Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-03-27

I idSt nlsnt, GdSpdry ana mySei1 ran oul
| elevators up to the eighth floor. where
in front of the door were hundreds OF
| young women. Mr.. Max Blanche. ont
of the owners of the Triangle Waist Com
pany. was standing there, holding the
| young women in check as best he could
Mr.. Blancke shouted to me to run the
| elevator until she falls and then / hearG
| him yell, Let the women go down first!'
| when l opened the elevator door lead
| ing to the eighth floor all I could see
| were the girls and men and behind then
| great flames and clouds Of smoke. Fully
| twenty women crowded into my elevator
| on the first trip and as many more came
down with me on the second trip. When
| went to the floor the third time / coulG
| see some of the girls standing on the
window stills. surrounded by fire, but they
seemed SO terror-stricken that they didn'1
hear the shouts of Mr.. Blancke and other
men on the floor who called to them not
| to jump.
After the third car load had been
taken to the street started up the fourth
| time and hearing screams and shouts
from the ninth floor ran my elevator
there The girls were more frightened
there than were those on the eighth floor
Gaspary also made a trip to the ninth
| floor, but after the fourth trip I could
not go by the eighth floor as the girls
| would jump on my elevator and I was
afraid. because the door was open, that
they would fall into the shaft.
L. Perhaps both Of us made more than
five trips, but l can't say for sure"
Dress Caught on Spike.
Ida Singer, a. seventeen-year-old shirt
waist maker, who lies at her home suf-
fering from a few minor bruises and
cuts, has perhaps the strangest story to
tell of any of the hundreds who escaped
death. She was found by the firemen
hanging half conscious to a spike in the
%h4
third floor landing. She had fallen from
the fire escape at the ninth floor, but
/, the pointed spike caught in her clothing
and saved her life.
when 1 first heard the ALARM" she
says, Il was paralyZed with fear. / was
too weak to run. l half crawied to a
back window, and remember was cry
ing bitterly as L raised window open
ing on the narrow fire escape.
FLAMES were roaring out of the win
dows below, but / knew I had to go
down the narrow fire escape and climbed
out. AS 1 did so / looked back and saw
many girls rushing toward the window
had gone through. l was glad they
Fell Head Foremost.
II felt 1 had to get down ahead of
them. The iron steps of the ladder were
hot and getting hotter as 1 went down. /
had taken probably three steps down
ward when the first of the girls rolled
out Of the window above me, crashing
down on me- and I lost my balance and
felt myself falling. / remember 1 was
almost glad of 1t before lost my senses.
when 1 woke up 1 was in the funniest
My hands were down by my feet and
was doubled up. l heard men and women.
far of, shouting and screaming. 1 tried
| to move and couldn't. After long time
1 heard voice and a window was open
ed. Two men got hold of me and took
me inside the building. My coat. skirt
and hat remained on a big spike In me
wall.
THE men wanted to know how I got
caught on that spike and l told them
fell from the ninth floor. In spite of the
horror of the situation We all laughed as
| We thought Of it.
But l shall never forget what l saw
below me when I was hanging on that
spike. / saw men and women piled up
| on top of one another. Some were quite
! still and others were frantically waving
| their arms and shouting. l saw q girl
| wiping a mans face with her handker-
chief. After awhile they all QUOTED
| down."
Bodies Hanging Over Steam Pipes.
| In the early morning hours yesterday
firemen who had begun to wade through
| the water in the basement before 1t had
| been pumped out felt around many times
in the water under hole in the Sidewalk
vault lights of Greene street. a hole made
| by falling bodies, but discovered moth.
| ing beneath the surface OF the water
| One of the fremen happened to look up.
| ward while passing, and so found two
bodies Of young women beneath which
| he and his companion had walked many
| times since daylight.
| The dead girls were lying on a lattice
| of steam pipes about four feet below the
hole in the vault lights. Their bodies had
| broken the concrete and glass vault
| lights Of the pavement and had faller
| through the sidewalk hole to the steam
| pipes.
One of the women wore a locket with
| the initials ~. IT, engraved on 1t ant
the other a pair of earrings set with chiI
| diamonds.
About Q o'clock yesterday morning
| Charles Aichman Of fire patrol fount
north end OF the cutting room on the
I eighth floor, where the fire started, be-
! meath pile Of wet plaster and bits Of
| warped sewing machines. Shortly after
ledge of the fifth floor on the Green,
street side. evidently broken from tn,
! wrist of falling body. BY nightfall tive
| charred arms and a burned foot were
found on the ninth floor.
Mouse the Only Living Thing.
| When Chief Croker entered the building
| shortly after o'clock yesterday morn
ing the only living thing he came across
was a mouse scrambling across the
wreckage piles on the eighth floor. The
fire chief picked the mouse up and car
ried it in his pocket for some time aft
| erward.
The first faint streak Of dawn found
| East Goth street choked up with under
East Side and the Jewish section OF
Brooklyn. All day long these sombel
wagons ratified along the pavements, fol
lowed by the awe-stricken glances of the
spectators that lined the street in the
vicinity. Reserves from a dozen police
stations were stationed along 1st avenue
and East 26th street. and at times had q
hard job keeping the crowd in bounds.
| Every once in while a policeman wa:
| called to carry away a woman who haC
tainted in the line while waiting her
turn to get to the morgue. While an in
cident Of this kind was happening. q
| wedding party in five carriages broke
through the line near Goth street. givinf
two extremes Of human emotion.
Distressing Scenes at Morgue.
The bodies. ranged In rows at tn.
morgue. presented q terrible picture. II
was difficult to make ones self healizt
that on the previous day they had beer
human beings But there was one girl Tying
There whose regular features were with
out scratch or stain. and who wher
It,