Full text of "Complete story of the Collinwood school disaster and how such horrors can be prevented"

(ilass Book COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 7 »K 8 rx-ET --OF FXEST W>rERE 'WT. A.P or- !THDOOE.3 WIftx OPEn- PX.A.CZ, a/trr i^Pic DOOR "V\rA^ JSOT OPEN a o o o c "o o V -C H Ho/M-rui^' 9/UJc r Complete Story of the V^olIinwoodochoolL/isaster And How Such Horrors Can Be Prevented By Marshall Everett The Well Known Author and Descriptive Writer Full and Authentic Story Told By Survivors and Eyewitnesses ! E^mbracing a Flash=light Sketch of the Holocaust, ^ Detailed Narratives by participants in the Horror, Heroic WorK of Rescuers, R.eports of the Building Experts as to the responsibility for the Wholesale Slaughter of Children Memorable Fires of the Past, E,tc., E,tc. Dangers in other School Buildings all over the United States. Profusely Illustrated with Pho= tographs of the scenes of death, before, during and after the Fire. Photographs of the Children Sacrificed Copyright 1908 by The N. G. Hamilton Publishing Co. Published By The N. G. Hamilton Publishing Co. Cleveland. Ohio. 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W. ng \va le siste shed I) They ctively a d Mr )uildi is litt le ru ther. respe y. = ■"-= "^ ^ 1 < a (u .^ - be 2^ 1 en of Mr. When t alizing th ^ l)uildin perished t and 7 ye Q -5 •£:.= >, 3i ■^ > jz ^h ' ' ' l; ■•- ~ - - 11 = SQ 3. <« ., « c u t ^■~ -o o 2 a; J= J=t/3 ^ • ^ O o lo -a o E C l; S; y. -2 T3 c« — n n ^ c_- & S "* 2 o ^ wis ° en "O " "s S h o a hJ C/1 l-l o n', ■" DC U £ ■o Q -a 0) ■5 oi c X < ^ "? <u Q "o c 1) o < m en "* &) j= - hO j£ be C ^ oj a> <u t prece at som the tir nigh t th d in C (U — c a ^ >. 1) C n a. a. -C n rr M « O rj c ~ — . 1) o ■?; ,, ^ HELENA, WALTER AND IDA HIRTER. Children of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Hirter, of North Collamer Street. They were considered very bright children. Helena had one of the best records in the United States for attend- ance at school, not having missed a day in seven years. They ail died in the fire. They were 13, 15 and 8 respectively. JAMES, NORMAN AND MAXWELL TURNER. The children of Mr. and Mrs. James D. Turner, 436 Collamer Street, and grandchildren of the late Robert Scrutton, Oswego, N. Y. Little did they think of the fate awaiting them when they left their happy home the morning of March 4th, when they met their deaths in the fire. They were 14, 9 and 6 years respectively. ANNA AND ROSIE BUSCHMAN. Children of Mr. ami Mrs. Leonard Buscliman, 5415 Lake Street, who perished in the fire. They were 11 and 9 years of age. CLARA AND FLORENCE LAWRY. The beautiful twin daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Lawry, of Euclid Beach, Ohio, sweet little girls had to be sacrificed in the fire. They were 13 years of age. These CONTENTS. Publisher's Preface 9 Author's Preface 13 CHAPTER I. Fire discovered in school building at North Collinwood, which is filled with children — Futile efforts of the janitor and a few of the larger pupils to check the flames — Spread of the fire — Alarm sounded ; efiforts of the teachers to march the children out of the doomed structure — Beginning of the panic — Heartrending screams and shrieks alarm the neighborhood as the children find escape cut ofif — Frantic rush for the doors, which are closed and check the mad- dened little ones in their dash for life and liberty — Chil- dren fall in heaps within an inch of safety — Lives crushed out as the frantic and terror stricken trample on the fallen — Vain efforts of the teachers to stay the awful panic — Faces appear at the windows, only to fall back into the raging furnace and become part of the fire itself. . . .33 CHAPTER n. Men and women rush to the scene — Mothers fall on their knees before the fire and weep and pray — Men curse and fight in their efforts to reach their imprisoned little ones — Pathetic scenes as dying children call to their parents, who are only a few feet away, yet powerless to aid them in their agony — Desperate efforts of the teachers to force open the doors which keep the children prisoners in the burning structure — Thrilling scenes of rescue by ladders — Leaps for life — Drops to death and leaps to uncon- sciousness — Maimed for life — Blinded by the awful heat 18 CONTENTS — Heroes develop by the score, yet they can do nothing to save the scores that are perishing before their eyes. .46 CHAPTER III. Mother saves her child for a moment only to see him die — Lad stretches out arms for aid — Tried to drag boy out but flames conquered — Cleveland fire fighters arrive but are too late — Frantic men and women rush forward to meet it — Floors of building collapse with ominous roar — Burst of flames and sparks shoot out — Flames rage most fiercely in cellar — Work in ruins begins — Blackened forms of children in pinafores found — Bodies placed in rows in morgue — Identifications made bv trinkets. .. .54 CHAPTER IV. Victims trample comrades to death in vain efforts to escape — Walter Kelley, a newspaper man, who lost two children, says one of rear doors was locked — Exit jammed full of fighting, panic-stricken children — Many killed by being trampled on — Scores rush for windows and several are killed — Caught like rats — Father and mothers, crazed in eft'orts to rescue children — Children rush into fiery fur- nace — Hallways too narrow to accommodate scholars running out — Three little girls die in jumping 60 CHAPTER V. Fathers and mothers pray and curse as their children perish — Maddened, they dash towards flames, to be restrained by friends — Force often used — Big man raves, "my babies are in the fire" — Firemen with rakes and shovels turn up blackened bones and skulls and masses of charred flesh — Horror strikes men taking out scarred bodies — Dead forms of children passed to ambulance men — Driven to to morgue — Human charnal house causes men to shudder — Bodies are numbered — Identification made ........68 CONTENTS 19 CHAPTER VI. Strong men weep as they tell how their children died — Father relates how little daughter burned to death — Child helped mother with breakfast dishes — Waved good-by as she started for school — Sobs on seeing charred babe — "Mister, help me out pleads little girl — Baby hands reach out for help — White ribbons flutter from doors of almost every house — Man toys with penciled paper of dead daughter — Baby cries for sister who was dead 72 CHAPTER VII. Flames sweep over hall while women stand helpless — Many fall fainting to ground — Water pressure insufficient to send stream high — Firemen's ladders would not reach to top floors — Task not for volunteers but for ambulance men — Police unable to keep back crowds — Girl of ten protects brother of six from fire with shawl until both perish — Few at top of struggling mass saved — Cries for help fearful to hear — Hurl stones through windows — . .81 CHAPTER VIIL School building inadequate to accommodate all pupils and many studied in the attic — Pupils become panic stricken on sight of smoke — Victims between ages of six and fif- teen years of age — Frenzied by screams of crushed and dying many rush into death trap — Save scholars by smashing windows 85 CHAPTER IX. Pathetic scenes enacted at the temporary morgue — Room murky and stifling with odors of burned stufif and silent save for sobs — Charred feet protrude beneath blankets — Grief written on every face — Mother finds child and bursts into tears while strong men join in weeping — Tags placed on bodies — Some curse, some gaze stoney eyed upon twisted, charred shapes of children before them ; some rave like madmen and some laugh like lunatics 92 20 CONTENTS CHAPTER X. Rich woman loses baby — Wealthy and poor, alike in grief, console each other — Bodies taken from morgue as identi- fied — Grief-stricken father fights ambulance driver — Mad- dened father would throw himself under a train — Child identified by teeth — Screams of despair, wrenched from mothers on finding trinkets of babes — Woman who made boy go to school overwhelmed with anguish, sobbing and shrieking — Crowd sways in sympathy — Grandfather kisses girl's feet ' ' 110 CHAPTER XI. Teachers tell of horrors — Attack made on janitor, and police guard is set — Tales of the survivors — Children fall and others topple over on them — Crush terrible — Door said to be usually open, but this time fastened at the top — Few fire drills held and smoke and flames quickly put children into panic which meant death 120 CHAPTER XII. Girl who discovered fire tells investigators she told janitor of the blaze and says she opened door — Janitor asserts build- ing was not overheated — County prosecutor listens to tes- timony to find whether or not there was a criminal act — Door found closed — Never told to ring fire alarm — X( boys seen smoking in the building, but girls were plav- ing : ^ 128 CHAPTER XIII. Teachers tell of attempts to save pupils and why they are unsuccessful — Flames leap over their heads in mad scramble for door and children pile up in hall — Blaze tells bell is not drill gong — Principal denies there was rubbish in closet where fire started — Boy tells thrilling experience — Smoke and heat strike terror into children — Fire blocks stairs, but heroine teacher waits until last — Crowds of men to the rescue but work is checked by fire 138 CONTENTS 21 CHAPTER XIV. Misery, hopelessness and g-loom reign everywhere in ColHn- wood — Little children make big sacrifices — Three babies lost from one home — Two white faced girls cling to sob- bing mother trying to comfort her for loss of child — Bravery of girl — Pall over every house — Frantic women tear hair — Small children pushed beneath pile — Narrow- ness of corridor catches scholars in pen — Teacher dying amid corpses — Exciting race made by firemen — Boy gives life to save others — Ambulances do good work 149 CHAPTER XV. Mothers cry for children and beg for help — Teachers pursued in rage by bereaved — Child thrown from window — Girl saved by sickness — Boy says stairs crashed on crushed scholars — Baby cried for *'papa." 177 CHAPTER XVI. Women show courage — Tiny girl holds out hand for help in vain — Hands burned trying to save children — Lad identi- fied by a ring — Boy who aids family perishes in the fire — Lake Shore officials aid — Scream for help which does not come — Drags little daughter from heap of dying; .... 182 CHAPTER XVII. Dead in fire disaster buried — Entire village in mourning — Hearses line all streets of village — Old man weeps on seeing white hearses pass, although he had none in the building to die — Full realization of horrible disaster comes with funerals — One of saddest services was held for Janitor Hirter's children, three of whom died in fire — Police guard him, but none molest man while he is bury- ing his dead — Father bowed' with grief and mother mourns for her dead — Child shows her love for plav- mate 190 22 CONTENTS CHAPTER XVIII. Stumps of unknown children are buried — Blackened bodies of unidentified dead are placed in one big grave and mourned for by many weeping mothers — Flag placed at church entrance and candles are put at head of coffin — Sixteen white coffins in a row — Service held for 12 at once — Hearses too few to care for dead — Two women faint — Hundreds gathered in sorrow 197 CHAPTER XIX. Caskets lie in tiers in ambulances — Hearse after hearse passes down the dismal streets — ^lany dazed by the tragedy pay no heed to funeral corteges — Mothers and fathers bowed in anguish — Three caskets with a son and two daughters lie in a row 206 CHAPTER XX. Safety of all school children in the land rest in the strict en- forcement of the building laws — Better schools urged for protection of pupils — Lower buildings, fire proof con- struction, wide stairways, fire escapes separated from the buildings themselves and opening off every room sought — School houses must be carefully and regularly inspected — Employes must be watched — Fixing responsibility and Dunishment of negligent believed to be a preventive. . .212 CHAPTER XXI. Newspapers comment on the disaster — Tall buildings are de- cried — Horror should teach lessons and lead to improve- ment of buildings — Disaster might have been prevented, it is thought — Probe should go deep and every provision made to empty schools quickly and prevent panic — Fact should be drilled into the minds of a people prone to for- get 221 CONTENTS 23 CHAPTER XXII. Lack of discipline and unreadiness to meet emergency says one paper — Fancied security leads to laxity and danger — Furnaces a deadly peril — Close watch should be kept on heating apparatus — Automatic doors urged, to open when fire gong sounds — Thousands of structures thought to be defective and in need of reconstruction 228 CHAPTER XXIII. Model school house designed to save children from death in fire — Towers at each corner arranged so that there can be exits from each room — Emergency exit in center — Stairways are not winding but straight 237 CHAPTER XXIV. Lest we forget the Collinwood horror we should prick our memory to demand better schools — Children depend on us for protection which it is our duty to give — Plans should at once be made to prevent other such holocausts and death of innocents 240 CHAPTER XXV. List of the dead in terrible Collinwood school fire 247 CHAPTER XXVL « Earthquake and fire descend upon San Francisco and the Sur- rounding cities of California, causing enormous loss of life and property— Shock of death comes in the early dawn — People flee from their beds in terror to face crashing walls — Heaving earth shatters gas and water pipes, releasing noxious fumes and kindling countless fires in the ruins of the once beautiful "Fairy city of the Golden Gate" — First shock followed by worse terrors — Furious flames sweep over doomed citv — Firemen baffled bv lack of water — Dy- 24 CONTENTS namite used in vain — Dead abandoned to the advancing cyclone of fire — night falls on a scene rivaling Dante's "Inferno" — Vandals and ghouls appear — Looting and riot- ing add to hellish scene — Police powerless ; troops called — Corpses everywhere — Man's utter helplessness demon- strated — Denizens of foreign quarter battle with fury of fiends — Mobs tight at ferries, while dreary procession of refugees trails southward to escape 269 CHAPTER XXVII. Wave of flame greets Chicago theater audience — Few realize appalling result — Drop where they stand — Many heroes are developed — Dead piled in heaps — Exits were choked with bodies — Survey scene with horror — Find bushels of purses 284 CHAPTER XXVIII. Terrible Boyertown fire caused by the explosion of lamp used to light scenes in amateur theatricals — Scores burned to death, suffocated or crushed in mad panic to escape.. . .294 CHAPTER XXIX. Boat, the General Slocum sinks in river in New York and more than 1,000 perish — Women throw babes overboard and leap after them — Life preservers rotten or are filled with lead — Bodies washed ashore for days — Jail sentence for offenders — Sundav School picnic ends in terror and death .' 300 CHAPTER XXX. Thrilling incidents of terrible disasters of historv and horrible loss of life '. 304 CHAPTER XXXI. The Johnstown Flood 316 PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. Amid sobs and groans, from white, trembling lips comes the story of the fearful disaster at North Collinwood, Ohio, where 172 innocent children and two heroic women teachers went down to death in the ruins of the school- house, which was swept by flames. To tell the awful story in cold type gives but a faint idea of the horror of it all ; yet, in order that the lives of other children and other teachers may be protected and safeguarded, it must be told in detail, and the human suffering and anguish that came to men, women and children through this fire painted, as only those on the spot can paint it, pictured in words that thrill. By experience we learn. Some day our children will be safe when once inside the schoolhouses of the country — but not until public officials realize that many of the build- ings are now but tinder boxes, ready to flare up at the faintest spark of fire, and destroy all who are unfortunate to be caught within the walls. As the author of this work has well said, this great disaster has hastened the day when all of our public buildings — theaters, halls and schoolhouses — will be safe ; when we can rest secure while our loved ones bend over their desks, or watch a mimic world depicted on the stage. God speed the day when soul-harrowing tragedies of the sort enacted in North Col- linwood shall be a thing of the past ! In presenting this book to the public the publishers do so with two thoughts uppermost in their minds. First is ♦^he thought that the details of the ereat holocaust should 26 PUBLISHERS' PREFACE be perpetuated in another way than only in the minds of the parents of the children who lost their lives, in order that those who read may realize to the utmost that "we know not the hour of our end;" and second, that school officials and building department heads throughout this broad land may realize that upon them rests a fearful re- sponsibility. In their keeping are hundreds of thousands of human lives — lives of men, women and children, who, believing that the buildings are safe, blindly trust them- selves in the structures that have been erected for public gatherings. Lessons like the one from North Collinwood sink deep into the hearts of men. It is an old saying that "we never learn except by bitter experience" — God knows the offi- cials of North Collinwood have learned by sad and bitter experience, experience that has robbed scores of homes of all the happiness it ever will know, that only by constant watchfulness and perfect building methods can safety be obtained. Without going into detail as to the responsi- bility for this horror — that will be left for those directly concerned to determine — it is enough to say that someone is to blame for the fearful loss of life and the resultant misery that has made heavy the hearts of thousands. It is the aim of the publishers to give this book an educa- tional value that will secure for it a place in the library of every home in the land, and to fill its pages with informa- tion and word pictures that will live forever, carrying to the heart of every man and every woman the necessity of protecting the little ones from the dangers seen and un- seen, that threaten them on every hand. It will bring home to the thoughtless the fact that "in the midst of life we are in death," and that only by securing perfection in PUBLISHERS' PREFACE 27 the art of building can we properly protect the people from possible harm. The book contains not only the story of the Ohio dis- aster, but the history of other great disasters, thus making it a valuable reference work for the student. It portrays in vivid manner the causes that lead to great fire panics and shows at a glance the large number of human lives that have been lost in the various disasters in the several corners of the world. Ranking next to the Iroquois thea- ter fire in Chicago, in which hundreds of children lost their lives — and for which it has been decided in the courts that "no one was to blame" — the North Collinwood disaster will remain always in the minds of man as one of the greatest horrors of the century. As this work is the only authentic and permanent rec- ord of the horror, wdiich desolated scores of homes and brought a thrill of sympathy to the great, glowing heart of the world, the publishers hope and believe that the work will prove of great benefit, in that it will point out, in tales of the utmost pathos and dramatic intensity, the necessity for building our schools and our other public buildings so perfectly that fires cannot start in them, or, if fires do start, so fireproof that nothing but a small blaze, danger- ous to no one, will result. As this book goes to press thousands of building in- spectors, thousands of high officials and thousands of school directors throughout this broad land are moving with one accord along the line of making the buildings safe, and closing those which are found wanting in the proper appliances. One lesson of the North Collinwood description has startled the world. It is to be hoped that no second lesson will ever be needed ! THE PUBLISHERS. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. For generations the awful holocaust at North Collin- wood, where 172 children and two teachers lost their lives in the destruction of the school building by fire, will be remembered with feelings of horror. It w^as a veritable carnival of death. Caught like rats in a trap, without a chance to escape, the hapless victims were trampled under foot, smothered, and then half consumed by the fiery flames that swept over them. The story, sad and thrilling in the extreme, w^ill deal wMth the vain fight made by the victims to escape the awful fate that awaited them, of the desperate efforts of heroic men and women to snatch from the jaws of death their own loved ones, as well as the loved ones of other fathers and mothers, and of the shocking scenes that were enacted in the pretty little suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, on the 4th day of March, 1908. Standing beside the red-hot embers of the schoolhouse and watching weeping men draw from the ruins shapeless masses that were once laughing, happy boys and girls, I witnessed a scene so terrible that my pen almost refuses to write the sickening story of the disaster that brought grief to every family in the little village, and which depopulated the town of young people. Fathers and mothers all over this broad land weep with the bereaved parents and bow their heads in shame to think that in this trreat and gflorious countrv such a AUTHOR'S PREFACE 29 slaughter of innocents could be possible. Long before the smoke had lifted from the funeral pyre, long before the last charred body had been dragged from the red hot ruins, long before the last victim had been laid in old mother earth, town and state officials were at work to place the blame for the disaster. That blame rested on someone was certain, but who was the guilty man? That was the c|uestion. Fixing the blame would not bring back from the grave the 172 human beings that went down to death when flames shot through the handsome building, nor would placing upon the shoulders of an individual, or upon the shoulders of a group of individuals a burden of guilt, assuage the grief of the stricken parents, nor dry the tears of the people of the country, to whom the horror was brought home with startling directness as they thought of their own loved little ones in the crowded schoolhouses of the cities and the towns. From m<^n and women who were on the spot before the flames had claimed their toll of death and before the last despairing shriek of the last child to die had chilled the blood of ?11 the spectators I have obtained most of my facts, and to them I am deeply indebted for the vivid scenes described in this book, which is destined to be a permanent and historically correct record of the most awful and sickening disaster ever known in the history of the state of Ohio. The task of assembling the vast amount of data is not easy, as every line tells of death and human suffering, the equal of which is not often written in his- tory. True, there have been other great disasters, with fearful loss of human life, but in this case those who went down to death were children, most of them on the very 30 AUTHOR'S PREFACE threshold of life. They had everything before them, no regrets back of them — their pathway to honor, fame and riches was broad and smooth, yet in the twinkling of an eye they were laid low by the fiery hand of Death, and the hopes of their parents shattered in an instant. While it is the intention of the author to make this work a fitting memorial to the dead, and to record the details of the tragedy in words that will live forever in the minds of thousands of sorrowing persons all over the country, it is his hope and firm belief that great good will at the same time be accomplished, in that the needs of other schoolhouses from one end of the land to the other will be shown, and the necessity of at once taking steps to remedy the defects, and to render such loss of life in case of fire impossible, pointed out. Indeed, even as these words are written, officials of cities, towns and villages in every portion of the United States, aye, even in Europe, are at work, with breathless haste, making such changes in the school buildings as will give the children there a chance for their lives should flames sweep the structures. To the many persons who have aided me in preparing this work, w^ith a heart full of sorrow for the bereaved parents, and a prayer for the dead, I dedicate this book to the memory of the victims of the fire which brought the nation to its senses and forced it to realize that hundreds of its schoolhouses are little else than fire traps, ready always to claim the -lives of innocent children. MARSHALL EVERETT. North Collinwood, Ohio. MOTHER DRAGGED FROM CHILD. SHE STROKES BURNING HAIR OF DAUGHTER SHE COULD NOT SAVE. One of the faces in the wall of those who blocked up the rear door of the Lake View School was that of Jennie Phillis, ag^ed fifteen years. Mrs. John Phillis, who lives a few door:- from the school, was one of the first to get to the fire. She lecognized Jennie immediately. Volunteers had formed a cordon about the door, but the agonized mother broke through and rushed into the passageway. "Oh, Jennie ! Please come out !" begged the mother. *T can't, ma. Oh, help me, if you can !" The woman seized both of her daughter's hands and pulled with all her strength. She could not, however, drag Jennie out from the crush. She turned to the men who were in the passageway and begged them to help her. One man pulled with the mother at Jennie's arms, but they could not move her. "It's no use, ma," said the girl, "I've got to die !" Mrs. Phillis became resigned to her daughter's fate. She held the girl's hand and the two talked for some minutes to- gether. The fire crept up through the mass of heads. A tongue of it blew over Jennie's head. It began to scorch her hair. Then the mother thrust her bare hand into the flames. She stroked her daughter's hair and kept the fire away as iong as she could. "Oh, thank you, ma," breathed the dying girl. It was the last she said. They dragged the mother from out of the smoke and flame. It was found that her hand with which she had stroked the fire from her daughter's head was burned to the bone. IH MEMOKY or ''''''''%'/M, "I^E UNIDENTIFIED -— SlSTTlK/tfC^C) :pead Clol,L]IiWOOl> CHAPTER I. THE STORY OF THE FIRE. FIRE WRECKS BIG SCHOOL— CHILDREN PERISH BY THE SCORE. In a horror without parallel in the history of American schools, 172 children and two women teachers lost their lives when Lake View School, North Collinwood, Ohio, burned on the morning of March 4, 1908. Ten minutes after the fire was discovered half the families in the pretty little suburb of Cleveland were in mourning, and the na- tion, informed by telegraph of the soul-stirring disaster, was in tears. Three little girls coming from the basement saw smoke. Before the janitor sounded the alarm a mass of flames was sweeping up the stairways from the basement. Before the children on the upper floors could reach the ground floor egress was cut off and they perished. It was all over almost before the frantic fathers and mothers who gathered realized that their children were doomed. School officials believed at first that an incendiary started the fire. They were forced to that conclusion after eliminating all other possible causes. There was no gas in the building. No heating pipes ran through the lumber closet under the stairs where the fire started. There were no electric wires in the closet. With the call for fire engines calls for ambulances were sent in. Every ambulance in the eastern end of Cleveland was pressed into service and wagons were used to haul the dead. 34 THE STORY OF THE FIRE Rescuers were present by the hundreds, but they could not save the Hfe of one of the children jammed in solid masses, as in the case of the Iroquois theater fire, Chi- cago, at the foot of the stairways. The victims ranged in ages from six to fifteen years, and the story of their fate is one of the most heartrending that the world has been called upon to heed. From the minute that the fire bell clanged out the alarm, the doom of the children was sealed. The building was a fire trap. It was insufficiently pro- vided with fire escapes. It had but two exits, one of which, at the critical hour, was found to be barred. There was lax discipline in the institution. And, finally, the fire department of the village was utterly unable to cope with the situation. Panic was primarily responsible, however. Had the 300 little ones been able to preserve their presence of mind scores that went down in the roaring flames might have escaped in safety. As it was, dozens were crushed to death before the flames reached them in the terrified rush for safety. Dozens more were killed in frantic leaps from windows. The remainder were swallowed up in the flames, carried down into the raging furnace in the cellar of the building fifteen minutes after the first alarm was sounded, and while agonized parents dashed helplessly about on the outside, restrained by force from dashing in when the floors of the burning building collapsed, further rescue became abso- lutely impossible. There was no panic at first. The children on the first fioor passed out safely. They supposed it was only the regular practice until they entered the lialls. Then they THE STORY OF THE FIRE 35 saw the smoke rising from the front stairs. They cast frightened glances at it, but maintained order. Many of the children on the third floor were saved. The flames spread so quickly that by the time the children on this floor had entered the hall the smoke and sparks were coming up the stairs in great puffs. Miss Laura Bodey, who had charge of the single room on the third floor, kept her head and started the children down the stairs. When they reached the second floor the flames rushed upon them. Miss Bodey called to the children to follow her. She led the way to the fire escape through a room on the sec- ond floor. Most of the children obeyed her and were saved. Some, however, had broken away and fled down the stairs. They were caught in the deathtrap. Nearly all the children on the second floor perished. Their teachers led them to the stairs in the rear, for the front stairway was enveloped in flames. At the sight of the fire the children took fright at once. They started pellmell down the stairs and into the narrow passage that led to the outside doors. The first few escaped. Some of those following tripped on the stairs and rolled to the bottom. Others behind them ran over the tangle at the bottom of the stairs and crowded into the passageway, fell over the prostrate bodies and made the confusion greater. Then the children began dropping over the banisters to get to the passage. Those who had fallen on the stairs began to get up and in an instant the entrance to the passage was blocked. Not yet had the flames spread to the passage. 36 THE STORY OF THE FIRE Happy in Morning. In what contrast were the beginning and the end of the day. The morning came with the sunshine of the early spring. ^Mothers, starting their children off to school with kisses, lingered in the doorways of their homes to feel its sweet breath. Out of sight up the street the children passed, skipping, laughing, throwing their books at one another in the light heartedness of childhood and the joyousness of the day. The school bell rang; the last of the pupils hurried to their rooms. As soon as all were in their seats the day was begun with prayer. The echo of the "Amen" died away and quickly came the clatter of the schoolroom as classes were begun. Scarcely more than an hour had passed, when the alarm of fire silenced the droning voices and chilled the blood of the teachers, who alone understood. The pupils thought it was fire drill and began an orderly exit. Pupils Saw The Smoke. Then someone saw the smoke that came pouring up the front stairway and in an instant the orderly lines broke and there was a wild scramble for safety. Those who fled down the front stairway got out safely. The rush down the back stair- way, however, was greater. The first child, close pressed by the others, fell as he reached the inner doorway. Those coming behind stumbled, went down and barred the way for the rest. Of the double doors at the bottom of the stairs, one was held by a catch at the top. The other was unlocked, but closed. The children following the first few who fell had no THE STORY OF THE FIRE 37 time to push open the door. Like an avalanche the rest swept down upon them, screaming and struggling, the stronger trampling the weaker in their frantic desire to get to the door only to be themselves borne down. Ax Would Have Saved Many. Outside the rescuers labored impotently to break the wedge and extricate the children. They smashed the glass in the partitions on both sides of the door, but the woodwork, ex- tending upward about two feet from the floor, balked their efiforts. An ax would have saved many lives, but none was at hand and none could be found. Men desperately kicked against the doors and battered them with their fists until their hands were bloody, but it was useless. And then, as they began to see how futilely they were work- mg, the rescuers saw the flames licking their way down the stairs. In the agony of that moment was the sorrow of a lifetime. Women fought their way to the doorway, grabbed at arms and legs and pulled with a frenzy of the maddened. On the top of the heap a little girl lay. Her legs were caught in the jam, but her arms were free. She stretched them out im- ploringly. "Please, somebody, oh please, somebody, get me out," she begged. Two women seized her by the arms and strove to tear her away from death. Men helped. And then came the flames, hot upon the gasping choking pile. They beat back the rescuers and in a trice enwrapped the heap. Features shriveled at their touch and the life in the little bodies went out. The news of the fire reached the furtherest corner of Collin- wood quickly. From the Lake Shore shops, where the fathers 38 THE STORY OF THE FIRE of many of the children are employed, the men ran at the first call. Mothers rushed from their homes, their faces white with terror. The sight of the burning' building turned dread into frenzy. The first few men and women, those who reached the school before fire lines were established, seemed to realize that with them rested the responsibility of saving as many as they could, but those who came afterward, when all hope was gone, enacted a heartrending scene. Women beat their breasts and tore their hair; men ran about wildly. One mother, her only son lost, w^ent insane and, raving, w^as taken to her home. Others were too stunned to cry ; they could only mut- ter over and over the names of their dear ones who perished. Lacking in no possible feature of terror, agony or torture was the fire which swept through the crowded school at Col- linwood. The fire swept through the halls and stairways of the build- ing like a whirlwind, laughing at fire drills and attempts at discipline. Ten minutes would have cleared the building of its population. But the ten minutes were lacking. Sw^eeping up under the front stairway the flames cut oflf that exit entirely after one room full of pupils had passed out. This threw the great seething mass of frightened pupils into the back exit of the building. In that narrow stairway and vestibule, penned like rats in a great trap, poured the mob of children, fighting, screaming, pushing. Down on them poured others, jumping down over the banisters, climbing over each other's heads, in the last des- perate attempt to reach the doorway. Nearly all the children were killed in the mass at the first floor door. This door was finally opened by men outside, but THE STORY OF THE FIRE 39 a wall of flame had formed across it. And most of the chil- dren there were already dead. A group of distracted mothers fought with the firemen, try- ing to drag the bodies from the tangled heap. The father of one victim pulled the arms from the little body of his daughter in his struggle. The homes of people living near the school were turned into temporary morgues. Glenville hospital cared for seven bodies. Fire Finally Out. The fire was about out at 1 :30. Firemen still played water on the ruins where several bodies were entombed. The fire started in the basement from an overheated fur- nace. It was discovered by Janitor Fritz Hirter. Classes were reciting. Thought it Was a Drill. Up in the third floor, the attic, the littlest ones were at work. Miss Anna Moran, principal, was in her office on the second floor when the sharp alarm rang out. She rushed to the door. Down the hall long lines of children were marching in straight lines. Their teachers were beside them. Some of the little ones were laughing. They thought it was a fire drill. At the lower floor they saw flames shooting up from the basement. They screamed, and there was a rush for the front door. Miss Catherine Weiler, second grade teacher, was on the second floor, and tried to keep her children in line. When the rush began she leaped into their midst, com- manding them to keep cool. She was dragged into the human current of bodies and crushed to death. Miss Grace Fiske, a 40 THE STORY OF THE FIRE third grade teacher, tried also to stop the rush. She was fa- tally crushed. Their heroic efforts were in vain. The vanguard of the dreadful rush jammed against the big door. Those behind pushed in. The first little bodies were crushed into almost unrecogniz- able masses. One little lad leaped up and walked over the tangled heap of bodies to safety. Others tried to follow. They piled up, higher and higher, till they suffocated. Most of those near the door were not burned to death. They were either crushed in the panic or suffocated. Cut off from escape by the mass of bodies at the front door the children on the second and third floors tried the windows. The little ones who were reciting in the attic rooms, were cai- ried down the fire escape, many of them. Ladders Wouldn't Reach. The others, too late, opened the windows and screamed piteously for help. By this time the Collinwood fire department was on the scene. They found their ladders were insufficient to reach the third door. The children were trapped, without hope of escape. It was then that there followed the worst horrors of the fire. The little ones went insane with fear and ran down the stairs till they met the upsweeping flames, and perished. Cleveland Helps. Mapes' and Shepard's ambulances had been called. They loaded up from the ghastly heap at the front door and dashed THE STORY OF THE FIRE 41 away. Hogan's ambulances came, received their freight and left, to return later for more. The Cleveland department came with its aerial ladder. This reached the third floor and many were borne down to safety. By this time the flames had mounted to the third floor. The first and second floors fell away. At 11:30 only the walls of the building were left standing, and the screams of the helpless, trapped children, died away forever. Crazed by horror, Fritz Hirter, the Janitor, could remember little of what happened after the fire broke out. Three of his four children in the school were among the dead. "It was sweeping in the basement when I looked up and saw a wisp of smoke curling out from beneath the front stair- way," he said. "I ran to the fire alarm and pulled the gong that sounded throughout the building. "Then I ran first to the front and then to the rear doors and threw them open, as the rules prescribed. Crazed by the Horror. "What happened next? I can't remember. I see the flames shooting all about and the little children running down through them screaming. "Some fell at the rear entrance and others stumbled over them. I saw my little 13-year-old Helen among them there. I tried to pull her out, and the flames drove me back. I had to leave my little girl to die." Oscar Pahner, a lad of 11, was one of the heroes of the fire. Though his face was terribly burned and he sufl'ered terribly from burns on his arms and hands, the boy rushed clear to 42 THE STORY OF THE FIRE the Collinwood fire department to inform them of the holo- caust. When he found them gone he hurried back to the school building and tried to dash into the burning building to save his little sister, Edna. The boy was in a serious condition at his home. When the alarm of fire spread through the building he left his seat in a room on the second floor and dashed towards the rear door downstairs. It was closed by the dead bodies of the pupils. The lad then ran into a room on the first floor, broke a window and escaped. Teacher Dies. At the bottom of what was the stairs of Lake View school lay the heap of little bones. For it was there almost every one of the 39 children in Miss Catherine Weiler's second grade on the second floor were killed and under them lay the larger skeleton of their teacher who lost her life in trying to save the little ones. Just before the fire was discovered children were singing one of their little songs. The windows were opened to let in the sunlight. No one smelled the smoke in the hall. Suddenly the school bells rang. ]\Iiss W'eiler rushed to the door. In an instant she had the little ones on their feet. Care- fully she marshaled them down the stairs, but the entrance was clogged. The first floor children were fighting to get through. There was no chance, except by the fire escape on the second floor. She tried to take them back. She pushed them — pulled them. They wouldn't go. She then threw them from the windows. She stood among them until the stairs fell and they were thrown into a heap at the bottom. THE STORY OF THE FIRE 43 Miss Anna Moran, principal, who was in her office on the second Hoor when the fire alarm rang in said : "I ran out into the hall and beheld the most pathetic sight my eyes have ever seen. The little children were marching past my door in perfect order, heads up and feet keeping time. "Their teachers were beside them, keeping the lines straight. The little ones were smiling and happy. "They thought it was a fire drill. "A moment later the vanguard reached the first floor. They saw the flames leaping up from the basement. They screamed, broke ranks and ran for the front door. It would not open. The mass turned to the rear door. It would not open and it was shut. "Those m front tried to open it but the ones in the rear pushed against them, and the little bodies were crushed to death. Others suffocated. It was too dreadful for words." Took Out Children. John Leffel, who lives near the school, tells of efforts to save the children piled up at the rear entrance. Leffel is 24. "I ran to the school when I saw the smoke. The rear en- trance, where the storm doors blocked up the arch, was heaped up with little bodies. "I seized the first children I could reach and dragged them out. "I was the first there. In a few moments tw^o or three other men were workmg by my side. "Some of the children seemed half suffocated. Some were unconscious. I did not stop to look. I seized them by the arms or legs or bodies and tossed them out behind. 'T guess there were others to pick them up and carry them 44 THE STORY OF THE FIRE out of the way. The flames were rushing upon us and I knew we had only a few moments left. "Some of the children were still piled up in the entrance when the heat and smoke drove us back from them." A. Hansrath, clothier, whose store was near the school, arrived when children were jumping from the windows. He caught three who jumped from windows of the second floor. Others were caught in the arms of two or three men who stood near him. When the flames were discovered the teachers, who seem to have acted with courage and self-possession and to have struggled heroically for the safety of their pupils, marshalled their little charges into columns for the "fire drill," which they had often practiced. Unfortunately the line of march in this exercise had always led to the front door, and the children had not been trained to seek any other exit. The fire came from a furnace, directly under this part of the building. When the children reached the foot of the stairs they found the flames close upon them, and so swift a rush was made for the door that in an instant a tightly packed mass of children was piled up against it. 200 Maddened Children. From that second none of those who were upon any portion of the first flight of stairs had a chance for their lives. The children at the foot of the stairs attempted to fight their way back to the floor above, while those who were coming down shoved them mercilessly back into the flames below. In an instant there was a frightful panic, with 250 pupils fighting for their lives. Several parents succeeded in getting hold of the out- THE STORY OF THE FIRE 45 stretched hands of their loved ones, but they could not break the grip that held them from behind. When the fire finally reached the prostrate mass, there was nothing to do save to take one last look. Death Fight is Heart Rending. The shrieks of the entrapped children, agonized, blood chil- ling cries, died away. There was a gurgle of sound — then quiet. For a few moments the rescuers were powerless to move, stunned into silence. Suddenly a grey haired man dropped to his knees in the mud. "Oh, God, what have we done to deserve this?" he moaned, with arms outstretched toward heaven. Women, bareheaded and breathless, came running across the fields. They sought their children. They had not yet reached the building when they saw the old man kneeling. As of with one thought they threw themselves down in the mud and prayed to God to spare their little ones. As the words rose the dull sound of the fire engine came back as if to mock them, and the hissing of the flames as if to sneer at their misery. When darkness fell Collinwood was bereft. Crushed and awed, it lay under a pall of sorrow. Here and there silent figures moved. The day of doom was nearing an end — there were no more tears left to shed, little more consolation feft to give. If the neighbors met it was not to say, "How sorry I am," but "How many have yovi lost?" Few the homes where death did not strike through relatives or friends. CHAPTER II. THE WAY OF ESCAPE BLOCKED. CHILDREN CROWD INTO PASSAGEWAY, WHERE THEY ARE DESTROYED. When the fear-maddened children first wedged into the passageway that led to safety they were all standing. But the others surged from behind and as those in front struggled to free themselves they fell. This continued until the passage was blocked to within a foot of the top. Only the faces of the children could be seen from the outside. Behind the human partition were scores of other children crowded against the barrier in a moaning huddle. Then the fire swept down upon them and they perished as their helpless and frantic parents looked on. An alarm had been turned in. and the news of the fire having spread through the village, fathers and mothers came rushing to the schoolhouse, screaming, smashing at the windows, hurling themselves against the doors, and as frequently being forced back by the intense heat which the flames threw off. There were but two fire engines in Collinwood and they proved practically useless. The ladder company was of no use, its ladders failing to reach the windows where the imperiled children were trembling on the brink. A frantic message was sent across the wires to Cleve- land: "Send help. Collinwood school is burning." And the crush at the door of the schoolhouse grew in its monstrous proportions, while the flames burned steadily THE STORY OF THE FIRE 47 on. It was here that dozens of acts of heroism were per- formed that shine out in the awfulness of the scene. Andrew Dorn, who lived in the neighborhood was early on the spot. He had a daughtef in the school. As he reached the door he staggered back in horror. In some way the door had been forced open a few inches - — just a few pitiable inches, through which nothing but a frail little child could thrust its hand. The man faced a score of these little hands, torn, mangled, bleeding, stretched out in mute supplication, while from behind there came the saddest chorus that man has ever heard. Dorn hurled himself against the door. Others joined him in the effort. The weight of a dozen men against the stout oak paneling sufficed only to move it an inch at a time, for behind it were the compact bodies of a hundred children upon whose slender bodies the flames were al- ready feeding. But they got it open finally, and among the mass of agonized faces that gazed beseechingly at Dorn was that of his own little daughter. With a maddened cry he plunged into the mass. Move it he could not, though his daughter's voice weakly ap- pealed to him. In his frenzy he seized hold of her arm and pulled and pulled. The flames were already upon them, and he succeeded only in pulling the child's arm from its socket. She fell back into the struggling mass, and he saw her no more. Dorn fled with a piercing shriek. Wallace Upton also had a child in the school. He was in the band of heroes with Dorn, and he remained there with the fire leaping over him until he was carried away with fearful burns. 48 THE STORY OF THE FIRE He did not know that he saved his child and with her eighteen others, whom he dragged from the mass of vic- tims, one at a time, and passed out to the eager helpers who thronged the place. All the while the Collinwood firemen were doing their best, and the frantic mothers and fathers and other rela- tives and friends of those in the burning building were dashing about practically helpless, praying for the appear- ance of the Cleveland fire fighters. By the windows above, when the wind would clear away the smoke temporarily, the faces of the children could be seen in a background of flames. Now and then one of them w^ould fall or leap out. Again there would be cries of "Hold on." Ambulances clanged up — scores of them, and automo- biles, wagons, carriages — all pressed into service to carry ofif the dead and injured as they were picked up from beneath the walls or dragged out of the mass that still struggled at the half-open doorway. The Lake Shore Railroad shops were shut down and the employes sent over to join in the work of rescue. Other employes followed suit. The flames were bursting from every opening in the building. Mothers and fathers who strove to rush into the building had to be restrained. One big man, his eyes glaring fiercely, broke away time after time and sought to enter the structure. "My kinder are there," he shouted. Bystanders finally had to throw him down and hold him to prevent him from going to his death. Still no ladder, no skill in fire fighting — and every min- ute meaning the loss of another human life. THE STORY OF THE FIRE 49 The second floor contained the rooms of Miss Catherine Vx'eiler, second grade teacher, who was crushed to death, JMiss Lulu Rowley, third grade; Miss Mary Gollmar, fourth grade, and Miss Anna Moran, principal and sixth grade teacher. The top floor contains an auditorium, an attic and the fifth grade, taught by Miss Laura Bodey. One fire escape de- scended from the auditorium down the north side of the building. Each of the rooms contained from thirty to forty children. Miss Fiske had forty-four, Miss Weiler thirty-nine. Miss Rose had the smallest children, those who started to school three weeks ago in the middle of the year. The heaviest losses came in the rooms of ]\Iiss Moran, the principal ; Miss Gollmar, Miss Rowley and Miss Lynn, Miss Fiske and Miss Weiler, where nearly three-fourths of the chil- dren perished. These were the children who attempted to get out by the fearful back stairway. The casualties were lowest among the youngest children on the first floor and Miss Bodey's whose pupils came down by the fire escape. Parents Hurry to School. Miss Rose Lynn and Miss Irvine started to lead their pupils out by the front entrance, but were driven back by the flames before more than half of them got away. Holding the little ones in check as much as they could, they led them back into the rooms, where they helped them from the windows. Neighbors and parents hurried to the school building, where they caught the pupils as they jumped. Heroic rescues and narrow escapes become commonplace, as the friends and par- ents fought for their little ones. 50 THE STORY OF THE FIRE On the second floor the teachers tried to take the children down the front and back stairways. Those who tried the first, liurried them to the back to find the passage blocked by hun- dreds of children, already beginning to mass and get blocked up. Then ensued the dramatic fight of the day, the children struggling for the back stairways, the teachers trying to con- trol them, and trying in vain. ]\Iiss Gollmar got a few of her pupils back into her room and got down the fire escape with them. The other teachers, except the two who were killed, got out that way. But the children, uncontrollable, jumped and threw them- selves over the stairways on the mass below. The pressure from behind carried all those ahead down to the first pit. The sea of children surged and beat and stormed against the doors below. With the first call of fire came a call for help and relief. Every ambulance company in Cleveland and Collinwood sent every available wagon to the fire. Inspector Rowe sent out a detail of police under Capt. Schmunk and Lieut. Doyle of the thirteenth precinct. When the fire gong sounded at the Lake Shore shops, the foremen ran into the shop crying: "The schoolhouse is on fire. Everyone who has any chil- dren drop his tools and run for the building." Cried, "Jump, Jump." Men and women tried to rush into the building to rescue the children, but were driven back. Others stood underneath windows and encouraged the little ones to jump to their arms. THE STORY OF THE FIRE 51 Finally the police established a fire line and began the work of rescue. As the flames receded from the rear end of the building they exposed a great charred mass. Around it were blackened rafters and ashes and charred wood. The ambulances lined up in a great semi-circle around the back of the building and the drivers assisted the firemen in recovering the bodies. While part of the workers shoveled away the debris, the others felt around in the water with their rubber boots for the bodies. As fast as they were found they were hoisted out and hurried to the temporary morgue. Fire Department Late. The alarm of fire was rung at 9 :45 o'clock in the morning. Twenty minutes, according to the accounts of those who were witnesses, elapsed before the department arrived. The equipment of the village fire department was one en- gine, one hose company and a small ladder truck and one team of horses. There were no regular firemen and only twenty volunteers. Other horses were impressed into service and the fire de- partment was sent to the schoolhouse. The chief of the local department, George C. Hammel, was at work in Cleveland at the time of the alarm. He arrived one hour later. When the fire department arrived firemen say that the pressure was too light to supply the two lines of hose. An alarm was sent in by a woman to engine house No. 7 in Cleveland. Chief W^allace was telephoned and he imme- diately ordered engine company No. 30 and a truck company to respond to the alarm, under the command of Battalion 52 THE STORY OF THE FIRE Chief Fallon. The first equipment to arrive from Cleveland was the engine, a hose cart and an auxiliary truck. Robert GalloTvay, an employee of the Lake Shore shops, who was present at the fire soon after its start, said that twenty minutes elapsed before any firemen were on the scene. John \\'arson was the first Collinwood fireman to mount a ladder. Smoke overcame him and he was taken down in a comatose condition by his comrades. "The outer doors at the back of the building were open, both of them, but one half of the double inner doors was closed," said Patrolman C. L. ^^^ohl, of the Collinwood de- partment. "The inner door was opened before the children became wedged in, how^ever. The narrow corridor is what caught them. "I rushed into the little outer halhvay with Mr. Down and attempted to pull some of the children out, but it was of no use. I couldn't move one of them. Three times I tried to get them, but the heat was too great. Into A Fiery Furnace. "I pulled my thick hat down over my ears, turned up my coat collar and went in again. It was terrible. The fire was coming out over the children in a solid wall. As I think of it now^ I can't remember hearing them scream, although I re- member the aw^ful pain reflected in their faces." "Miss Gollmar, a teacher, tried to rescue the children, too but I held her back. If I hadn't she, too, would have been burned." Wohl's hat was burned on the top where he had held his THE STORY OF THE FIRE 53 head down toward the fire, his coat was scorched, and his hands blistered, mute testimony to his unavailing bravery. Miss Pearl Lynn, teacher of the first grade on the first floor, had a narrow escape from death. She was among the few who were pulled from the heap at the foot of the rear stairs. Most of her pupils perished. "The fire gong sounded at exactly 9 :30 o'clock as the classes were changing," she said. "The children stood up at once, thinking it was simply for fire drill. I gave the order to march, but when the doors opened into the corridor, smoke rushed in. Rush for Rear Exit. "The children all ran for the rear exit. Children from the second floor were tumbling down the stairs and blocking the way. My children crowded into them and so did those from two other rooms on the first floor. Miss Rose's pupils were the only ones in the school who escaped through the front door. Flames shooting up from the basement shut ofif the rest and they all rushed to the rear. "I saw that one of the doors was shut and tried to get to It, but was borne down by children crushing from above. Miss Rose tried to unlatch the door but failed. Then Mr. Hirter, the janitor, came and forced it. I knew nothing after that un- til Mr. Dorn dragged me outside." Escapes with Coat. "I heard three bells. Then I got my coat, hat and rubbers, climbed out of the window to the fire escape, ran down one story and jumped." CHAPTER III. A MOTHER'S AGONY. MOTHER SAVES HER CHILD FOR A MOMENT, ONLY TO SEE HIM DIE. Across the street from the burning building lived Mrs. Clark Sprung. Her boy was in the school. When she arrived on the scene at one of the windows she saw the face of her son. He stretched out his arms for help. The mother ran across the street and secured a stepladder which she placed against the wall. Climbing up, she reached out and was barely able to catch the boy by his hair. With all her mother-strength she sought to drag him to safety, but at the moment of victory the fire conquered. It burned the boy's hair off in her hands and the lad fell back into the flames. Tragedies like these, acts of daring bravery, of sacrifice, abounded on every side, while the fire swiftly spread the pall of death over nearly every home in the village. Suddenly a shout of joy went up. The Cleveland fire fighters had been sighted, in the van the ladder wagon, with ladders that would reach those above. The driver was on his feet, lashing his horses into a mad gallop. A hundred frantic men and women rushed forward to meet it. They did not wait for the apparatus to stop. The ladders were dragged off and eager hands carried them forward, but — Again, in the hour of victory, the fire conquered. It had not been burning more than half an hour. There were still many precious lives that might be saved — they were THE STORY OF THE FIRE 55 in the windows above there, little ones, six years old, seven, eight, with arms outstretched. Ten minutes before there had been a chance. Now, as the rescuers were in the act of rearing up the ladders, there came an ominous roar, a burst of flame, a shower of sparks, and the floors of the building collapsed. Those who heard the wail — low, plaintive, yet piercing — will never get the terrible ring out of their ears. It was the requiem. It rose above the crack of flames, the crash of timbers. With it went all hope of saving any life that still remained in the building. Down there in the cellar the flames raged most fiercely. From the crowd came in response an echo of agony and despair. ]\Ien and women gathered about in weeping groups while the firemen poured water on the flames. Another hour and it was possible to begin work in the ruins with picks and delve in the blackened mass for the little ones in pinafores and Norfolks who three hours be- fore, kissing mamma good-bye, with "shining morning faces, had crept unwillingly to school." Firemen and employes from the Lake Shore shops turned morgue keepers. The railroad company turned over one of the buildings nearby to be used as a tem- porary morgue, and thither the charred and broken little bodies were removed as fast as they could be dug from the ruins. They were placed in rows in the railroad shop. Identifi- cations were made only by means of clothing or trinkets. The fire had swept away nearly all resemblance to human features in the majority of instances. A line of men was formed, backed by half a dozen 56 THE STORY OF THE FIRE ambulances. As the bodies were untangled from the debris they were passed along to the stretchers and thence to am- bulances. As fast as a load was obtained it was driven away to the improvised morgue, to be succeeded by another within a short time. The hour had come to count the cost of somebody's blunder — "ten at a time." The cost was reckoned in the lives of little children, and the first squad of ten fathers and mothers w'ere let through the big gate to the Lake Shore shops. The cost was tabulated neatly, ready for the counting — rows or rows of charred bodies wrapped in blankets and laid out on the floor of the warehouse. Ten at a Time Seek Dead. Ten fathers and mothers counted the cost, and their places were taken by ten more fathers and mothers, and ten more, and yet ten more, until the awful tale was told. By 4 o'clock 165 bodies had been brought to the warehouse, and many identified. But to go back a little while. The Lake Shore shops at Col- linwood have been called the model railroad shops of the world — the biggest and the best. Wednesday morning every department there was running smoothly m its accustomed groove. Word came that the schoolhouse had been burned down and that all or nearly all the children had died in the flames. At a signal every wheel in the model railroad shop stopped. And every superintendent and foreman of every department took advantage of the lull to make a short speech. They were all practically alike, and were as follows : THE STORY OF THE FIRE 57 "Men, the school is on fire. Some of you have children there. There will be no more work today." A machine shop foreman in overalls came running to the warehouse with a verification of the first reports. "Hardly a one got out alive," he said. "I just came from there. It's bad enough when grown folks die,, but when it's kids — yours and mine — little kids that were laughing and whispering and studying their lessons only an hour ago " He did not finish. Already order was taking the place of disorder. A master mind somewhere had taken command. The system that makes this the model shops was working with the same efficiency on a labor of humanity. A railroad shop contains everything a railroad can possibly need. And that means everything. It even means stretchers and sheets and blankets, for railroads have their share of dis- asters. And it was providential that these things were to be had and that a master mind was there to order their distribution. The company's physician, Dr. Williams, was among the first at the fire. He ordered the removal of the bodies from the smoking embers to the warehouse. Ambulances Busy at Grewsome Task. The ambtilances galloped back and forth until their horses were white with lather. The bodies were laid in rows on the ground floor, between the shelves and heaps of castings, and covered with blankets. A railroad man was given charge of each row. On the sec- ond floor a temporary hospital had been established, with four nurses. Then when everything was in readiness, the word was given to the gate tender. 58 THE STORY OF THE FIRE And ten at a time they came, while the great crowd with- out pressed their white faces against the pickets and waited. There was an escort at the gate to take them to the ware- house. They entered by a certain door. The escort changed, and they inspected first this row, next that one, and so on, to the last body in the last row. They went out by another door and through the gate, and ten more came. With them went men who checked off names on lists, and when a body was identified it was covered with a white sheet. By night time there were more white sheets than blankets. And so the cost was counted. A woman came, wild eyed and breathless. She all but stumbled over a body. The row stretched from wall to wall. She steadied herself and w^ent resolutely to the task. Shuddering, she passed from form to form, until she came to the next to the last. A suspender buckle glistened in a mold of burned cloth. First Victim to be Identified. Voiceless, she bent and picked it up and kissed it. And the name, "Mills Thompson." was checked off the list. Another woman came. "That's Flenry's sweater," she said, and a check mark was placed after the name of Henry Schultz, nine. They would have led her away, for there were grew- some sights that were not good to see, but she said : "That's only one," and went on looking^ A man came, leading a little girl by the hand. The man walked with averted face. "I dare not look." he said. But the little daughter was braver. The search was long, and the child's face was white and drawn when it was finished and she said to her father: THE STORY OF THE FIRE 59 ■'This is Irene's skirt, daddy." And Irene Davis, fifteen, was numbered among the iden- tified. The identification was made by her younger sister, Helen. The work of identification was necessarily slow. In rare cases were the faces of the dead recognizable. The identity of most could be told only by the clothing, and perhaps a dozen bodies were nothing but charred flesh and bone. An aged Polish woman searched for her dead boy. In her haste she brushed others aside. "Leave me alone," she said. "Do you think I would not know my boy?" Woman Keeps Courage to End. So they left her alone until they found her crouched at the feet of a blackened and shapeless thing that once had been a boy of ten. On its breast lay a silver watch. The woman knew the watch, because it had been her husband's, who was dead. It had gone to the boy as a legacy. She moaned and shivered on the floor. Another woman, cast, perhaps, in a different mold, marched unfalteringly along the rows of bodies. Her husband followed her. In his eyes were tears ; in hers none. Both were well and fashionably dressed. Presently she halted and pointed with a gloved hand. The man nodded miserably. The woman, in the calmest of voices, instructed an undertaker concerning the disposition of her son's body. Her face was expressionless and stony. "Come on," she said, and turned away, followed by her husband. But when they reached the outer air she fainted dead away. CHAPTER IV. IN THE DEATH STRUGGLE. VICTIMS TRAMPLE COMRADES TO DEATH IN VAIN EFFORTS TO ESCAPE. Walter C. Kelley, a newspaper man, two of whose chil- dren were in the building, was one of the first upon the scene. He said the rear door, one of the two exits, was locked. The children rushed for the front and rear doors. The front exit soon was jammed full of fighting and panic- stricken children. Many who reached the exit first escaped, but those, the greater number, who followed choked the doorway. Those who fell were trampled upon, and many were killed in this manner. Those behind turned and made for the windows. Some upon the second and third floors jumped from the windows and escaped. In this way three or four were killed while others were more fortunate and escaped WMth slight injuries. The greater number of those who met death were cut off from escape by the smoke, which blinded them. Caught like rats in this manner, they fell with the lower floor, amid the blazing timbers, to the basement below. There the little bodies could be seen writhing in their last death struggle. A few minutes after alarm was given the school was surrounded by fathers and mothers, who were frantic in their dazed efforts to rescue their children. Very few THE STORY OF THE FIRE bl were saved from among the children who were behind the jam at the front door. The others escaped with slight injuries. The fire from the basement, in addition to filling the schoolrooms with smoke, which caused the first alarm, leaped up the stairway to the first, second and third floors. When the children rushed from their rooms to the hall- ways they rushed into a fiery furnace. It was in the hall- ways and at the main exits where the greatest number met death. The hallways were narrow and could not accommodate the large number that attempted to rush through them to reach the main door. Three little girls met instant death in attempting to jump to safety from the third floor of the burning build- ing. They were ]\Iary Ridgewa}^ Anna Roth and Ger- trude Davis. The greatest loss of life was caused by one of the exits being closed, to wdiich point scores of the children rushed. Their escape was blocked by a door that is, it is charged, opened inward. In this manner they were delayed in reaching the other door and windows. It is believed that as a result of this stampede alone scores of children lost their lives. After the fire had been somewhat reduced piles of charred little bodies were still visible in the doorways. In the rear door bodies burned beyond recognition lay piled five feet deep. A man who reached the school building shortly after the fire broke out declared that the back door was locked. He attempted to break down the door, but failed to do so. He then smashed in the windows with the aid of 62 THE STORY OF THE FIRE other men and rescued a number of children by dragging them out. The flames shot up throusj^h the central halls with terrible rapidity. The children were terrified beyond all control and the teachers, although they struggled bravely to marshal their charges out of the building in something like order, were utterly helpless. Those who were familiar with the building and were early on the scene'believe that most of the loss of life was due to the fact that all of the rooms were dismissed at once. Pupils pouring down the stairs made for the doorways, al- ready full of children escaping from the lower floors. The exits were soon choked. The desperate ones behind pushed and struggled for their lives, driving the human wedges the tighter in place. Persons living across the street, who were the first to reach the burning building, said the lower halls were already filled with flames when they arrived. Thev helped out such children as they could reach, but were forced to see many beyond their aid perish miserably. The doors and windows were packed with terrified little ones, whose panic left them helpless to escape. Man\- children descended the fire escapes, but feared to jump on reaching the bottom. They were pulled down to make room for others. "As long as T live I will remember the terrible scene that confronted me. the despairing little children, arms out- stretched, begging for protection from the awful wall of fire that was sweeping down on them," declared Mrs. W^alter C. Kelly, as she turned, heartbroken, from the long line of dead THE STORY OF THE FIRE 63 at the improvised morgue, where she and her husband were searching for the bodies of two of their children. Mrs. Kelly was on her way to Willoughby with a contractor, where Mr. and Mrs. Kelly intended building a summer bunga- low. Mr. Kelly, who is marine editor of the Cleveland Leader, recently moved into Collinwood and their children had not been attending the school long. As Mrs. Kelly was about to cross Collamer avenue a little girl rushed up to her. "'Fire, school fire," was all the breathless and frightened little one could say. Sees Smoke Arising. "I looked back at the school house," said Mrs. Kelly, "and saw smoke, and knowing my little ones were in danger I ran to the building and joined a frantic and screaming crowd of men and women at the rear of the building who were trying to rescue some of the pupils. I pushed my way to the front and found children jammed in a mass in front of the door. There they stood, arms outstretched, the flames beating down upon their heads and swirling about their bodies. "They were silent, most of them. The heat had become so intense when I arrived that they were stifling and their agon- ized screams were stilled. The outside doors of the vestibule were wide open, but the inner doors were closed. "The panels had been broken out and we could reach through and seize the children. Children Piled Up. "The lower part of the doors were intact and behind them, piled up almost breast-high, were the children. "It was terrible to think that we could reach them with our hands and yet were unable to drag any of them out. 64 THE STORY OF THE FIRE "The little ones looked up into our faces and the mute appeal and agony expressed in their countenances I never will forget. "I seized one little girl by the hands and pulled. Her hands were blistered and burned and presented the appearance of raw beefsteak. "I exerted all my strength, but she was wedged so fast in the mass of children that her flesh slipped through my hands. "Despite every effort those who were frantically trying to rescue the children failed utterly. Couldn't See Her Own Boy. "The hair of most of the children was burned off, their clothes were afire ; their faces, upturned, were glazed over by the furious blast of flame which poured over their heads, and, with hearts wrung with agony, we were forced back from the door and stood idly by as the little ones perished. "It was awful, a terrible sight. I knew that while T stood there trving ineffectually to aid the doomed tots my Richard was there. I could not see him. but I am sure he saw me." Late in the afternoon ]\Ir. and Mrs. Kelly identified the body of Walter C. Kelly. Jr.. seven years old. The body of the older boy, Richard Dewey Kelly, ten years old. also was found at the morgue. Of their three children only the youngest, Gilbert, too young to attend school, survives. Breaks News To Wife. John Leonard walked homeward from the Lake Shore morgue where on a stretcher, among the dead, lay his two little ones. His step was slow and tears coursed down his cheek. He was thinking how he could break the news to his wife. THE STORY OF THE FIRE 65 "She has a weak heart," he sobbed. "It may kill her." As he neared the house he forced a smile. Three little nieces came to meet him. "Where's Louise?" asked a 5-year-old. Leonard lost his self-control and burst into tears. He mounted the steps. "They're dead — my babies are dead," he cried. Mrs. Leonard screamed and fell fainting into her husband's arms. With a wild cry, Leonard reeled, and, his wife in his arms, fell to the floor. He, too, had fainted. All The Teachers Heroines. There were nine teachers in the Lakeview school. Two of them died with their children. They were Miss Katherine Weiler, 2217 East 81st street, and Miss Grace Fiske, Orville avenue, Cleveland. Miss Fiske died among the first, shielding the little six-year- old first grade pupils in her charge from the flames. Her room was burned first of all. Some of the children escaped through the window, and she could have done so, but insisted on waiting until her charges, or some of them, could be saved. Sacrifices Her Own Life, Miss Weiler deliberately plunged into the struggling mass of children on the stairway, though she knew the way to safety, and rendered up her life in exchange for the safety of a score of little ones, whom she bodily hurled back toward the fire escape, down which they fled. The last seen of her was, as her clothing blazed, she re- peated : ^ THE STORY OF THE FIRE "Quiet, children, quiet : go back to the fire escape." Then she died. Miss Pearl Lynn, another teacher, was pulled from beneath the mass of children by Patrolman Wahl, and carried away un- conscious. Miss Ethel Rose, teacher, saved all but three of her Z7 pupils, and escaped herself. Loses Half Her Flock. Miss Ruby Irwin lost half of her flock. She ordered them to rush through the flames to the front doorway. Those who refused stayed back — and died. All who fol- lowed her escaped unscathed. Her judgment had been good. Misses Moran. Gollmar and Rowley escaped through the windows of their rooms. Miss Laura Bodey alone maintained the order of the fire- drill, and standing on the fire escape, after flight through the halls was rendered impossible, lifted her children to safety. Only five or six of hers perished, and those broke from the lines and leaped into the death-trap at the foot of the stairs. "We had been having fire drills about once every month," said Miss Lulu Rowley, one of the teachers. "The children knew the signal well ; so when the gong sounded Wednesday in my room on the second floor, the pupils all closed their geographies and stood up. "I ordered a child at a desk in the rear of the room to open the door. It was when smoke poured into the room that I realized that this was more serious than our ordinary fire drills. "I was standing in the middle of the room at the time, help- THE STORY OF THE FIRE 67 ing one of the pupils with her work. Despite my caution to keep quiet, some of the children started to cry 'fire.' Immedi- ately there was a rush for the door. "At the foot of the stairs the passage through the front door was cut off by the flames. The other entrance in the rear was jammed shut with children from the other rooms who had left their rooms earlier than those in mine. "I called to my class to file into one of the rooms on the first floor. Only a few obeyed, and these I lifted to the windows. Even then some of them would not jump until I pushed them. "I ran back into the hall to call more children. By this time the smoke was so dense that I could not see 10 feet before me. Only A Few Obey. "Most of my pupils are foreigners. I always found them more obedient than the American children, but they were too panic-stricken to mind me. They rushed headlong at the back door. They could not get through. "Seemg that I could not save any more, I jumped through one of the back windows.. "At our last fire drill three weeks ago, the children in my room filed out of the building in about a minute. But with the front door cut off by flames, it was impossible to follow our usual drill." CHAPTER V. PARENTS UNABLE TO SAVE. FATHERS AND MOTHERS PRAY AND CURSE AS THEIR CHILDREN PERISH. Fearful scenes were enacted while the schoolhouse burned. Fathers and mothers raved, cursed or prayed. Many tried to break through the crowd and some got so far as to dash toward the flaming doorways. A big man in overalls and jumper was restrained by force. Explain- ing in broken English that his "babies" were in the build- ing he struggled desperately with the three men who held him. Finally they threw him to the ground and sat on him, forcing his great form down in the ankle-deep mud. The building was destroyed, only the outside brick walls remaining standing. The floors and roof fell into the interior early in the fire, making the rescue of bodies intact absolutely hopeless. As soon as firemen and volunteers could get close enough attempts were made to pluck bodies from the death heaps at the doors. It was found that the flames had practically incinerated the bodies. Firemen with rakes, forks and shovels turned up blackened bones, little blackened skulls and masses of charred flesh, but bodies recognizable as such were no longer to be found. The fire had swept away nearly all resemblance to hu- man features in the majority of instances. Distracted par- THE STORY OF THE FIRE 69 ents soon began to gather and the work of identification of the blackened and mangled corpses began. The task of taking out the blackened bodies was one of horror. A line of rescuers was formed, backed by half a dozen ambulances. As the bodies were drawn from the debris they were passed along to the stretchers and thence loaded in the ambulances. Mercifully covered with blankets, the pitiful sights were veiled from the crowd of curious that stretched about the entrance to the structure. As fast as a load was obtained it was driven away to the improvised morgue, to be succeeded by another within a short time. The sights of the human charnel house caused the men delving into the mass of burned flesh to hesitate, but the work had to be done and done quickly, so their feelings had to be smothered for the time being as they tenderly handled all that was mortal of the little ones. At the temporary morgue in the Lake Shore shop the scenes increased fourfold in the intensity of human suf- fering as fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters passed up and down the lines formed of scores of corpses. To facilitate identification the bodies were numbered as they were received at the morgue. After the bodies had been taken to the temporary morgue they were laid in rows of ten. The first identification was that of Nels Thompson, a boy who was identified by his mother, who knew his sus- pender buckle, Henry Schultz, nine years old, was known only by a 70 THE STORY OF THE FIRE fragment of his sweater, his face having been trampled into nothing. The third identification was that of Irene Davis, fifteen years old, whose little sister pointed out a fragment of her skirt. Among those who sought vainly through the morgue for their children was Mrs. John Phillis of Polar street, whose fifteen-year-old daughter was among the dead. Her attention was called to the fire by her four-year-old son, who called her to come to the window, ''and see the children playing on the fire escape.", Mrs. Phillis ran to the schoolhouse and found her daughter among those penned in around the front door. She took hold of her hands, but could not pull her out. "I reached in and stroked her head," said Mrs. Phillis, "trying to keep the fire from burning her hair. I stayed there and pulled at her and tried to keep the fire away from her till a heavy piece of glass fell on me, cutting my hand nearly off. Then I fell back and my girl died before my eyes." Dale Clark, eight years old, was identified by a little pink bordered handkerchief, in which he had wrapped a new, bright green marble. The body of Russell Newberry, nine years old, was made known by a fragment of a watch chain. Hugh Mcllrath, ten years old, who was killed in the fire, was the son of Charles G. Mcllrath, chief of the Collinwood police. He lost his life in the effort to save a number of smaller children. When Chief Mcllrath reached the burning building he saw his son leading a crowd of younger children down the fire escape. THE STORY OF THE FIRE 71 From the bottom of the escape to the ground was a long leap, and the children refused to take it, in spite of young Mcllrath's efforts. Some of them turned back into the building, and young Mcllrath hastened after them to induce them to come out again, but was caught by the flames before he could do so himself. Glenn Sanderson, a boy of twelve, met his death in plain view of a large crowd which was utterly unable to help him. He was on the third floor, in the school auditorium, in which were a number of pieces of scenery. The floor beneath him was on fire, and young Sander- son swung from one piece of scenery to another, trying to reach the fire escape. He managed to cross the stage about half wayj when he missed his grasp and fell into the fire. % 'In A ' ;W' ' '*i* : . U uZt^2--'^ CHAPTER VI. THE TERRIBLE STORY. STRONG MEN WEEP AS THEY TELL HOW THEIR CHILDREN DIED. A father stood on the street in Collinwood after the fire and told a neighbor how his little girl, nine years old, was burned to death. He told how she had helped her mother with the break- fast dishes. He told how she had laughed and waved her hand to him as she skipped off down the street for school on the fatal Wednesday. He told how she looked when they got her out, her poor little body charred by flames, twisted in agony. He laid his face in the arm of his shabby overcoat and sobbed. The word "Wednesday," marking the day when scores of children had died in the flames of their school, merely startled those whom the fire did not leave stricken and hysterical or dazed. Realization of the horror came in the plain, heartrend- ing stories that passed from man to man in the streets and from one home to another. It was learned then how some little boy, the snub-nosed youngster who passed the house every morning rattling a stick against the fence pickets, met death ; how he was taken out with his little legs twisted, stiffened, charred, his arm thrown up across his burned and blackened face. A hush of pity fell. The silence of death, an awful, wholesale death of little children lies upon the town. THE STORY OF THE FIRE 73 One story is that of an unknown little girl among the many heaped up against the closed rear door. The flames were at her back when she pressed her face to the crack of the door and pleaded: "Mister, help me out." William Davis, aged twenty-four, 615 Westropp ave- nue, could hear her. He threw his weight against the door and tried to force it open, back through the piled-up bodies. She could almost touch him. Her face was to the crack. Her hair was scorching. Her baby hands reached out pleading, "Mister, help me." Something fell from above on Davis' head and stunned him. Before others could reach the child she had fallen back among the dead. Whose little girl? No one could answer this question. To every stricken parent, to every one whose child was saved, to all who heard this story, the thought occurred: "Suppose my child was at that door reaching out and pleading, 'Mister, help me !' " At almost every other house along the streets white ribbons fluttered from the door-knobs. At one house three bows of white marked the number of the dead. At the table there at noon a father sat silent, with eyes staring ahead, and saw nothing. The food be- fore him lay untasted. At the side of the table were their chairs — three ; in a corner, the skates of the young boy ; on a rack behind the door hung the cap and cloak of his little girl — all dead. In the man's toil-roughened hands lay a sheet of paper with figures penciled over it. At the top was the name in a slow, rounded hand, Alice. 74 THE STORY OF THE FIRE The night before she sat by him at the table when the supper dishes were cleared away. He helped her with her lesson. It was a hard lesson for the little girl. He thought how pleased she had been when they got it right at last. He thought how she looked when she sleepily kissed him goodnight and went upstairs to bed. He thought of how she looked that last morning when she started to school. Slowly, while his eyes were still staring straight ahead, he folded the bit of paper that had been his little girl's and laid it away in his pocket. The baby in his high chair pounded the tray with his spoon. "Papa," baby cried in childish prattle. "Papa, when's Alice coming home?" The man could not speak. Tears rolled down his fur- rowed cheeks. He hid his face in his arms on the table and sobbed aloud, his shoulders shaking. In the front room the bodies lay side by side. And there beside them, crying, the mother knelt. They two, to- gether at the morgue, had claimed their dead. They passed along the long lines of charred, twisted little bodies. The mother pitched forward fainting when they at last found their third. Just across the street from the burned school was a little candy and school supply store. It was closed. In the windows lay displayed the slate pencils, rulers, tops, marbles, balls and chocolate rats, licorice sticks and all- day suckers — things for which children spend their pen- nies. Such things as these fell from the pockets of charred THE STORY OF THE FIRE 75 clothes at the orgue when the bodies were lifted for re- moval. It was school time at 8:30 a. m. Thursday. BUT THERE WAS NO SCHOOL IN COLLINWOOD. At the regular hour children came out on the streets. Habit or fascination drew them to the ruins, where their playmates had perished. Fights Fire as Son Dies. The fire had its tragedy for Charles G. Mcllrath, chief of the Collinwood police force. He was one of the first to arrive at the burning building. He was at the police station when the fire broke out and received the first news of the fire over the telephone. As soon as he turned in the alarm he jumped into a passing wagon and ordered the driver to rush him to the school building. The flames had gained considerable headway, however, be- fore he arrived and the heat was so intense that he was un- able to enter the building where his three children, Hugh, fourteen ; Benson, seven, and Viola May, nine, were at school. A large number of children ha*d made their escape from the building, but he did not know whether his children were alive or dead. Duty came before everything else. He had to take charge of the police force and he had no time to examine the bodies as they were carried from the building. For six hours he remained at the building keeping the crowd back and answering the questions of hundreds of anx- ious fathers and mothers. His stolid face did not betray his anxious heart and only when pressed did he say that he feared that his children were lost. During the afternoon he learned that his daughter Viola 76 THE STORY OF THE FIRE May and his son Benson were safe. His eldest son was still missing, but he was unable to search for him until 6 o'clock. Then he hurried to the Lake Shore shops, where the dead bodies were taken, and after a long, nerve racking search he found the body of his son. Finds Dead Son. "It's Hughie," was all he said. Brushing back the tears that welled into his eyes he hurried back to the ruins of the charnel house and remained on duty until far into the night. Frank J. Dorn, a member of the school board and chairman of its building committee, was in the kitchen of his home wdien the school bell gave the alarm. \\^ithout waiting to put on his hat or coat, he ran to the building. He and Charles \\all, a special policeman, were among the first to reach the building. The children had begun to fall at the rear door. Together they dragged many to safety, among them Miss Pearl Lynn, a teacher in the first grade, who had fallen and was being trampled under foot by the excited scholars. "The fire had not much headwav when we reached the school," said Frank Dorn. "The flames were burning in the front part of the hall and had shut ofif escape from that way, but the rear entrance was still free and the children were pouring out. "One child fell and the others, mad with the panic, and borne on by the force of those behind them, fell over their prostrate companions. One of these was Miss Lynn. She was nearly unconscious when we got her into the open air and her clothing was badly burned. "I could see my little girl in the rear of the crowd. She was with Blanch ^Mcllrath, Chief IMcIlrath's daughter. I called to THE STORY OF THE FIRE 17 them to come on and I would pull them over the heap of chil- dren. I saw them turn and go up the stairway. That was the last I saw of my girl. Blanch Mcllrath was saved. ]\Iy little one is dead." Ten-year-old Mildred Schmitt, her skirts in flames to the knees, ran screaming from the building. Someone in the crowd smothered the flames, but not until the little form was blistered and blackened. "Papa, papa," moaned the child, and breaking his way through to her, the father sprang to her side just as she was being placed in an ambulance. Her mother had fainted at sight of the child's agony. "You'll go with me, won't you, papa?" the little girl moaned. "Yes, right with you," said the father, choking down his sobs. Mildred was taken to Glenville hospital, where sht died a few hours later.- Face and Hands Blistered. Henry Ellis, 4613 Westropp avenue, Collinwood, a real es- tate man, was one of the first to reach the doomed building. He was aroused by a boy running down the street and crying "Fire." With L. E. Cross, superintendent of the Lake Shore roundhouse, he ran to the scene. Together they attempted to rescue some of the children, jammed in at the rear dooi. Ellis remained at his post till his face and hands w^ere blistered. "It was the most heartrending sight I ever saw," said Ellis, his hands swathed in cotton. "When I reached the school the smoke was pouring from the first and second story windows. The front door appeared to be closed, and behind it I could see the flames coming through the floor. "Cross and I went to the rear. Back of the open door was 78 THE STORY OF THE FIRE the most pitiful sight I ever saw. The memory of it I will carry to my grave. "There they lay, five or six deep in the open door. They had almost reached a place of safety, and, rvmning down the stairs, had evidently fallen over the forms of their prostrate com- panions. Back of them were other children. The fire had already reached them. I could see over the mass before me ; the flames caught first one and then another. "The fire was creeping up on the children in the rear. I saw one girl, who could not have been more than ten or ^welve, protect her little brother, who was not more than six years of age. He cried for help and clung to her hand. She com- forted him and covered his head with a shawl she was wear- ing. Flames Near Children. "The flames were growing closer, and the moans of the children mingled with the creaking of the fire. The little girl drew her brother nearer to her. She saw that there was no help. Together they knelt down on the floor. That was the last I saw. The fire caught them after that. "Cross and myself and others worked at the rear door. The children were lying in a heap on the floor and when I first came there I thought it would be no task at all to get most of them out. "After we had attempted to release the first girl we saw what was before us. They were crowded in, one on top of the other, as a cord of wood is piled up. It was impossible to move them. We succeeded in saving a few who were nearer the top, but that was all. "The children, and they were mostly girls, were patient. THE STORY OF THE FIRE 79 They did not cry out for help. We worked as rapidly as we could. We would grasp a child by the arms and strive to disengage him from the compact mass. In most cases it was impossible. "The fire swept on through the hall. It sprang from one child to another, catching in their hair and on the girls' dresses. The cries of those in the rear were heartrending." When the first rumor of disaster reached Mrs. Mary Lau- bish, of Kent street, she rushed from her home bareheaded. Over the frozen pavement she flew, slipping, panting, fall- ing, still running on. Her sole thought was for her only boy, Clarence, ten years old, a bright fourth grade pupil. The woman dashed into the press of the people before the burning building. "My boy," she said imploringly. "Where is Clarence?" Before bystanders could speak her question was answered. The boy, alive and uninjured, rushed into her arms. Fainting with the excess of joy the mother sank to the ground and had to be carried away. At the first alarm Clarence had run to a second story win- dow and jumped. He escaped without a scratch. Depicts the Horror. Miss Colmar said: "It was awful. I can see the wee things in my room holding out their tiny arms and crying to me to help them. Their voices are ringing in my ears yet, and I shall never forget them. When the alarm gong rang I started the pupils to marching from the building. When we started down the front stairs we were met by a solid wall of flame and clouds of dense smoke. We retreated, and when we turned the children became panic stricken and I could not 80 THE STORY OF THE FIRE do anything with them. They became jammed in the narrow stairway and I knew that the only thing for me to do was to get around to the rear door, I suppose, and help those who were near the entrance. When I got there, after climbing out of a window, I found the children so crowded in the narrow passageway that I could not pull even one of them out. "Those behind pushed forward, and as I stood there the little ones piled up on one another. Those who could stretched out their arms to me and cried for me to help them. I tried with all my might to pull themjDut and stayed there until the flames drove me away." Tells of Horror. Another teacher, Miss Pearl Lynn, narrowly escaped death- She was carried toward the rear entrance by the rush of the panic-stricken pupils, and fell at the bottom of the stairs, with numbers of the children on top of her. She lay unable to rise because of the weight of the bodies upon her. She was dragged from the mass of dead children just in time to save her own life. One of the scenes of supreme horror that attended the fire occurred at the rear doorway of the building before the fire- men arrived. This door is said to have been closed and some say that it was locked. The children were piled up high against it, and when it finally was broken down, by those out- side, and because of the fire that had partly burned and weak- ened it, the women who had gathered on the outside saw be- fore them a mass of white faces and struggling bodies. The flames swept over the babes while the women stood helpless, unable to lift a hand to aid the children. ]\Iany of the women were unable to withstand the sight and dropped fainting to the ground. CHAPTER VII. EFFORT TO RESCUE CHILDREN. SUPREME MOMENT OF HORROR— DOOR TO SAFETY IS CLOSED. One of the scenes of supreme horror that attended the fire occurred at the rear doorway of the building before the firemen arrived. This door, like the one in front, opened inward, and it was locked. The children were piled up high against it, and when it finally was broken down by their weight and because of the fire that had partly burned and weakened it the women who had gathered on the outside saw before them a m