The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1911-03-30

One Hundred and Fifty Per-
ish in New York
Factory Fire.


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Kiesensh ssory so In~s@ns IAe~xh--
BaIiding Ses Provided Villa Fsrv.-
E~eap~~-Ei~v.sow sfa@fs saaxxr~i
Worst fire Ia N~w Yo~k sanos
Tho Steamship c~a~rai slocunn
Was Burned In 1904.
New York. March ss-lOna hundred
and hfty souls ulne-senths OF taem
girls from the Eax; Slae~xsre
crushed To death on the paseneats.
smothered By smoke. or shrsreied
crisp this afternoon In the worst fire
New York has known since the
steamship Siocum vas burned 70 the
waters edge OF North Brothers Isi-
and In 1904.
Nearly all. II not all. of the victims
were employed by the Triangle Shirt
waist Company on the eighth. ninth
and tenth floors of ten-story loft
/ building at 23 Washington place, on
/ the western fringe Of the downtown
/ Wholesale clothing. fur and millinery
district. The partners of the frm.
Isaac Harris and Max Blanch. escaped
unscathed from the once on the tenth
floor. carrying with the over an ad-
joining roof Blanck's two young
daughters and a governess There
/ was not an outside fire escape on the
building.
How the fire started will perhaps
never be known. A corner on the
eighth floor was its point of orIgin
and the three upper floors only were
swept. On the ninth floor fifty bod.
/ les were found; sixty-three or more
persons were crushed TO death By
jumping and more than thirty clog
/ ged the elevator shafts. The loss tc
property will not exceed 100000.
j Pedestrians going home through
/ Washington Place TO Washington
i Square at ten minutes TO o'clock
were scattered by the whiz Of some
thing rushing through the air befor.
them: there was a horrible flop OF
the pavement and a body fiattenec
on the flags. Wayfarers on the op
I posite side of the street shaded iheil
eyes against the setting sun and saw
the windows of the three upper floors
Of the building black with girls
crowding to the sills. There were nc
; fire-escapes.
Dent jump! Don't jump" yell
ed the crowd. But the girls had nc
alternative. The pressure OF the
maddened hundreds behind them and
the urging OF their own fears were
too strong. They began to drop tc
i the sidewalk in a terrible rain oi
/ flesh and blood.
/ Four alarms were rung within If
teen minutes. Before the engines
could respond, before the nets could
be stretched or the ladders raised
/ five girls had fallen from the eighth
and ninth floors 80 heavily that they
broke through the glass and iron
1 roofs of the sub-cellars and crashed
through the very streets into the
vaults below In an hour the fire was
out: in half an hour IL had done
its worst; probably the death lisi
was full In twenty minutes.
Seven hundred hands. 500 Of them
women. were employed by the shirt
waist company. They sat in rows al
their whirring machines. the tables
before them piled with fiimsy cloth,
1 the floors Uttered with lint. the air
/ itself full OF flying. infiammable dust.
an explosion Operators died In their
/ chairs, their lungs scared by inhaling
flame Others were crowded into the
elevator shafts after the cars had
| made their last trip. Still others
/ were pushed of in the inadequate in
/ terror. fire-escape.
] In such horrible stream did the
bodies cserthrow from the windows
that the fire nets, stretched By the
first companies TO arrive. were soon
gorged beyond capacity Twelve bod
| les weighed one net 10 the bursting
| point. but the bodies kept on thump-
/ ing to the pavement through meshes
that could no longer support taem-
Jimmie Lehan, q trafic squad
/ policeman, dashed up eight fights of
i stairs when the fire was at its height,
braced his shoulders against q barred
door and burst it In. He foend q
score OF girls mad with fright He
/ ordered them down the smoked-fil
1 stairways but they baIked. He used
his club and beat them down 10 safe
Ity. Not one of the number persisted
Big Steamship Line to Operate Be