The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-03-30
DRILL KEPT YOUNGSTERS SAFE
FIRES ~ TWO PUBLIC SCHOOLS
AND NOT 4 Tor TRODDEN on.
Women MtnAged U-ONer on the west
side the Children Got the Three Rells
and Went Out Hatless-DOwn ON the
East side II Was Only Rapid Dismissal"


and Went Out Hatless-DOwn ON the
East side II Was only Rapid Dismissal"
Perfect fire discipline was shown in two
Manhattan public schools yesterday after
noon. Both blazes proved TO be trivial,
but there was cause for alarm in each case.
At School l27, in West Thirty-seventh
street. 800 children went through the fire
drill without knowing Of the danger and
marched from the building hatless. Rapid
dismissal, which allows the pupils TO take
their clothing and go home, was used at
School ?. in Henry and Madison streets,
later in the day, as the danger there was
not imminent.
1t was a few minutes after 1 o'clock,
when the children had just comfortably
settled in their seats after luncheon, that
the fire drill signal was sounded in School
1877, which IL near Tenth avenue. A
pun Of smoke blew into the room OF the
principal, Miss Clara American on the
top foor-the third story, In a jify Miss
American had traced the smoke 10 a hat
closet next % one Of the class rooms and
about twenty-five feet from her room.
There was a tiny blaze. Miss American
looked for nothing more. The fire drill signal
button is in her room. She snapped it thrice,
and Dong Dong Dong answered the big
Gre gong,
The pupils had heard it often before,
only 70 march out, thence around the block
and back 70 their class rooms. IL is a
primary school and none Of the children
is much over -.
Before the gong's vibrations had died away
the children were marching out OF their
class rooms. Each Of the twenty-three
teachers was at the head Of her class. Some
Of the children wondered why the fire drill
was being tried on them when they had
just got back for the afternoon. A few
Of the older children wondered az some
thing else, Why wasn't the piano playing
tho usual fire march? But they marched
with precision and quckness keeping
step 70 the memory II the tune they had
often heard
There are seven exits from the school,
and each teacher knew where TO guide
her class. In less than two minutes there
was nobody left in the school except the
janitor and his family and Miss American,
As soon "a she had sounded the alarm
and heard the steady tramp OF the children,
Miss American had put out the fire with
had been woven by one Of the children,
had been blazing merrily.
Miss American went downstairs and beck
oned TO the teachers, and the children went
back to school.
Most Of the 5000 children who attend
School No. at ll6 Henry street had been
dismissed for the day when fire started
In the basement on the Henry street side
II m. - i Ill
affair, connected by enclosed bridges.
Three hundred part time and l25 regular
pupils were in the building that faces on
Madison street. Several teachers and a
few pupils who had to stay after school
were in the Henry street part, One Of
those who had 70 stay was Julius Kaplan,
and it was he who discovered, on a trip TO
the basement, that a tall case that once held
stuffed birds was afre.
Julius ran and told Miss Olive NJ. Jones,
one Of the assistant principals. She told
him to 90 quietly and inform the acting
Robert J. Frost who was in
his Office on the top floor. Then she rang
the rapid dismissal alarm. She remem-
bered, however, that sometimes represen-
tatives Of the Board Of Education test the
fire bells after school, not 10 drill the pupils,
but to see that the wires are working
Fearing that the teachers would think that
such was the present case, she ran from
room to room and whispered the truth TO
each teacher,
Mr.. Frost hurried to the basement and
Joined Janitor Morgan, who had sent in
an alarm from the school box. The blaze
had almost consumed the bird case and
was soorching the wall Morgan beat the
case 20 pieces with an axe and Frost put
out the flames with hand grenade. Mean
while the ten teachers, with Miss Jones and
Miss Henrietta Rinaldo in command, were
leading the 425 children out in six classes
from the five floors of the Madison street |
building. The youngsters, whose ages
ranged from TO 9, thought the rapid !
was a bit Of practice and, it being
D fine day, got their hats and were in line F,
IN a jify. 1t was not until they reached /
the street and saw the fire engines coming 1
down the street that they knew there was
a fire at all. They had really been in very .
little danger, except that Of panic, for the /
are was a considerable distance from their /
study rooms The fire Was trihing