Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1911-03-28

+. b. Il Z. I'd. Z {.
opened. At the first alarm of fire
they began to make trips to the DANCE
zone 40 fast as they could operate
their cars. The two freight elevator
on the Green street side were oper
ated by Frank Formenck and Michae
sciacca, and they. too. took a hand
In the life saving. The two passen
ger elevators are said to have made
at least 90 trips and the two frefgh!
elevators half as many. The machfn
cry Of the freight elevators broke
down under the rapid work and they
were rendered useless.
After one or two trips by the eleva
tors the press against the doors Of
the shaft became 30 great that they
were opened with difficulty when the
cars, each having capacity OF 10
persons, arrived at the ninth moor
Tito struggled to close the doof OF the
shaft when his car had been TANNED
full. but after he had started the car
Il was torn open and q number OF
women leaped into the shaft after the
descending car. falling on the roof OF
the, car even after 1t had reached the
ground floor. Those who had landed
alive had been crushed to death
against the was.
With this gruesome freight, Tito
continued to run his car. The smart
was practically clogged with the dead
on the roof Of the car and the smoke
and flames were roaring in the shaft.
Elevators Are Rushed.
Within the building man on the
eirhth floor stationed himself at the
door of one of the elevators and with
I club kept back the girls who had
stampeded to the wire cage. Thirty
were admitted to the car at time
They were rushed down az fast as
possible.
The call for ambulanses was fol.
lowed by successive appeals for police
until 500 patrolmen arrived to cope
with a crowd numbering tens Of thou.
sands-a mixtue of the morbidly curl
Gus and of half crazed relatives and
friends of the victims. A hundred
mounted policemen had to charge the
crowd repeatedly to keep 1t back.
Led by Fire Chief Croker squad
Of fremen stormed the stairway and
gained access to the building at seven
o'clock. Two searchlights from build
ings opposite lighted the way OF the
are fighters as they assembled to the
top floors. Fifty roasted bodies were
found on the ninth floor. They lay
in every possible posture, some 80
charred that recognition was impos.
sible. A half dozen were nude with
the flesh hanging in shreds to the
bones.
Bodies Taken Away.
Across the street there rested on
the sidewalk . hundred pine coffint
into which were placed the bodies.
AS fast as this was done the coffine
we're carried away in any kind Of a
vehicle: that could be pressed into serv'
ice to the morgue at Bellevue hospital
and to the Charities Pier morgue.
opened for the first time since the
slocum horror.
On the tenth door Of the building
adjoining the burning structure 10 the
law department of New York univer.
sity. Here 20 odd students we're list.
ening to lecture by Frank H. Som
mer, former sheriff Of Essex county.
New Jersey.
He saw the smoke and saw the
girls trapped on the roof. He led HE
class to the roof Of the university
quarters where they found two lad
ders.
Rescue Forty Girls.
The boys seized these. bore them
down two flights to the roof Of IN in.
tsrvening building, swarmed out OF
the windows and raised them to the
roof Of the burning structure. Forty
girls were brought down to safety
Mothers, fathers and other relatives
literally mad with brief, stormed the
police lines at the morgue. Hystert
cal women fell in the streets and had
10 be carried away in the already
ovofburdened ambulances. Among
the bodies are more than 80 burned be
yond all semblance of human form
and they will perhaps have to share