Year: 1876




When will these horrible incidents cease
to darken the history of our boasted civiliza-
tion? Is the progress to which we point
with so much pride not yet sufficiently devel-
oped to insure the safety of few aged and
infirm recipients of our charity, or is ter
rible death to be regarded as among the
probabilities in store for them when they
accept our protection and submit to our
care? These questions present themselves
forcibly for our consideration when we read
the shocking details of yesterdays holocaust
in the Brooklyn Home for the Aged. This
unparalleled calamity by which score of
poor creatures, already trembling on the
brink of the grave, are hurried into eternity
by the most terrible form in which death
presents itself, leads us to doubt whether we
are living in an age in any degree advanced
beyond the barbaric past in its appliances
for the protection of human life. The evil
dence gathered from the panic-stricken sur
vivors shows beyond doubt that the exist
ence of fire was discovered in ample time to
permit of the escape of all the inmates if any
proper means of escape had been pro-
vided for them. The only means of
egress from the building was the burning
stairway, which was impracticable under
the circumstances and the windows of the
several stories, which only meant death in
another form. There were no fire escapes
attached to the building by which the in
mates could flee from the devouring flames
so they were forced to take temporary refuge
on the roof and rely on the aid that could
be rendered them from outside by means of
the Fire Department ladders. Setting aside
for the present the question of the origin of
the fire, and which will doubtless be attrib-
uted to some uneXplainablc cause, for the
flames have devoured all the evidence as
we'll as the victims, we must reiterate our
protest against the damnable negligence that
devotes human beings to destruction when
the expenditure of few hundred dollars
would render life secure even from fire. In
stead of compelling the half asphyxiated
inmates of this Home (?) for the Aged to leap
from third story windows or to trust their
trembling limbs on ladders erected against
the roof, why were there not freproof iron
stairways affixed to the main walls, or, better
still, detached turret stairway communi-
eating with each dormitory, by which the
occupants could quietly retire in case
of sudden alarm of fire? The house
was not q prison, that SO much precau-
tion should be adopted against escape. Even
a well ordered menagerie would present more
evidences of humane foresight than has this
''Home for the Aged" If the old and infirm
are to bc cremated when they attain a certain
age or degree of physical debility, why not
adopt at once the customs of the aboriginal
Indians, and scalp our prisoners on Black
wells Island, eat dog at our daily meals, and
compel our legislators to wear war paint
when they assemble at Albany to enact laws
for our government and protection. Shame
rests on the head of every individual con-
nected with the bringing about of this catas-
trophe. The architect who planned the
building and those who controlled its erec-
ton are responsible for the lives of these
poor victims of ignorance and misplaced
economy. We recently suggested the pro-
priety of placing the erection of public
structures under the superintendent of
competent State inspectors. Brooklyn's
latest horror shows how necessary it will be
to include even "homes for the aged" in
the list of edifices needing such super
vision.