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V MD IN TRAP ? I i Many Persons Are Crashed tad Burned in a New York Factory i DEATH TOLL IS HEAVY i 1 * ? \ w ^ They Are Caught Without Means of J Escape, Many Jump from Ninth < anil Tenth Stories ? Lives Are Crushed Out on Pavement Before Horrified Spectators. One hundred and forty-eight persons?nine-tenths of them girls from the East Side?were crushed to death on the pavements, srhothered by smoke or shrivelled crisp Saturday afternoon In the worst flre New York has known since the steamer General Slocum was burned off North Brothers Island, In 1904. (Nearly all. If not all, of the victims were employed by the Triangle Waist Company, on the etghth, ninth and tenth floors of a ten-story loft building, at No. 23 Washington. Place, on the western fringe of the down-town wholesale clothing, fur and millinery district. The partnere of the Arm, Isaac , HarriB and Mac Blanek pRcnnnH from the office on the tenth floor, carrying , with them over an adjoining roof Blanck's two young daughters and a governess. There was not an outside flro escape on the "building. How the Are started will perhaps never be known. A corner on the eighth floor was its point of origin and the three upper floors only were swept. On the ninth floor, fifty bodies were found, sixty-three or more were crushed to death by jumping, and more than thirty clogged the elevator shafts. The loss to property will not exceed $100,000. Pedestrians going home, through Washington Place to Washington Square, at ten minues to five, were scattered by the whiz of something rushing through the air before them; there was a terrible thud on the pavement and a body flattened on the flags. Wayfarers on the opposite side of the street shaded their eyes against the setting sun and saw the windows of the three upper floors ot the building black with girls crowding to the sills. There were no flrt , escapes. No Other Alternative. "Don't jump; don't jump!" yelled 1 the crowd, but the girls had no alter- i native. Th? pressure of the mad- i dened hundreds behind them and the urging of their own fears were too ( strong. They began to fall to the sidewalk, in a terrible rain of flesh i end blood. Four alarms were rung within lb minutes. Before the engines coulo respond, before the nets could bo i stretched or the ladderB raised, live girls had fallen from the eighth ana ninth floors so heavily that they hroke through the glass and Iron roofs of the sub-cellars and crashed through the very streets into the vaults below. In an hour the Are was out; in half an hour It had done Its worst. Probably the death llsi was full In 20 minutes. The building stands on a corner, with exposure on two sides, but the only Are escape was In the rear, opening Into a light and air shaft. In all. there were seven exits?the single fire escape, two freight elevators, at the rear; two passenger elevators In front, and two stairways. All of them proved almost useless and practically all who escaped either climbed to the roof and scrambled thence to the roof of the building occupied by the American Book Company, or fled in the first rush for safety before the crush and the smoke grew too thick. The buildings etand tonight with shell intact and barely scarred?rnth?r only smudged. The tiling between the floors are sound, and It is impossible for one, who did not see it, to imagine how the flames in so short a time could have caused such havoc. Seven hundred persons were employed by the shirt waist company. They sat in rows at their whirring machines, the tables before them piled with flimsy cloth, the floor littered with lint, the air itself full ot nying Inflammable dust. Died in Their Seats. The first rush of flame was almost < an explosion. Operators died in their chairs, their lungs seared by Inhaling flame. Others were crowded into the elevator shafts, after the cars had \ made their last trip. Still others wt re ! pushed ofT the inadequate interior < fire escape. I In such a horrible stream did the 1 bodies overflow from the windows, ' that the fire nets, stretched by the < first company to arrive, were soon gorged beyond capacity. Twelve bodies dropped into one net, tearing i it to pieces, then fell to the pave- t ment. ' When the first breath of flame < curled over the edge of a pile of 1 shirting, on the eighth floor. Ave I minutes before quitting time, hiin- a dreds were In lino before the casn 1 ier's window. I In the office buildings across f Washington Place, scores of men, t detained beyond office hours, worked a at their desks. One of them eaid a o girl rushed to a window and threw up b the sash. Behind her danced a seeth- * Infc curtain of yellow flame. Sho climbed to the sill, stood in black outline against the light, hesitating; then with a last touch of futile thrltt, slipped her chatelaine bag over her wrist and jumped. Her body went whirling downward, through the woven wire glass of a canopy, to the [lagging below. Her sisters who followed, flamed through the air like rockets. Their path could be followed, but their screams hardly heard. It was 85 feet from eighth floor to the ground, about 95 feet from the ninth floor. 115 feet from the ' cornice of the roof. The upward rush 1 3f the draught and the crackle of the flames drowned their cries. 1 Six girls fought their way to a window on the ninth floor, over the i bodies of fallen fellow workers, ana . irawled out In single file on an eight- ' Inch stone ledge running the length i jf the building. More than a hun- < tired feet above the sidewalk they < crawled along their perilous path- < way to an electric-feed wire spanning Washington place. The leaders paused for their companions to catch i up and the six grabbed the wire simultaneously. It snapped and they :rashed down to death. A 17-year-old girl hung for three 1 nlnutes by her finger tips to the sill ' if a tenth floor window. A tongue if flame licked at her fingers and she iropped into a life-net, held by firemen. Two women fell into the net at almost the same moment. The strings parted and the three were added to the death list. One girl threw her pocketbook, then her hat. then her furs from the tenth story window. A moment later her body came hurlinr after them, to death. At a ninth floor window a man anf a woman appeared. The man embraced the woman and kissed her. Then he hurled her to the street and Jumped, floth were killed. Five girls smashed a pane of glass, dropped in a struggling tangle and were crushed into a shapeless mass. A girl on the eighth floor leaped for a fireman's ladder, which reached only to sixth floor. She missed, 6truck the edge of a life-net and was picked up with her back broken. From one window a girl of about ' 13 years, a woman, a man and two women, with their arms about one another, threw themselves to tne ground in rapid succession. The little girl was whirled to the New Vork Hospital. She screamed as the driver and a policeman lifted hei Into the hallway. A surgeon came out, gave one look at her face and | touched her wrist. "She is dead," he said. One girl jumped into a horse blanket, held by firemen and policemen. The blanket ripped like cheesecloth and her body was mangled al- ' J ? ? ? ? ?-,A' - ? uiuoi. ucjuiiu ruuoKiiinon. Another dropped into a tarpaulin, held by three men. Her weight tore it from their grasp and she struck the street, breaking almost every bone in her body. Almost at the same time a man somersaulted down upon the Bhoulder of a policeman holding the tarpaulin. He glanced off. struck the sidewalk and was picked up dead. Effort to ('heck Stampede. Within the building a man on the eighth floor stationed himself at the door of one of the elevators and with a club kept back the girls, who had stampeded to the wire cage. Thirtywere admitted to the car at a time. They were rushed down as fast as possible. The calls for ambulances were followed by successive appeals for police, until 100 patrolmen arrived to cope with a crowd numbering tens of thousands. A hundred mounted policemen had to charge the crowd repeatedly to keep it back. Led by Fire Chief Croker, a squad of firemen gained access to the building at 7 o'clock. Two senrchlights from buildings opposite lighted the way of the firemen. Fifty roaBted bodies were found on the ninth floor. They lay in every possible position, some so mangled that recognition was Impossible. Women with their hair burned away, with here and there a limb burned entirely off and the charred stump visible, were lifted tenderly from the debris, wrapped In oilcloth and lowered by pulleys to the street. Across the street there rested on the sidewalk a hundred pine coffins, ' into which were placed the bodies. As fast as this was done, the coffins were carried away, in any kind of a ' vehicle that could be pressed into " service, to the morgue, at Bellevuo i Hospital, and the Charities Morgue, opened for the first time since the General Slocum disaster. < One hundred and six bodies had been taken from the building and twenty injured had been conveyed to St. Vincent's Hospital, at 10 o'clock, t Df these three died soon after admittance. Others were not expected to 1 live through the night. Three of five women taken to llellevue Hospital 1 lied soon after admitted there. Many Rescued liy Students. 1 On the tenth floor of the building < idjolning the burned structure, is he law department of the New York t University. Here twenty odd stu- 1 lents were listening t" ?? i?- - ' ? .. n..r uy I -"rank H. Sommer. former sheriff of l Tjfisex County. Ho saw the smoke ' ind saw the girls trapped on the roof. 1 le led his clase to the roof of the c Tnlverslty quarters, where they s ound two ladders. Two hoys bore hese down two flights of the roof of r n Intervening building, swarmed 1 ut of the windows and raised them a o the roof of the burning building. \ "orty girls were brought down to a KILELD IN WRECK "DIXIE FLYER" GOES THROUGH , TRESTLE INTO RIVER. More Than a Dozen Also Injured in I One of Worst Railroad IHsasters Known in the South. In one of the worst railroad disasters known in the South Atlantic I States, eight persons were killed and ( more than a dozen injured, when I train No. 97, known as the "Dixie : Flyer," on the Atlantic Coast Line, 1 and running between Chicago and < Jacksonville, went through a trestle 1 nvor tha Alanono elwor vuv ,rc* i i*ri , C1511 ircu 4 miles east of Tlfton, Ga., early Saturday morning. Saturday night but 1 one body, that of John T. Watson, ? of Wyoming, remained In the river. ? Had it not been for the wreck, < Watson would have been a bride- t croom Sunday. His sweetheart. Miss 1 Elise Shipper, of Pasadena. Cal., who 1 was on the train with him, and to 1 whom he was to have been married In Jacksonville Sunday, remained at 1 the wreck throughout the day and 1 night, watching the efforts of the * rescuing party to recover Watson's ' body. The revised list of the dead and in- 1 jured is given as follows: Dead: ] 0. F. nonmwart. Henderson, Ky.; I W. W. Culpepper, Tlfton, Ga.; Mrs. I W. D. Fletcher. Rowland. 111.; John T. Watson, Lands, Wyo.; J. P. Wood- 1 ward, express messenger, Waycross, Ga.; C. J. Parnell, conductor, Savannah; Lucius Kills, fireman, and Albert Simmons, porter, both colored, of Waycross, Ga. ! Injured: J. E. Powell, baggage- 1 master. Jacksonville; J. P. Klein, wife nnd child, St. I,outs; father and < mother bruised and ehlld scalded. Potor Oorinfa 11 nil on#* \* 1 ~v- ? bruised; NIc Vandermelton. Grand i Rapids, Mich., bruised about the head and knees; Mrs. O. F. Ronmhart, < Henderson, Ky.; W. T. Perkins. Cat- 1 tlettsburg, Ky., bruised; J. E. Greene, * engineer, Waycross. Ga., bruised. The cars plunged into the river, without a moment's warning to the sleeping pafisengers, when an axle on 1 the engine suddenly snapped when midway of the trestle. The locomotive never left the track, but the ten- 1 der was derailed and the tank turn- 1 bled to the bed of the stream. The 1 trestle is about a half mile long, but 1 the river was low and at the point of the accident was not more than SO yards across. The express and baggage care, two day coaches and one j Pullman were piled in an indescribable mass in the centre of the stream, but few of the passengers were carried beneath the water. J. P. Woodward, the express messenger. was killed and Raggagemas- ' ter J. E. Powell was probably fatally 1 hurt, by timbers driven through the ' car. The flrat-class coach, a new steel 1 car. was driven through the sleeper. 1 In this car Romwart. of Henderson, Kv., was instantly killed, while his wife, beside him, escaped with slight * injuries. It is not expected to have the 1 tracks cleared and the trestle re imncu ior iranic Derore Sunday ' night. * ' EXPLOSION NEAR AUGUSTA. ( i Two Men Killed and Two Others Are ! Iladly Hurt. A boiler explosion at 4 o'clock Vriday morning caused the death of two negroes and seriA'sly injured two white men. ] The Southern railway is placing a ' draw in Its treslle ever the Savarnali \ river here, and while the night force j was working the boiler exploded be- . cause of the water being too low in | It. , Harry Trapp, colored, was blowe into fragments; Press Somers was also killed but his body has not yet been recovered, and D. C. Wike, a white man, and W. A. Vowcil. of 1 Columbia. S. C., superintendent of construction, also white, were mJured. The boiler was blown 200 feet from < the trestle and landed in the middle * of the river. * ' safety. Just how many trips were made by the elevator men will perhaps never he ascertained. The various re- . ports of heroism at the elevators dif- , fer. I City officials announced tonight , that the usual rigid regulations . which follows such disasters will be j instituted at once. "The calamity is just what T have , been predicting," said one. "There t was no outside fire-escape on the . building. This large death toll is iue to neglect." The police say that today's fire is the sixth or seventh in the building within twelve months, all of which, f hey say, occurred in the shirt waist f factory. The others were trifling. ' The factory, incidentally, is said to ! >e the first in which operators struck r luring the widespread shirt waist ( itrlke settled several months ago. Ry today's fire the total shirt waist r >perators who have perished in New ' fork is nearly 200. Not many weeks '' igo 25 girls met death under eoraevhat similar circumstances in Newirk, N. J. e GOES scon FREE JOHN BLACK CiETS A FULL PARDON FROM RLEASE. Before His Recent Commutation, Black's Sentence Was Five Years in tho Penitentiary. | John Black, former chairman of the State dispensary board of directors, convicted of conspiracy to de[raud the State, sentenced to five rears In the Penitentiary, |his sentence being later commuted to a fine >f $2,000, or five years, by Governor Blease, was late Friday unconditionilly pardoned by the Chief Executive. Black had not yet paid his fine, laving been given until September 1, ind the proclamation Issued by Governor Blease Friday afternoon not inly relieves Black of the payment of '.he fine, but restores the former dispensary director to citizenship, and removes the stigma which commutation could not reach. Friday night John Black is In Richmond, and It is probable that not until Saturday will he know of his parion. His local counsel did not know where to reach him in Richmond. His wife is also out of the city, having gone to Denmark, so that it is also probable she does not tonight know that her husband is again free from the sentence of the Court. The order giving John Black his freedom is formal, being such a proclamation as was issued when John Black's sentence was commutated. The pardon is as follows: "Whereas, at a Court of General Sessions and Common Pleas, begun and holden in Chester County, at the November term of court, 1910, before Judge (Special) Ernest Moore, one John Black was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the State and was sentenced to five years in the State Penitentiary; now know ye that for divers good causes and considerations, me hereunto moving, 1 have thought fit to pardon and by these presents do pardon tho said John Black. "Given under my hand and seal, "Cole T>. Blease, GoTornor." The pardon was signed late Friday ifternoon, shortly before the Governor left the executive offices to go to the Mansion. No reasons are assigned in the pardon. \TTAOKEl> BY DRUNKEN NEGRO. Kndcavored to Force Open Door of a Lady's Room. Mrs. Georgia Williams, wife of a railroad man living near the terminal station in Atlanta, war kept in a state of selge in her room Tuesday night by a drunken young negro, who ivas trying to force an entrance to tine room. Mrs. Williams' husband was nut on his run and she was in the bouse alone. Early in the evening he negro gained entrance to the hall nf the house, but before he could get :o her Mrs. Williams had barricaded herself in her bedroom. She begged and pleaded with the negro to go away, but he remained in the hall working at the door unul 1 o'clock Wednesday morning. Finnlly, in desperation, Mrs. Williams opened a window, jumped out and ran in a hysterical condition until she found a policeman. The officer went to the house and found the negro there. He said his name was Dock Badger, and that he was 18 y*ars of age. "I used to work for Booker T. Washington," said the negro. "I believe in Booker Washington and would follow him anywhere." It is believed that the negro had read of Washington's trouble in New York, bad tanked up on mean whiskey and started out or a career of wickedness, lie will probably get a stout sentence V. I.. I - ? IUI urn v??5iuilg B WOrK. Bixnv rnov'Ks fatal. (lit by Stone Several Months Ago, Dies of Effects. From the effects of being struck in :ho head with a rock several months tgo, while gathering hickory nuts, Samuel Benson, Jr., 14 years of age, ind son of Mr. and Mrs. S. R. Benton. died Thursday at his home on Bleckley street, Anderson, S. C. Sev?ral young boys were around the tree gathering the nuts which they would tnock down with rocks and stocks. 3ne of the rocks hit young Benson, ile was given treatment and seemed ;o respond to it. A relapse came i week or so ago, nnd his death folowed. Young Benson was a bright ad, and very popular among his playnates. Of course, no blame is atached to any one, as the blow was )urely accidental. * (liil<l Dips of Unhides. At Lancaster the six-year-old son )f Mr. Hutchinson doed Friday night it the home of his father in the coton mill village of what physicians >elieve to have been an attack of hyirophobia. The boy was ill only hree days, during which timo he extiblted the various symptoms of the Iread disease, lie was bitten on the ip by a mad dog in Camden on the ;rd of last month. "Well, I'll be switched," angrily xclaimed the small boy; and he was. HOT TINE FOR BLAESE SO SAVN THOS. B. FKLDKK IN LETTER T<) "THE STATE." "Turning; on the Llglit" and Hopes to <*ive "His Fraudulency" an Entertainment Worthy of Mention. To the Editor of The State: I desire through your columns to acknowledge receipt of numerous letters, telegrams, lettergrams and telephone messages, couched in the most rftmmnnflntnrv ? 4 J auu inuuiliui) leriUB anent the Rlease controversy, which have come to me during the past 2 4 hours from hundreds of citizens throughout the State of South Carolina. When these messages began to come, naturally my first impulse was to make separate answer to each, but to do so would require a large increase in an already expensive stenographic force, more time than I have personally to spare from other duties, besides a large outlay for postage stamps. In my pursuit of "his fraudulency" and his clients, the collossal fee (?) received by me from the State of South Carolina has suffered great diminution, and with the prospect of having to use more of it in my efforts to scourge from the "high places" of your State those who disgrace them, I must husband my resources and content myself with tendering to those citizens of your State who commend me in my course in the premises my grateful acknowledgments through the columns of your paper. From the deluge of communications pouring in upon me with every mail delivery, and through other channels above mentioned, I am constrained to think that Illease secured his election to the governarshlp through public neglect of a sacred private duty, to wit: The exercise of the elective franchises. Many of those who have been kind enough to communicate with me are urging me to use greater activity in "turning on the light." I beg to assure them that when I have finished that the place described in Holy Writ which has been set apart as the eternal abiding place for sinners will be a very summer resort in comparison with the "warm time" that 1 shall give "his fraudulency" and his allies. 1 hope to find time to prepare another set of interrogatories for him at an early date. When they are ready, I shall "perfect service" upon V* i m K * .....i whuuku me columns or your paper. Thomas B. Felder. Atlanta. Ga.p Mch. 24, 1911. P. S.?1 note that the celebrated "gun-play artist," the "Mt. Pelee" of Newberry, is In eruption?that the seismic shocks are unusually violent and the lava which he belches forth threatens destruction of everybody, except his attorney "of the State at larRe." I take it that for the present at least. I will be excused from taking further notice of his "frothlngs and foamings." my excuse for doing so being that 1 can not afford to abandon my chase of the "big hyena" to pursue a very small mouse. I will say. however, that the conduct at this time of this grini-visaged "fe, fo, ti, fum, 1 smell the blood of an Englishman," is in striking contract with that displayed by him on the occasions of his numerous visits to me during the past four years at the Colonia and Jerome hotels (my apartments in the city of Columbia) and my oflice in the city of Atlanta. On the occasion of each visit I arranged to have reliable witnesses "hard by" to hear all that was said, and enough was said, "to be sure." If my recollection serves me right the name of his "general counsel," formerly of Newberry, now of the State at large, to whom he honored me by an introduction at the Caldwell hotel in Columbia in 1903; (I think this is the name of the building, situated just opposite the Columbia hotel in the city of Columbia) was mentioned by him on these occasions more than once. I wonder if ho and his general counsel remember this meeting in Columbia and what was said on that occasion; if so, they may find in it another "grain of Band" from their mountain. T. R. F. P. S. No. 2.?I think ">Mt. Pelee" can with safety cease to erupt, as I feel sure that his "governor-attorney," erstwhile "senator-attorney," will keep the contract made with him to pardon his brother-in-law. Wash Hunter, and himself, if Fraser Lyon should convict him. His recent performances no doubt have had the effect of healing the breach between him and his "governor-attorney, which has existed for many months, and which resulted from information considered satisfactory by his "covernor-attornev" that hi. hmi "telling things1' to the "Atlanta lawyer" an?l Fraser Lyon" on the "senator-attorney," now "governor-attorney" and the balance of the gang. T. B. F. 1\ S. No. 3.?I take It for granted that "his fraudulently" has not approved the joint resolution passed by the last general assembly, which he demanded should be passed. T. B. F. The hotbed 1b well enough In Its place, but few people would care to eleep In It. ? HOLD UP MAIL Bandits Loot Passeager Train on the St. Louis Mountain Road EXPRESS CAR LOOTED The Officials of the Railway Say They Have No Report of the Hold CTp and Robl>ery?Twenty Thousand Hollars Sold to Have lleen Carried Away by the Robbers. Five men held up St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern railway train No. 104 between Coffeyville and Lenapah, Okla., shortly after midnight Friday, and after looting the maL and express car escaped. The amount of the robbery is said to bo $20,000. For two hours the masked men held the passenger at a standstill on the prairie about six miles south of Coffeyville, while they blew open a safe In the express car. They escaped In two automobiles, carrying with them money and valuables which. It la believed, will amount to $20,000. The train left Little Rock at 8:3# a. m. Friday, bound for Kansas City. It reached Lenapah, Okla.. south of CofTeyville at 10:30 Friday night, half an hour late. Just after the train left Lenapah Kngineer Lynch heard a sharp cry: "Hands up!" Turning he saw a masked man sitting on the tender, pointing a revolver at him. "I'm going to ride a little way with you, * said the man. "Drive on." The engineer obeyed. About foui miles ol : of Lenapah the robber compelled the engineer to stop the trair* near a dumb of trees. Five more masked men came out of the wood, and, taking positions on either side of the train.began shooting in the air and along the sides of the train. Then while two of the bandits stood guard to prevent any passengers from leaving, the four marched the engineer and fireman to the daycoach and locked them in. One man then took a position to guard the rear of the train and threo I went into the express car, forced th?? I two exnresn mp???nimro *....... , ww?. I>nvi u iw J II til |f OUT. and stand where one of the side guards could keep them covered. After nearly an hour'e work the men had succeeded In Inserting a charge of nitroglycerine into th* "through" safe in the express car. They blew the Bafe to pieces and scattered its contents over the floor of the car. They made no haste. They had chosen a strategic position in which to stop the train. They were at least three mlleB from any human habitation. After the three men had spent nearly an hour over the packages taken from the safe, the lights of two automobiles were seen drawing near from the direction of the Oklahoma line. As they came within about two hundred yards of the train on the country road the automobiles were stopped. Then lights were extinguished and the bandits and automobiles disappeared. Passengers who had remained huddled in the coaches afraid to look out of the windows relaxed and the disorganized train crew got to their places. When the train reached this city the sheriff was notified and with two deputies started on horseback southward in pursuit of the six bandits. Train So. 104 on the St. Louie, Iron Mountain and Southern railroad, said to have been held up near Coffeyvllle, Kan., Friday night, reached Kansas ?ity two hours and forty-five minutes late. Iron Mountain officials here denied any knowledge of a holdup. The train left Little Rock at 8:30 a. m. Friday end was due In Kansas City at 7:15 Saturday morning. Superintendent George F. lohnson of the Pacific Kxpress Company states that the men who held up and robbed Iron Mountain train No. 104 in Oklahoma pot no money from the express car and that all the booty securea consisted of a few "sealed packages, * the value of which is not great. "We no longer use this route for througu money shipments, and there was not anything like $20,000 in the car as is reported." Kobhed Mrs. Itryun. Mrs. William Jennings Bryan was robbed at the Majectis Theatre New York of a handsome seal hand bag, containing $75 and valuable souvenirs collected by her and her husband in their recent travels, last Saturday afternoon. Mrs. Stephen II, Ayres, wife of the Congressman, whose guests Mr. and Mrs. Hryan were in the Bronx, made the fact public. Two to llang. Ctov. Sanders Wednesday named Friday, April 21, as the date for the execution of Euge Resanon and Francois Rodin, convicted of murdering Kranz Reidi, an aged watchmaker of New Orleans, several months ago. Rhot on Crowded Street. Andrew C. Puro, said to be an Italian journalist, was shot and killed on a crowded street in the downtown district of Denver, Colo., Tuesday night. Philllpe Dropolia is under arrest charged with tho murder.