The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-03-05
DEAD TOTAL 1863.
CONTINUED from Page one-)


fully opened. But a dense pile Of lit
the bodies that lay in the blackened
wreckage beneath this point, the feet,
the hands, the limbs and the skulls
that were scattered about formed a
complete index to the horrors that
had taken place. When the teachers
were informed Of the existence of the
fire they promptly formed the pupils
in marching columns. according to
the fire drill, and started them for
door. They had trained the children
to march always to the door in front
and instinctively the columns headed
that way and the children unknowing
ly were by their teachers literally
marched into the very face of death,
Met by Rush of Flames.
When the head of the column was
nearing the front door a rush of flames
met it. Some of the children dashed
at the door in the effort to open it,
while others turned and fled wildly up
the stairs. The door was double and
one side was held by spring. The
column above knowing nothing Of the
fire on the stairs below kept pressing
down and within few seconds there
was a jam, panic and struggle on the
stairway and behind the half closed
front door that nothing could stop and
which cost the lives of all who were
caught within it.
A far worse tragedy, however, was
enacted at the door in the rear. This,
it is claimed by many people, opened
like the front door toward the interior
of the building. In order to reach this
entrance the pupils were compelled to
march down a stairway, make sharp
turn in a narrow hall and then pass
through the doorway. 1t was the lack
of space in the hall and the quick bend
at the foot Of the stairs that cost so
many lives at this point. When the
fret Of a ir1c fro, he r.a
in front approached the door it was
closed. Later 1t was opened, despite
the terrific jam that took place behind
it. This would indicate that the door
opened outwards, but the assertions to
the contrary are many and positive
and it will probably require an official
investigation to determine the facts.
Fleeing from the fire in front, the
children came rushing and tumbling
down the stairs In a frenzy of terror.
The stairs themselves were broad, af-
fording passage to more children in one
second than could pass through the
hallway, around the sharp turn and
through the narrow vestibule of the
door in ten seconds.
Somebody Fell.
At the bottom Of the stairs, right on
the turn, somebody tripped and fell. In
another instant, others were down and
in less time than 1t can be told in, the
doorway, the hall and the foot of the
stairs were packed with little bodies.
They were wedged so tightly that of
those, anywhere below the top Of the
mass, none could be moved by the ut
most strength Of two men combined.
This was proven again and again for
the rescuers struggled and fought until
their own hands were scorched almost
to cinders and still they could move
no child from out Of the pile and could
save no lives beyond few that they
lifted from the top before the flames
came roaring down.
Crowding in among the first reScuerS
came the mothers; some Of them could
see their children in the crowd. The
children who had kept up IN incessant
monotonous scream shouted louder at
the sight of their mothers. A few of the
women stood cloSeto the stairway hold
ing the hands of the little ones until
the flames drove them away. 1t was
here that Mrs. Philip stood and tried to
keep the fire from her daughters hair.
When the fire forced the mothers to
leave their children they stood about
for the most part wailfng and clasping
their hands. A few hurled stones
through the windows in the hope that
the crash of breaking glass would sug-
gest to the children a possible avenue
of escape One woman, Mrs. Sprung,
came running with a ladder and at
tempted to go through a window TO
the boy is dead Many Of the children
died quickly, being suffocated before
the fire reached them. While the agon-
lied men were struggling In the door
ways and the frantic mothers were
standing in the rear they could see the
smoke rising up from the floor and
floating away above the heads of the
children. They knew then that the fire
had crept along under the first floor
and was eating away the Jolsts Whlcn
held the children up. AS the children
died one by one at first, and later
half dozen at &. time, the screaming
grew less and the smoke from the floor
grew constantly thicker and thicker
Then the flames came up and darted
between the children who were stand
ing back on the stairway and lying
packed in a heap behind the door. Out
side the women were insane. Many OF
them tainted and dropped on the ground
where they were mercifully allowed to
lie until all was over. So great was
the mass of children at this point that
when the floor fell through the top OF
the heap Of blackened bodies reached
from the basement floor to the level OF
the ground.
The local fire department, a volunteer
organization with little drill and infer
ior apparatus, came hurry1ng to the
scene. but it was powerless from the
first.
Heroic Teachers.
Miss Ethel Rose, a teacher on the
first floor Of the building whose pupils
were the youngest in the school man
aged to get all but three Of her charges
out of the building in safety. Two of
the smaller ones she carried in her
arms.
Miss Anna Moran, principal of the
school and two of the teachers, Miss
Gollmer and Miss Rowley, escaped by
one of the windows in the rear. They
remained with the panic stricken chill
dren until they could do no more for
them and then sought their own safety.
Miss Laura Bodey, the only teacher
on the third floor formed her pupils in