The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1910-10-14

iamity that raised them from their /
pillows TO strain eyes and ears through (
the darkness for some further sound [
that should bring light to their hewil-
derment.
Not tin sudden red glare burst
up against the sky and wrought its
image upon their window panes, a !
hoarse clamor of deep-throated FIRE
whistles and the staceato clatter Of gal !
Looping horses in the silent streets broke |
the quiet, did the realization come. |
There was an instant exodus. Every
house within twenty blocks of First |
and Broadway seemed to leap into life
upon the instant. Doors few open like
mouths, vomiting half.clad people into
the streets by hundreds. There were
few that, once having seen that mighty
glare, paused to repair any defects of
raiment. With single mind they
dashed, slippered, stocking.fo even
in bare feet, toward the ranging confln-
grafton.
If the spread Of the flames was one
of the stere0typed incredible rapid.
ity,i not less unbelievable was the
quickness with which the crowd assem-
bled Within a few seconds of the ex.
plosion there was score of people
there. In less than five minutes they
had gathered by hundreds. Ten and
they were massed In thousands on First
street and on Broadway, packed in
solid black mass from curb to curb.
The police were no less prompt. Hard.
" had the first of the engines begun
to hurl water into the shattered win
dows of the Times building when the
FIRE lines wereout and patrolled by a
score of bluecoats, under Lieutenant
Sebastian from the Central Station.
With the arrival of Chief Galloway and
the reserves, the number was increased
to nearly a hundred, half of them on
the scene itself, the rest securing the
neighborhood in search Of the incarnate
devils whose act had at once wrought
murder and destruction.
silence with Death.
The vast crowd was strangely
silent one. There was little of the
shouting and confusion, the tumultuous
skurrying to and fro that ordinarily
accompanies a great FIRE. The people
were as though stunned by the amaz.
ing suddenness of it an. For aught they
knew scores, hundreds even, were dy.
ing in agony and torture in that blaz-
ing pyre, but they could not seem to
focus their numbed senses on the fact.
Suddenly woman, addressed, her
hair streaming down her back, pushed
through the dense mass, wringing her
hands and screaming:
elbow many-oh, for God Is sake, how
many are there in that plaeel My
boy Is there-my little lad--he runs a
linotype-hasn t anybody here seen my
boy9p
1t was like the sound of a strange
tocsin, the mothers frenzied appeal.
The crowd swayed forward with an I'M
dulating motion like that of great
snake. Everywhere voices began to can
to one another, asking, begging, praying
for news. The widest conjectures com.
menced to fly to and fro like vocal pei
lets-a hundred had persisted in the
first explosion, there were a hundred
slowly roasting to death in that roar.
ing hell-anything and everything was
heard in those first few minutes. But
no one knew. Old newspaper men, &C.
customed by long training to scenes of
horror and disaster, ran hither and yon
the hoarse harshness of their voices GOV
ering a breaking sob.
Curses for Fiends.
A man who had been standing silent
and motionless in the forefront of the
throng suddenly wheeled upon his
neighbor and began to swear fright.
fully, raucously, with vicious savagery
that told how unaccustomed the words
were to his lips. When the ft had
spent itself, he began to speak more
quietly to the dense crowd that instant
ly surged about him to learn the first
bit of real news after an eternity OF
suspense. With a deliberation that con,
trasted oddly with his first outburst OF
rage and horror he gave it, in dozen
terse sentences.
One of the first to arrive on the scene
he had stood helpless before the doom
ed building and watched the frantic
efforts of its occupants to save them.
selves, from horrible death in fire and
flame. He had seen, in the brief flashes
of light through the dense pail of
smoke, figures reeliDg blindly through
the sitting clouds, their bodies stopped
their hands pressed against their faces
as though to shut out the flames that
swept about them. He saw Lovelaee
swing himself from a third-story win.
dow, Chamber painfully down the graf
ing and drop-forty feet. He watched
Harvey Elder, assistant city editor
hanging by his hands from a window
ledge until the leaping flames behind
him curled ont across his face like che
scarlet tongue of earniyor, saw him
finally turn and dash senseless ant
crushed, into the life net below He
saw a girl rush to the same window
peer out, wild-eyed, and irresolute, tc
+ finally turn and dash senselss and
crushed, into the life net below. From
the Broadway windows he saw men
leaping blindly, reckless of the fall
trying TO escape more terrible death
"Whof" he returned with a laugh
that was heard like a snarl. "Whc
but one of those damned skulkers that
have 1t in for those poor fellows in
yonder because they stand for some
thing that's mans right and don Y
stand for being dictated to by labor
union or a damned walking delegate
By G6dl'' he broke of suddenly, "it
they catch the man that did that thing
they oughtn't to take up any time ar.
resting him-that's treating him toe
mach like human beingln
| backward and forward the man u