The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1908-03-12
FUNERALS OF THE
LITTLE FIRE T

I'LL kG II1E w ] tmC
Cleveland, Ohio, March 9.--The body
OF Miss Katherine Weller, one Of the
w school teachers who lost heir lives
In the Collinwood school fire, was posi-
lively identified today. The body was
so terribly burned it could hardly be
distinguished from the bodies Of smaller
girls. The Identification was established
by her gold filled teeth.
The body of Rosetta Machnich, a for
mer pupil in the school, also was iden-
titled today by her shoes.
There are still 90 bodies unidentified.
So far 167 bodies have been recovered.
The list Of missing now tallies with the
number Of unidentified, which would
indicate that all Of the bodies have been
found and that the total death list will
stand at 167.
In fully 100 cases the funerals will
De individual, each family burying it's
W dead. The first OF these funerals
were held this morning and continued
throughout the day. In some instances
h funeral services grouped with five
to ten bodies in one church.
The unidentified will be buried next
Monday, according to present arrange
ments. The expense of these funerals.
together with the funerals Of the chill
dren whose parents are not in a inan-
CidI COIlulllOn ~ IIlGGI Tie DuTue0, VIII
be borne by public subscriptions, which
are growing larger every hour. AL
ready thousands of dollars have been
raised.
In an effort to Ak the cause and
responsibility for the holocaust vari-
ious Investigations were set under way.
Coroner Burke issued s~ubpoenas for
the seven surviving teachers Of the
Lake View school,. The inquest was
begun yesterday morning when a num-
Der of witnesses were examined, with
out, however, developing any testimony
that was beyond mere opinion.
An investigation conducted by the
Collinwood school board, which lasted
far into the night, at which a number
of survivors of the horror fold their
stories, brought forth these facts:
That n Of the inner doors at the
west entrance OF the school was closed
and fastened while children were pill
ing up against 1t in the passage and
that wing partitions in the vestibule
narrowed the exit by at least three
feet. The flames came first from a
closet below the stairway at h east
entrance; the closet contained lime
and sawdust. There was but one fire
escape, and that it's use was never
taught as a part of the fire drill.
Survivors among the teachers esti-
mate that only two or three minutes
IdSOCu Vl"CC liz lllIlC VI IllC dldII III
until all escape was cut off. The build
ing was a fair sample of the kind
of school construction in use in small
towns. The halls and stairways were
inclosed between interior brick walls
forming a huge fiue through which
the flames shot up with great ra-
pidity.
On tho question, much discussed,
whether the doors opened Inward or
outward, Fire Marshals Brocket and
Feighenbaum examined the doorways
and stated later that they were
convinced that they opened outward.
Whether they were locked they have
not been able to determine. They
hav testimony on both sides. Jani-
tor Herter still insists that the doors
were open.
The board Of education Of the city
OF Cleveland today ordered all city
schools closed today and the flags
will be hGlfmasted on all buildings.
For supreme horror the scene
that were enacted around the e a
door of this i'll fated school house
have had few parallels in this or
any other country. Little children
were piled upon each other six and
eight deep while strong men and fran
tic mothers struggled with desper-
alton to release them, yet failed, and
were compelled to stand back and
see II6 llIle OIlGS ule DoIOTe Lnelr
eyes. One woman found her own
daughter In this press and stroked
her hair in the effort to keep the
flames away She failed and the child
was burned to death while her moth
err looked on.
From the upper floors OF the build
ing two stairways offered exit. One
OF these led to the door in front,
the other to the o in the rear.
It was In this last place that the
lives of the little ones were lost while
would-be rescuers stood helplessly
by.
The scenes that were enacted in
the front hall will never be known.
The door at this side of the build
ing was never fully opened. But a
dense pile OF little bodies that lay
In the blackened wreckage beneath
this point, the feet, the hands, the
limbs and the skulls that were scat
tered about formed a complete index
to tn horrors that had taken place.