The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-03-25

SlJdll lilo SIl SuSIu was uHOduuth'> -
task. He fought on until his clothing
was partly burned from him and the
skin of his face and hands were
scorched black. Other men attempt
ed to induce him to desist. but he re-
fused until he saw that his girl was
dead and that he could not save her
life by sacrificing. his own. He then
withdrew from the school house, n
although so seriously injured that he
may die, fingered about the place for
several hours, refusing to go to 4 hos
pital or to seek medical attention.
The flames spread with such ter
rife rapidity that within thirty min
utes from the time the fire was dis
covered the school house was nothing
but a few blackened walls surround
ing a cellar filled with corpses n
debris. The fremen dashed into the
blazing ~wreckage, and with rakes.
forks, shovels 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 ruins
after the floors collapsed. Fragments
of incinerated limbs, skulls and bones
were found almost at every turn, and
these things were piled together in a
little heap at one side Of the building.
Many Burned Beyond Recognition.
The great majority of the little
bodies that were taken from the ruins
were burned beyond all possible rec
ognition. And it is no small part of
the sorrow which is bearing down the
people of 'Collinwood that positive
Identification of many Of the children
will never be made.
Besides the children killed inside
the building Mary Ridgeway, Anna
Roth and Gertrude Davis were in
stantly killed by leaping from the at
tic to the ground.
One of the heroines Of the catas-
trophe was little Marie Whitman. who
ran through the smoke-illed halls,
grasped her little brother, managed
to drag him from the room and out
through a window. Both were nearly
strangled with smoke.
Two young women teachers per-
ished in a vain effort to save the lit
tie ones.
The cause of the fire is a mystery.
There are declarations that 1t was in
cendiary. All now known is that
three little girls coming from the
basement saw smoke and notified the
janitor. Before the j~anitor could
sound the fire alarm gong a mass OF
flame was sweeping up the stairway
from the basement.
Before the children from the upper
floors could reach the ground egress
was cut off and they persisted. 1t was
all over almost before the frantic
mothers who gathered realized that
their children were lost. Because Of
the mild weather there was less fire
than usual in the furnace, and it is
certain that the fire did not start
there. There were no electric wires
by which the building could have
been fred.
OF the bodies in the temporary
morgue, ninety-three have been iden-
titled
Miss Katherine Weller was the only
one of the nine teachers to lose her
life. She remained with her charges
to the last. When the fire alarm
sounded she marched her pupils into
the hall, and when they became panic
STRICKEN sue lrieu W QulSI Iueul' ouc
checked the panic for a few moments,
but finally was borne to the floor.
Her body was taken out of the ruins
with the arms wound, as if in protec-
tion, around the two youngest chill
dren in her class.
Disasters Supreme Horror.
The supreme horror of the disaster
was that the fathers and mothers Of
many of the little victims stood be-
fore the doors and saw the flames
creep up and blacken the faces Of the
screaming children.
The real doorway was massed to
the top with white faces. Little
hands stretched out in supplication,
the doomed one begging to be saved.
Mothers tainted where they stood.
Others tried to get to their dying
children. Volunteer iremen and po-
licemen held them back. Then the
fire crept up through the mass and
silenced the cries. Nothing could
be done to save the children, although
rescuers were at the doors many min