The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-07-23
girls foil 10 the ground and were
killed or fatally hurt

81rB Toll 20 ghe GTound ana Wefe
killed or fatally hurt.
Ffremen. policemen and cgtissns
unable to get near the building had to
stand heiplcasiy. Women in the
| streets wept and so did many men,, &
| Three Elrls who had escapsd sxp- Z
| parcntly uninjufed burst through
crowd that tried 10 stop And Succur
them and plunged into the ChananEo
river. They were dead when they
were taken out not from drowning.
but from their burns.
/ One girl with her clothing In flames
ran four blocks before she could be
caught She died In the City hospital
a few minutes afterward.
II fs impossible to describe the APP
pearance Of some of the bodies that
fell to the street. Little Of human
appearance was left to some of them.
For the most part, their legs and feet
were gone.
Here is one little story brought out
OF the fire by Ida Hotaling, eighteen
years old:
II was at work on the fourth floor
with fifty girls. We sat close togeth-
er at our machines. When the alarm
was rung we laughed. 1t isn't nice
to have to go out in the street and
meet BOYS you know when your face
is dirty and your dress is mussed up.
So we didn't hurry. thinking II was a
drill call. Then we saw the hre COM
ing up the elevator shaft. was
among the first who ran for the stair
way. I got to the third floor all right,
but there was a crowd of girls VINO
were fighting and striking at one
another trying to get out. Somebody
caught my hair, but I'm pretty strong
and so I tore away and went headlong
down to the second floor. There the
fire was coming up fast, ] just had
sense enough left not to try to get
to the frst floor on the stairway |
saw a window open and i jumped.
That's all remember"
Little Miss Hotaling will recover.
She has several bad burns and
spraned ankle and is suffering from
the shock of her experience.
A Polish girl told a nurse at the
Terrace hospital:
when the fire got to US on the
third floor we tried to run. but every
thing under our feet was burning. the
rags and stuff saw some OF the
girls just give up and fall down be-
cause they were stepping In fire all
the time and 1t didn't look like any
use. I was near the fire escape and
I got down to where a man could
reach me-"
Inc rev SJOTieS tOlN Hit spCcn W
furious suddenness Of the onslaught
of flame and smoke. There was the
real cause of the terrible mortality.
the rapid burning Of the ouiIainF OF
minutes from the first clang OF the
gong until roof and walls fell In was
the time of the fire. After eighteen
minutes there was nothing iett 10 see
but a mass of red and smoking ashes,
there p'e' u dreadful relic Of humanity
showing through the smoke.
There were two explosions during the
FIRE. Nobody seems to know what
caused them. Freeman. the president
of the concern, appeared 20 De az
loss to. explain. Fire Chief Hoag
from anybody. Some Of the girls said
that there were barrels of oil standing
on the floors. oil used for the motors
| that ran the machines. There was
another story that there was a tank
of gasoline on the second floor:
For the injured and the survivors all
that could be done was done Forty
Of the doctors in the city, the nurses
from the hospitals and men and women
/ volunteers took charge of the injured
and OF those that escaped without ply
At ii O'clock tonight, 1T seemed pref
| ty certain that the number of dead
would reach Atty. Twenty -four bodies
had been recovered from the ruins and
1
| sing There were thirty in the hos
pitfalls and In private homes. Some OF
these cannot possibly recover.
1t has been impossible to identify
more than one cfsthe dsads This was
/ a Mrs. White Abotlt hirtW years old.
The coroner. has NOT We t learned where
she lives. President Freeman and
Bookkeeper Lawrence explained the in
| ability to identify the bodies by say
ing that the payroll and other lists of
the employees were destroyed in the
Rra sd hat "
| of the girls were Poles or Slavs and
/ were known to few besides their imme-
diate relatives who were slow in COM
ing forward tonight. At least eighty
per cent of the girls were of Polish
| or Slavonic extraction. There were a.
| few Italian and Irish women. SO far
as the police and coroner can learn,
not man lost his life or was hurt in
the IRE, although there were fifteen or
twenty men employees. The men, how
ever. worked on the ground floor or the
basement and were not compelled as
were the girls to assault walls of
farreS high Nm in tina hNfldin1