Arizona republican., 1908-03-05

things of horror, told the tale as well as anybody need to know it.
 Various unconfirmed statements are made as to tSe cause of the fire. The doors of the building are said to have l been locked at the front entrance, while but one door at the rear entry was unfastened. The janitor, Fritz 1 Herter, himself bereaved of two chil- dren. says that the doors were open laccording to custom. At any rate, the congestion of the fleeing children in the hallway below effectually barred the way and the little ones went to death totally unable to evade the ! flames.
 Within three hours after the start of the fire it burned itself out, and the work of recovering the bodies proceed ed. The village fire department has only two engines, and neither upon : their arrival after the alarm, were at all effective in stemming the flames. WHAT THE JANlTOR SAW
 q Janitor Herter could remember but | little of what happened after the fire started. "I was sweeping in the base ment,' he said, and when I looked up, and saw the smoke curling out from ] beneath the front of the stairway. ran to the fire alarm and pulled the gong that sounded throughout the building. Then I ran to the front and rear doors. I cannot remember what ! happened next, except that I saw the ! flames shooting all about, and little children running down through them screaming. Some fell at the rear en- i trance and others stumbling over them. saw my little Helen among them. I tried to pull her out. but the flames drove me back and I had to leave my | little child to die"
 Herter himself was badly burned about the head A TEACHERS SACRIFICE Miss Catherine Wheeler. one of the nine teachers, lost her life in a vain effort to marshal the pupils of her class and lead them to safety. She died in the crush at the rear door Her room, was on the second floor. When the fire alarm sounded. she marched the pupils out into the hall thinking it only q fire drill. There the truth dawned upon both the teacher and pu- pills and control was lost. The chil- dren in frenzy, plunged down into the struggling mass ahead of them. Miss Wheeler attem oted to stem the rush. but went down under it. Her body was found an hour later piled high with those of her pupils. Miss Fisk another teacher was taken out alive, but she cannot live.
 Burning through the cross supports of the first floor the flames passed up ward until all three floors crashed into a smouldering pile in the basement. After the fire had practically burned itself out. the work of rescuing the bodies was begun by firemen and rail- road employees from the Lake Shore shops. The railroad company turned over one of the buildings nearby tO be used as a temporary morgue. Thither the charred and broken little bodies were removed as fast as they could be i dug from the ruins Within five hours practically all had been removed and they were placed in rows in the shops. Identification was made only by means of clothing or trinkets for the fire had swept away nearly all resemblance of | human features in a majority of in stances.
 THE PARENTS CAME. Distracted parents soon began to gather and the work of identification of the blackenedsan mangled corpses began.
 The gruesOme task of taking out the blackened torsos. and bits of human remains was one of horror A line of rescuers formed, backed by hay doZ- en ambulances. As the bodies were untangled from the debris they were passeJ along to stretchers and thence to loaded ambulances. Mercifully covered with blankets the pitiful sights were yelled from the crowd curious that stretched about the entrance of 1.-the structure. As fast as a load was | obtained it was driven away to the improvised morgue.
 WORK OF IDENTIFICATION.
 At the temporary morgue in the shops the scenes became fourfold in intensity in human suffering, as fath CTS and mothers, brothers and sisters passed up and down the lines formed by one hundred and sixty corpSes. The first Identification was made by the mother of Nell and Tommy Thompson. aged six and nine years respectively. The heads and arms had been burned from both bodies, but the mother rec ognized the shoes on their feet and so the disheartening work went on, ac- centuated now and then by a piercing shriek or a plaintive moan as a loved one recognized by the clothes, or d token such as ring or necklace.
 A HEARTBREAKING INCIDENT.
 About the burned school house there are but few residences. In one of these Mrs. Clark Sprung lived. and her little boy. Alvon. aged :. was a pupil of the second grade. When the fire started the mother ran over to the school and arrived when the first floor was d mass of flames. At a window on that floor she saw the face of her boy. He recognized her and pleaded for help. Rushing across the street Mrs Sprung secured a step-lad- der. placed it against the window Climbing up she reached for the boy. She caught him by the hair but it burned off in her hands, and the lad fell back into the flames.
 THE LOCKED DOOR.
 Dcsolation unspeakable hangs over