The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-09-07
EXPLOSION-FIRE.
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[Continued from Page One.l
| Morton, prescription clerk, and Jim
White, negro porter. Morton came
rushing out Of the front door and
White went out by the rear exit.
Neither was hurt.
Bob Willard, a nephew of the
pugilist champion, was on the side
walk in front of the store, and the
only thing that saved him from be-
ing cut by the glass was that he put
his coat over his head and ran across
the street.
The glass extended beyond the car
tracks in the middle Of Kansas ave-
nue., making it impossible for vehi-
washed away the debris, after a lone
policeman pushed the crowd back.
ST. Mays Student Hurt.
Willis Rolekey, seventeen years old.
of Oklahoma City, who was on his way
to attend St. Ma rvs college, was the
most seriously injured. He was walk
ing by the Greenbaum store when the
explosion hurled him out into the
street. Practically all the hair of his
head was burned off. His right hand
was burned, and he was bruised by his
fall.
Fireman Tells of Accident.
Harry Hopper, driver for Fire Chief
Hanlon, was inclined to make light of
his injuries. In telling how the ac-
cident happened he said: Il got in a
crossing in front of Dyal Bros, on
North Kansas avenue. Then a bakery
wagon stopped by the street car, and
huckSter wagon, a double-decker
loaded with grapes tried to pass be-
tween them / was going too fast to
stop. The street car looked too big so
1 chose to run into the wagon 1t
was reduced to kindhng and the
driver was thrown out. could see the
smoke of the fire and knew it was
serious, so we did not stop"
He Kept Right On.
Hopper had a narrow escape. His
car t'sideswiped" the wagon. The seat
in which he was sitting was struck
and bent in. Had the object which
struck the seat been little higher, he
would have been crushed. After tax
ing the chief to the fire, he drove the
car to headquarters.
Model Hit a Negro.
Charlie Williams, colored porter at
portunity today to rescue one of the
beautiful Paris models at the Green
baums store. Instead of playing the
hero for the paste queen in new style
In fact he didn't stop running until
he was two blocks beyond the fire
district
Today Williams is revising the sup
erstitutiCns of his people. Right at
the top of the things rot to do Will
liams places standing in front of a
ladies' furnishing store The negro
was standing in front of the Green
baum store this morning when the
gas explosion occurred.
Along Came Ruth!
Puff! Bang!!
Williams jumped four feet. Just
as he jumped Ruth, the most beauti-
full of the Greenbaum models was
thrown violently from the display
window. Ruth couldn't control her
flight through forty feet of space and
she landed head first right in the CEN
ter of Williams back. 1t was most |
plunge for a Paris beauty, but the
gas and not Ruth was responsible.
For just two seconds Williams |
gazed at the PROSTATE Ruth. Her |
beautiful picture hat was ruined. Her
new model, latest corset creation was |
well, Williams didn't stop to see
what it was Neither did he stop to |
inquire as to whether Ruth was dead |
or alive or in need of first aid to the
injured.
All the race superstition of 10000 |
years arose in Williams In those two |
seconds. For two blocks he broke all /
the speed laws on the statute books.
After the fire, Williams admitted he
was a "trifle scared
Forms in Street.
Kansas avenue, in front of the
store might have been a
first class stage for a scenario for a
reproduction of the shirt waist factory
fire. Grewsome, grotesque forms We're
brown in the street by the force of the
explosion and their almost human ap-
oearence caused much concern.
When the fire companies arrived, a
half dozen forms were in the street
n front of the building and the driver
Of truck almost wrecked his vehicle
n frantic effort to dodge the bodies.
The firemen were too busy 20 gather
he display window models and their
presence on the street caused much
for an hour following the out
break of the fire.
Tried to Rescue Them.
A woman rushed to the scene of the
fire. Just as she stopped at Sixth
and Kansas avenue, her eyes swept
he street She saw a powerful auto
mobile rushing toward a form lying in
he street. The woman shrieked and
nearly tainted.
Someone rescue that child" she
;hrieked.
Then the crowd laughed and the
moved to the other side OF
he avenue.
few minutes later, a south bound
state hospital car swung around the
corner. The motorman set his emer-
sency brakes, leeped from his car and
'uShed onto the track only to rescue
)ne of the Handsomely gowned models