The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1908-03-12
OF THE
LITTLE FIRE Worms

Cleveland, Ohio, March Q.-lThe body
OF Miss Katherine Weller, one OF the
IN the Collinwood school fire. was posi-
lively Identified today. The body was
30 terribly burned it could hardly be-
distinguished from h bodies OF smaller
girls. The Identification was established
by her gold filled teeth.
The body OF Rosetta Machnich. q for
mer pupil In the school, also was iden-
titled today by her shoes. W
There are still % bodies unidentified.
So far 167 bodies have been recovered.
The list OF missing now taliies with the
number OF unidentified. which would
indicate that all OF the bodies have been
found and that the total death list will
stand at 167.
be individual! zach family burying It's
own dead. The first OF these funerals
were held this morning and continued
throughout the day. In some instances
h funera services grouped with Ave
to ten bodies In one church,
The unidentified will be buried next
Monday. according to present
ments. The expense OF these funerals.
together with the funerals Of the chill
dren whose parents are not in q tnan-
cial condition to meet the burden, will
be borne by public subscriptions. which
are growing larger every hour. Al
ready thousands of dollars have been
raised.
AL XII ClIOTl u AK the CAu90 and
responsibility for the holocaust vari-
ious Investigations were set under way.
Coroner Burke issued subpoenas for
h seven surviving teachers OF tho
Lake View school. The inquest was
begun yesterday morning when q num-
Der of witnesses were examined. with
out. however. developing any testimony
that was beyond mere opinion.
An Investigation conducted by tho
Collinwood school board. which lasted
70 ~ N~t~ %An ~t~A III - - ~AI- 49,
Of survivors Of the horror told their
stories, brought forth these facts:
That n of the inner doors at the
west entrance of the school was closed
and fastened while children were pill
ing up against 1t in h passage and
that wing partitions In the vestibule
narrowed the exit by at least three
feet. The flames came first from q
closet below the stairway at the east
entrance; the closet contained lime
escape. and that its use was never
taught as a part of the fire drill.
Survivors among the teachers esti-
mate that only two or three minutes
passed between the time Of the alarm
until all escape was cut Off. Me build
Ing was a fair sample of the iii
Of school construction in use In small,
towns. The halls and stairways were
inclosed between Interior brick walls
forming a huge flue through which
hS IA ~ WiIA 8ACdI Id.
pidity.
On the question. much discussed,
whether the doors opened inward or
outward, Fire Marshals Brocket and
F~eighenbaum examined the doorways
and stated later that they were
convinced that they opened outward.
Whether they were locked they have
not been able to determine. They
have testimony on both sides. JAM
tor Herter still insists that the doors
We're open.
The board of education of the city
of Cleveland today ordered all city
schools closed today and the flags
will be halfmasted on all buildings.
that were enacted around the rear
door Of this Ill fated school house
have had few parallels in this or
any other country. Little children
We're piled upon each other six and
eight deep while strong men and fran
tic mothers struggled with desper-
ation to release them, yet failed, and
were compelled to stand back and
see the little ones die before their
eyes. One woman found her own
her hair in the effort to keep the
flames away. She failed and the child
was burned to death while her moth
er looked on.
From the upper floors Of he build
of these led to the door in front,
the other to the door In the rear.
1t was in this las place that the
i've of the little ones were lost while
would-be rescuers stood helplessly
by.
The scenes that were enacted in
the front hall will never be known.
The door at this side of the build
ing was never fully opened. But a
dense pile of little bodies that lay
in the blackened wreckage beneath
this point, the feet, the hands, the
tered about formed a complete index
to the horrors that had aiken place.