Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1911-03-26
NEW YORK HOLOCAUST ,EXACTh
AWFUL TOLL OF LIFE.
Crush, Smother and BURN
"DOn't Jump!" Shouts Crowd-But
One tcrnatiNc--Elcvator shaft
Cloggcd with Bodies.

nf tbem Girls from the East Side.
were crushed TO death on the pave
oents smotbered in smoke. or burn
ed crisp in factory fire this after
noon ia the worst disaster New, YORK
mas known since the steamship Gen.
eral 'Slucum was burned 60 the waters
edge OFF North Brothers Island in
1901.
One hundred forty-One bodies ~ e
heen removed for from the ruins at
midnight and seven of the forty In
iured had died in hospitals
This. it is believed complete the
list of dead, most Of whom are un-
identified. The girls crazed relatives
besieged the morgue as the bodies
were laid out.
Nearly all, if not all Of the victims
were EMPLOYED by the Triangle Shirt
Waist COMPANY on the eight ninth
and tenth stories of lofty building at
No % Washington Place. on the
western fringe Of the downtown cloth
iry furniture and millinery district
The mariners of the firm, Isaac. Har-
scathed from the office on the tenth
floor CARRYING with them over an
adjoining roof Rlancks two young
daugbters and a goyerness. There was
not an outside fire escape on the
building.
How the fire started perhaps will
never be known. A corner Of the
eighth floor was its point Of origin
and the three upper floors only we're
swept
on the ninth, fifty bodies were
found, sixty three or more persons
we're crushed to death by jumping
and more than thirty clogEed the
elevator shafts,
The loss to property will not ex-
coed St0O. 900.
Pedestrians going home through
soiiare AZ ten minutes to five were
scattered by whiz OF something
rushing through the air before them
There wps a horrible thud On the pave
ment aud body fiattened on the ilag
stones.
Wayfarers on the opposite side OF
the street shaded their eyes against
the setting sun and saw the three
windows of the upper floor Of the
building black with girls
Don't jump don't jump yelled
the crowd but the girls had no al
ternative.
The pressure of the maddened hun
dreds behind them, and the surGinI
of their own fears were too strong
They began to fall to the side walk
in streams. Four alarms were rung IL
fifteen minutes, before the engines
could respond. before the nets could
be stretched or the ladders raised
seven girls had fallen from the eighth
and ninth floor so heavily that they
broke through the glass and iron roofs
of the sub-cellars, and crashed through
the streets into the vaults below.
In an another hour it had done it:
worst.
Probably the death list was com
plete in twenty minutes. In all there
were only seven exits. Practically al
who escaped either climbed to the
roof and thence to the roof Of the
building occupied by the American
Book company adjoining. or fled in
the first rush for safety before the
crush and smoke grew thick,
The building stands tonight with
shell intact and barely scared, rather
only smudged The partitions Of arch.
ltectural tillng between floor and floor
are sound.
Seven hunded hands, 500 of whom
were women, we're employed by the
shirt waist company They sat In
rows at their whirrlng machines. the
tables before them piled with cloth
the floor Uttered with lint--the aii
itself full of flying nflammable dust
The first rush Of flame was almost
nm explosion. OperatNs died In their
chairs. their lungs scared by inhalul
flame. Others were crowded int
the elevator SHIFTS. after the car,
had made their last trip. Stlll other,
were pushed off the inadequate in
terror fire escape.
In such A horrible stream did thu
bodfes overflow from the windows
that the fire nets stretched by the frs
company 10 arrive were soon gorget
bevond can,cltv twelve welehted on,
net IN the BURSTING noint hut IN,
bodies Kent mmbllnn 10 the pave
mont.