The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1911-03-27
SWEAT SHOP GIRLS
WERE LOCKED IN
TO PERISH
CONTINUED from first page)


into a shapeless mass. A girl on the
eighth floor leaped for a freman's
ladder which reached only to the
sixth floor. She missed, struck the
edge of life net, and was picked up
with her back broken. From one
window a girl about 13 years, a WON
an, man and two women with their
arms about one another threw them
selves to the ground in rapid sue
cession. The little girl was taken to
the New York hospital in an automo-
bile She screamed as the driver and
a policeman lifted her into the hall
way, A surgeon came out, took one
look at her face and touched his hand
to her wrist. "She is dead" he said.
One girl jumped into horse blank
ct held by firemen and policemen. The
blanket ripped like cheesecloth and
her body was mangled almost beyond
recognition. Another dropped into a
tarpaulin held by three men. Her
weight tore it from their grasp and
she struck the street, breaking al
most every bone in her body. Almost
at the same moment man somer-
saulted down upon the shoulder of a
policeman holding the tarpaulin. He
glanced off, struck the sidewalk, and
was picked up dead. Within the
building a man on the eighth floor
stationed himself at the door OF one
of the elevators and with a club kept
back the girls who had stampeded to
tho ,sfra oauo Tbfrtx, ,,,ara od,,;f4o5
to the car at time. They were rush
ed down as fast as possible.
Dozens of the dead and dying were
ahame when they struck the side.
walks. To extingulsh these fires a
volunteer bucket brigade was formed
whose members worked amid falling
bodies in imminent peril of their
own lives. A score of blazes were
extinguished in this manner Ambu.
lance surgeons worked heroically
with the MANNED and dying and
wherever there was show of life
in the quivering forms they were lift
ed into ambulances and hurried away
On the 10th floor of the building ad.
joining the burning structure is the
law department of the New York
university. Here 20 odd students
were listening to lecture on law by
Frank IT, Sommer, former sheriff OF
Essex county N. j. Prof. Sommer
saw the smoke, saw the human fire
brands falling like rain and saw the
girls trapped on the roof. He led his
class to the roof Of the university
quarters. There they found two
ladders. The boys seized these, bore
them down two flights to the roof Of
an intervening building, swarmed ou
of the windows and raised them e
the roof of the burning structure
Forty girls We're brought down t
safety.
Jimmie" Lehan, traffic squad
policeman, dashed up eight fights O
stairs when the fire was at its heigh
braced his shoulders against bar
red door, and burst it in. He foun,
a score OF girls mad with fright HI
ordered them down the smoke-fille,
stairways but they baked. He use,
his club and beat them down L
safety. Not one of the number pei
ished. Bertha Weintrup. 20 years oil
jumped from the 10th floor and wa
picked up unconscious with both leg
fractured and internal injuries. Sh
has chance for life. A boy VIII
jumped from one of the upper floor
was caught by a policeman who bra,
ed himself and held the youngste
practically uninjured, although bot
fell to the street.
There were so many spectacular II
cidents. so many horrible scenes, S
much pathos and suffering that tn
minds of onlookers were stunned
! Hyman Mescher, cutter, slid dow
the elevator cable 10 stories and wa
found alive at the bottom standing 1
water up to his armpits His band
were lacerated, his forehead was Gu
but he was otherwise unhurt Jus
how many trips we're made by tn
elevator men will perhaps never
ascertained. There are varying report
! OF heroism at the elevators, but
was impossible to learn whether III
lifts were operated up to the las
! possible moment.