Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1910-09-07
THOUSANDS IN
Great TERROR
When Shrine at Religious Gel
ebratiOn Catches Fire
AN ANGEL" SUSPENDED IN AIR

AN "AH6EL" SUSPEnDED IN AIR
Magical Effect on Maddened Mob
When She Recites Words of Bene-
diction Which Was to Have Brought
Siciiian Fete of Immaculate Concep-
ton to an End-YouthfuI Heroine
UnmoVed by Proximity of Flames
Boston, Sept. 6.-The presence of
mind Of a little Sicilian girl who, sus-
pended from wire strung from house
top to house top across South Margin 1
street, was saying the Angels Bene-
dictiOn. that was to have brought to
a close the Sicilian fete of the I'm
maculate Conception was all that
saved a crowd of more than 10, 900
persons from a disastrous panic, as
row, after row Of decorations on
houses on one side of the street burst
into flame
The heroine was Josephine SansOne,
10 years old. She had been swung
out on the wire and drawn to the mid
die, a picturesque little figure in a
flowing robe Of white, just as one
spectator, too eager, upset one of the
thousands Of candles that flickered
along South Margin street in honor of
the day, and the first words she said
were drowned out in roar of terror
from those below, as yards of gauzy
decorations above the grandstand, on
which there sat 500 men, women and
children, caught and famed.
The occupants Of the stand went
wild as the flames swathed the front
of the building in a sheet Of fire.
Those in the front rows leaped ten
feet to the pavements; men, women
and children fought and struggled to
free themselves from the press. And
then, in the tongue of their fathers,
the ANGELS Benediction" came down
to the maddened mob. The SansOne
girl, fOrgetful Of her task for the mo-
ment, as she had been forgotten, had
remembered and found her tongue.
The effect was something more
than magical. The words, associated
with the Sicilian celebration of this
particular fete since time immem-
orial, brought the cooler heads in the
mob below to their senses. The
flames were not twenty feet away from
the SansOne girl, yet she continued in
calm, childish treble, and from her
the crowd caught courage. And as
they watched and listened, many for
got their fears. The result was that
not single person was injured, al
though it seemed at the first as if
many must be.
The fete of the Immaculate COncep-
ton means much to the Sicilians in
the way of preparation, decoration
and celebration. The celebration at
tracted Sicilians from all parts of the
state. The decorations made dingy
South Margin street blossom with
color. There were banners and flags,
sacred images and candles. There
was a band, a grandstand, the crowd
and the wire that was to add illusion
to the Angels Benediction.
1t was not until after the flames
had been extinguished by the fire ap
paratus that the little girl was drawn
back from her position in mid-air.
This is what she said, when she was
asked if she wasn't frightened:
Il wasn't frightened. l knew that
I better say the Angels Benediction,
because it's really a prayer, you
know, and when the fire started there
was more reason than ever to pray,
wasn't there? l will have to say it
again tomorrow"
The decorations which caught fire
were outside the tenement occupied
by Mrs. Mary NJ. c. DeAngelis, who
at the time was in the street below,
in charge of one of the divisions of
little girls in the fete professional.
She ran up into her house, and with
several of the policemen tried to beat
out the flames before the arrival of
the fire apparatus.