The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-03-27

OIAlN-lWO IfluQ-QSctuSs Cdil lICIii
that because the sound and the thought
of death came to me each time at the
same instant. There was plenty of
chance to watch them as they came
down. The first ten thud-deads shock
ed NE. l looked and saw that there
we're scores of girls in the windows.
The flames from the floor below were
beating into their faces.
Watched One Fall
Somehow I know that they, too,
must come down, and something within
me-something that did not know was
there-steeled me-. l even watched one
girl falling. She waved her arms, tried
to keep her body upright. Until the
very instant she touched the sidewalk,
she was trying to balance herself.
Then came the thud, then a silent,
unmoving pile of clothing and twisted,
unbroken limbs.
AS l watched the scence of the fire
l glanced up and on the edge of the
roof saw young man walking with his
oVercoat over his arm. He appeared to
be waiting for the fire department
None was there. There was none ever
In sight or within hearing. 1 noticed
that the man was we'll dressed and had
jaunty air. His hands We're in his
trousers pockets Five minutes later !
saw him jump out into space his over
coat parachuted in the air beside him
ana a moment later he was lifeless Oh
the sidewalk
Il looked up to the seventh floor.
There was living picture in each win
dow-four screaming heads of girls.
They were waving
Scream for Help.
Gail the ffremen!' they screamed
scores of them. Get ladder!' cried
others. They were all alive and whole
sidewalk. I could not help thinking
OF that. We called to them not to
jump. We heard the siren of fire
engine in some distant block. Then
other sirens sounded from other di-
rections.
jump; stay there!'
One girl climbed on to a window
sash. Those behind her tried to hold
her back. Then she dropped into
space. 1 did not notice whether those
above watched her drop. because 1 had
turned away.
Then came that first thud-dead i'm
preston. 1 looked up. Another girl
was climbing on to the window sill.
Others were crowding behind her. She
dropped. | watched her fall and heard
the sound. Two windows away, two
girls were climbing on to the sill; they
were fighting and crowding each other
for air: behind them saw many
screaming heads. They fell almost to-
gether, but 1 heard two distinct thuds.
the windows below them and curIed
up into their faces. The firemen be-
gan to raise the ladder. Others took
out a life net and while they were
rushing to the sidewalk with it, two
more girls shot down.
1.-The first men held it under them:
the two bodies broke it; the grotesque
smile of dog jumping through
paper hoop struck me- Before they
could move the net another girls body
fr,%0 NJ
as loud, it seemed, as if there had been
no net there. 1t seemed to me that
the thuds were so loud that they might
have been heard all over tho city like
dull explosion roars.
Il had counted ten. Then my dull
sense began to work automatically, [
noticed things that had not occurred
to me before, to notice little details
that the first shock had blinded me to.
looked up to see whether those above
watched those who fell. noticed
that they did; watched them every
inch of the way down and probably
heard the roaring thuds that we
heard. I looked up and saw a love
affair in the midst of all the horro
"A young man at a window helped
girl to the window sill; then he held
her out deliberately, away from the
building, and let her drop. He SEEM
ed cool and calculating. He held out
q second girl in the same way and let
her drop; then he held out a third
girl. They did not resist I noticed
that they were as unresisting as if he
were helping them onto a street car
instead of into eternity. Undoubted-
~ he saw that terrible death await
ed them in the flames, and his aid
was only a terrible chivalry.
Love Scene Amid Flames.
Then came love amid the flames.
He brought another girl to the Win
dow. Those of US who were looking
saw her put her arms around him and
space and dropped her. But quick as
q flash, he was on the window sill
himself.
His coat fiuttered upward; the air
filled his trousers legs; I could see
that he wore tan shoes and hose. His
hat remained on his head. Thud-
deadi Thud-dead. They went into
eternity together. I saw his face be-
fore they covered it; could see in it
that this was a real man. He had
done his best.
I'VE found out later that in the
room in which he stood, many girls
were being burned to death by the
flames, and were screaming in an in
ferno of heat and smoke. He chose
the easier way and was brave enough
to even help the girl he loved. after
she had given him q goodby kiss. He
leaped with energy as II he DelleVed
that he could cheat gravitation and
arrive first in that mysterious land of
eternity only second of time distant
to receive her.
1.-The firemen raised their ladder. 1t
reached only to the sixth floor. 1 saw
the last girl jump at it and missed it.
And then the faces disappeared from
the winCows. BY now the crowd was
large. though all this had occurred in
less than seven minutes, the start OF
the fire and thuds and deaths.
Heard Other Screams.
al heard screams around the corner
| and hurried there. What l had seen
before was not so terrible as what fol-
lowed. Girls were BURNING to death be-
fore our eyes: thew were damned in
the windows; no one was lucky enough
to be able to jump, it seemed. But