and hospital physician. dis
tressed by the news that woman had
lost her life, hastened 10 the engine
| house.
The doctor at once recognized the bruised
| face that of the woman who had for so
| many years been connected with the hos
pital. When the sister recognized the dead
| body of the victim she almost over
come, and. bending over the corpse. was
sure she detected signs of life. but the doc
| tor pronounced Harriet Leahy dead.
Henry Nichols. whose home is conners-
vile, was operated upon at the hospital
yesterday afternoon by DR.. George j. Cook
for appendicitis. and his condition carly
this morning was very precarious. DIR. Cook
said that il was of the most difficult
operations he had ever performed. and
when Nichols taken from the ioperat-
ing room he very weak He was i'm a
room on the fourth floor. and the shock and
jolting he received in being carried down
stairs may result fatally.
Mrs. c. b. Coleman. of Lebanon. was one
Of the first patients carried OUT. she was In