Evening journal., 1908-03-05
DEATHS HARVEST
In SCHOOL FIRE
1contInusa From FIrst POO

Ccontinued From First PaGel
He told how she looked when they
got her out. her poor little body char
red by the flames, twisted In awful
agony.
He laid his face in the arm Of his
shabby overcoat and sobbed.
The word yesterday that scores. Of
children had died in the flames of
their school merely startled those who
! IL did not leave stricken, hysterical or
dazed.
Realization came Thursday in the
plain. hoartrending little stories that
/ passed from man to mar in the streets
and from one home 10 another.
It was learned to-day, how some
! certain little girl, or the snub-nosed
youngster who passed the house every
morning rafting a stick against the
/ fence pickets, met death How he
was taken out with his little legs twist
/ ed, stlffened charred, his arm thrown
up across his burned and blackened
face
A hush OF pity fell. To-day the sill
ence Of death. an awful, wholesale
| death Of little children, lies upon the
town.
one story Is that Of an unknown lit
tie girl among the many heaped up
against the closed rear door. The flames
were at her back when she pressed
her face to the crack of the door ana
pleaded:
Mister, help me out"
William Davis could hear her. He
threw his weight against the door and
tried to force IL open back through the
piled up bodies She could almost
touch him Her face was at the
crack. Her hair was scorching. Her
baby hands reached out pleading
Mister. help me-"
Something fell from above on Davis
head and stunned him. Before others
could reach the child she had fallen
back among the dead.
Whose little girl? None could answer
this question To every stricken par
ont, to every one whose child was saved
TO all who heard this story the though
occurred:
Suppose my child was at that door
reaching out and pleading: mister,
help me"
Awful Ravoe Of Death.
At almost every house along tho
street to-day. white ribbons floatcd
from the door knobs. AZ one three
bows Of white marked the number of
dead. AT the table there at noon a
father sat silent with eyes that starel
ahead and saw nothing The food be-
fore him lay untasted.
At the side of the fable We're their
three chairs. In the corner the skates
OF the younger boy on the rack be-
hind the door hung the cap and cloak
Of his little girl All dead.
In tho mans toll roughened hands
lay a sheet of paper with figures pencil
led over H. AZ the top was her name
: in a slow. rounded hand. Alice.
Tuesday night she sat by him at the
table when the supper dishes We're
cleaned away. He helped her with her
lesson 1t was a hard lesson for the
little girl He thought how pleased
she had been when they got Il right
at last
He thought how she looked when she
kissed him goodnight sleepny and
went upstairs to bed He thought OF
how she looked that last morning when
she started of to school.
Slowly. his eyes still staring ahead
he folded the bit Of paper and laid it
away in his pocket
The baby in his chair pounded the
tray with his spoon.
Papa baby cried IN childish pratt
tie. Papa when's Alice coming
home"
The man could not speak Tears
rolled down his furrowed cheeks. He
hid his face in his arms on the table
and sobbed aloud. his shoulders shalS-
ing
Bodies Lay Side by Side.
In the front room the bodies lay side
by side. And there beside them, crying.
j the mother lSnelt They together at
the morgue had claimed their dead.
Z They passed along the lines of char
red. twisted little bodies The mother
; pitched forward fainting when they at
! last found their third.
Just across the street from the burn
ed school Is a little candy and school
supply store. II is closed to-day. in
the windows lie displayed the slate
|, pencils. rulers, tops. marbles. balls and
chocolate rats, licorice sticks and all
Gay suckers-things for which the chill
dren who are now dead spent their PEN
MICS Such things as these fell from
! the pockets OF the charred clothes az
, the morgue. when the bodies were lift.
I ed for removal.
It was school time at $40 a. m. to-
day
But there was no school in Collin
Y wood.
s At the regular hour the children
: ] .ant tla,