Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-05

4
save her life even by sacrificing his
own.
He then withdrew from the school
house, and though so seriously injured
| that he may die, fingered about the
place for several hours, refusing to go
to 81 hospital or to seek medical at
tention.
Flames Spread Rapidly
The flames spread with such terrific
rapidity that within thirty minutes
from the time the fire was discovered
the school house was nothing but a
few blackened walls surrounding a cell
lar filed with corpses and debris.
The firemen dashed into the blazing
wreck, and with rakes, forks ana SNOW
els and their bare hands, worked IN
the most frantic manner with the hope
of saving a few more lives.
They were unsuccessful. for none was
taken alive from the RUNS aItef lhe
floors collapsed.
Fragments of incinerated limbs, skulls
and bones were found almost at every
turn. and these things were piled to-
getter al one side of the building.
The great majority of the little bodies
that were taken from the ruins were
burned beyond all possible recognition.
And no small part of the sorrow whlcn
is bearing down the people of North
Collinwood is that positive fdentitca-
tion of many of the children will never
be made.
Beside the children who were killed
inside the building three little girls
Mary Ridgeway, Anna Roth and Ger
trude David were instantly killed oy
leaping from the attic to the ground.
At midnight there were 165 bodies in
the morgue, of which 10S were identi-
fed and fifty-seven are still unident-
fed.
1t is possible that other bodies may
be found in the ruins, as at least thir-
teen children are still missing and have
not been heard from since the fire.
County Coroner Burk Immediately
after the fire said:
1.-THE construction of the school house
was an outrage. The Railways were
narrow. and there was practically but
one mode of exit. The children were
caught like rats in trap"
The school building was supposed TO
be practically modern, although erected
three or four years ago.
Many children jumped to the ground.
A man who was early upon the scene
caught five children in his arms as
they Jumped, one after another, from
the second and third story windows
These five escaped without injury
Work of Teachers
Miss Ethel Rose, a teacher on the
first floor, whose pupils were the
YOUNGEST in the school, managed 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
Golmer and Miss Rowley, escaped by
one of the windows In the rear. They
ran "a xx-ifh hn no mir frin
dren until they could do no more for
them ind then sought their own safety.
Miss Laura Bodey, the only teacher
on the third floor, formed her pupils i'll
line and marched them down to the
second floor where, finding the flames
rushing up the stairway, she turned
them around AMI hurried them back
again to the third floor. She here
broke a window with a chair and get
ting onto the platform of the fire es-
cape, lifted out her pupils, one by one,
and sent them down. Four or five
who broke from the line and
ran down the stairway, were killed.
One of the heroines of the catastro-
rhe was little Marie Whitman. She ran
through the smoke-filled halls and
Grasped her little brother, whom she
managed to drag from the room and
them being nearly strangled with
smoke
Describes the Scenes
Miss Gol1ner said: 1T is awful. I
can see the wee little ones in my room
holding out their tiny arms and crying
to me to help them.
when the alarm gong rang started
the pupils marching from the building.
When we started down the front stairs
we were met by a solid wall of flames
and clouds of dense smoke. We re-
treated, and when we turned the chill
dren became panic stricken and could
not do anything with them. They
Jamned into the narrow stairway and
knew that the only thing for me to
do was TO get around to the rear door,
If possible, and help those who were
near the entrance.
when l got there after climbing out
of a window / found the children so
crowded in the narrow passageway that
| could not pull even one of them out
Those behind pushed forward. and as |
stood there the little ones piled upon
one another. Those who could stretched
out their arms to mo and cried for me
to help them. tried with all my might
TO pull them out and stayed there until
the flames drove me away"
Another teacher, Miss Pearl Lynn,
narrowly escaped death. She was car
ried toward the rear entrance by the
rush of the panic-stricken pupils and
fell at the bottom of the stairs, with
numbers of the children on top of her
She lay there unable to rise because of
the weight upon her. She was dragged
from the mass Of dead children Just in
time TO save hC own life.
List of Known Dead
Among the known dead are:
EDNA ESHNER, 12 years old.
BERNIE SCHUBERT, 10 years old.
WILLIE WESITBARTH. years old
--. MEYERS, years old
KATHERINE WELLER. teacher.
HARRY SINGLEMANN, 10.
LUCY SINGLEMANN, 8.
WERNER HERTER.
MABEL SIGLER, TO-
DON RUSH. 49,
IRENE DAVIS. ii.
ANGELENE UPAN, II.
EDWARD MYERT. g.,
FRANK WIDMAN. ..
JOHN WIDMAN. 10.
LILLIAN ROSTERICK, 6.
EMIL ROSTERICK, s.
--. SCHAEFFER, boy, Q.
LIZZIE LYON
EMMA HENCE.
PETER HENINGER.
TWO BUSHMAN girls, 10 and u
years old.
HUGH Mc1LRATH, 10 years old.
THOMAS THOMPSON, . years
EDDIE KEHL, II years.
---. ROSTOCK. 10.
TWO WOODEMEYER girls 10 and
II years.
HAROLD SANGERSON, u.