Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1911-03-31


roofs of the subcellars and crashed
through the very streets into the
vaults below. In an hour the fire was
out; in half an hour it had done its
worst; probably the death list was
full in 20 minutes. More than 100
girls had leaped ten stories. Sixty
three had perished. Fifty were in
hospitals. Pedestrians going home
through Washington place to Wash
ington square at 4:50 p. m. were scat
tered by the whiz of something rush
ing through the air before them;
there was a horrible plop on the pave
ment and a body f1attened on the
flags. Wayfarers on the opposite side
of the street shaded their eyes
against the setting sun and saw the
windows of the three upper floors of
the building with girls crowding to
the stills. There were no fire escapes.
Crowds Warn Against Leaping.
Don't jump! Don't jump!" yelled
the crowd.
But the girls had no alternative.
The pressure of the maddened hun
their own fears were too strong. They
began to fall to the sidewalk in a
terrible rain of flesh and blood. Hun
dreds of sightseers fed in awe and
horror. In such horrible stream did
the bodies overflow from the win
dows that the fire nets, stretched by
the first companies to arrive, were
Soon ooroad hayond canonitv Twalve
bodies weighted one net to the burst
ing point, but the bodies kept on tum-
bling to the pavement, through
meshes that could no longer support
them. In the towering upper stories
Of the structure, fire was sweeping
through the lint and the linens of a
waist factory. In maelstrom of hui
manity, frightened girls were rushing
toward windows, stairs and elevator
shafts. There were 1,5OO trapped by
fire, $50 about to die. When the first
breath of flame curled over the edge
of pile of shirting on the eighth
floor, five minutes before quitting
time, hundreds were in line before
the cashiers window. In the Office
buildings across Washington place
scores of men detained beyond hours
worked at their desks. One of them
saw girl rush to window and throw
up the sash. Behind her danced a
seething curtain Of yellow flame. She
climbed to the sill, stood in black out
line against the light, hesitating, then,
with a last touch of futile thrift,
slipped her chatelaine bag over her
wrist and jumped. Her body went
wire of canopy to the tagging be.
low. Her sisters, who followed
famed through the air like rockets
Six Creep Eight-lnch Ledge.
Six girls fought their way to win
dow on the ninth floor over the bodies
of fallen fellow workers and crawled
out in single file to an eight-inch
stone ledge running the length Of the
building. More than 100 feet above
the sidewalk they crept along theiI
perilous pathway to a swinging elec
trio feed wire spanning Washington
place. The leaders paused for theil
companions to catch up at the end
of the ledge and the six grasped the
wire simultaneously. 1t snapped like
rotten whipcord and they crushed
down to their death. A 1S-year-olt
girl hung for three minutes by hel
finger tips to the sill of tenth-fiool
window. A tongue of flame licked a
her fingers and she dropped into life
net held by firemen. Two women fel
into the net at almost the same mo
ment. The strands parted and the
two were added to the death list. A
girl threw her pocketbook, then hel
hat, then her furs from a tenth-f1ool
window. A moment later her body
came whirling after them to death
Five girls smashed a pane of glass
dropped in struggling tangle ant
were crushed into shapeless mass
Clasp and Kiss, Then Leap.
One incident that brought grea