Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1874 — A TERRIBLE CALAMITY. [ARTICLE]

A TERRIBLE CALAMITY.

Burning of a. Cotton MUI at Fall River, Maas.—Several Lives Lost. By the burning of a large cotton mill at Fall River, Mass., on the 19th, several operatives lost their lives and many more were fatally injured by jumping from the windows. The operatives at work in the fifth story were penned in by the flames, and, bewildered, refused to avail themselves of the fire-escapes. A dispatch from Boston on the night of the 19th gives the following particulars: Mills Nos. 1 and 2, of the Granite Works, Fall River, had been running about twenty minutes when the operatives in No. 1 were startled with the cry of fire and the escape of smoke from the fourth story- In this, next to the upper floor, was the mule-warp spinning department, and there were nearly 100 girls at work, under a male overseer. On the upper floor, the fifth, about thirty girls were employed, spooling and warping cotton. These were the youngest of the operatives. With the alarm the flames seemed to leap to tills attic, coming ‘from the windows below and up the great tower in the center of the building, in which were all the stairs communicating with each story. The fire caught in the mule-spinning-room, in the northwest corner of the mill, from friction in a mule-head, and.spreading, by means of oil on the floor and about the machinery, with great quickness, rushed toward the center tower, the only means of escape for those in the fourth and fifth stories besides four fire-escapes, two on each gable end. Once getting into the tower, the flames ran up to and through the single entrance to the fifth story, then, springing to the roof timbers, filled the two great rooms, 450x90 feet, with dense black smoke and flame. While the flames were making such terrible headway the operatives became fairly wild. The overseers saw there was no way possible to check the fire, and gave their sole attention to those whom they had at work. They called to them to save themselves, and pointed out wavs of escape, principally fire-lad-ders. The overseer of the spooling-room, who remained till nearly suffocated, states that the scene in his room—and it must have been worse in the room below—cannot be depicted. Children ran about crying and begging piteously to be saved, yet wrenching themselves away when taken forcibly to the tower while yet there was some chalice, or to the iron ladde* that reached two of the scuttle-windows of the south end opening upon the roof of the balcony at the head of the Twelfth street fire-ladders. It was impossible to get the great majority to take this method to save their lives. Some wanted clothing, others something else. As the fire frightened them away from ladders they rushed to the windows at the south gable end, nearly sixty feet from the ground, but dared not jump down. Cotton ropes were put < out for them to slide down by, but no sooner would a rope be lowered than there was a rush for it from below. Too many would take hold, when it would break, and all clinging to it would come down in a bunch. Similar scenes were going on in the mule-spinning-room. The flames had ascended rapidly to the entrance of the tower on the fourth floor, cutting off their means of escape, but the operatives had two ladders of the south gable directly before them, and were urged by the overseers and citizens below to take them. Some did, but others rushed headlong upon the balcony and dropped or threw themselves from the guards. There was ample time for every one to have been saved had the girls taken the course directed. Fall River dispatches of the 20th say the number of killed would reach twenty, missing three, and . wounded—several fatally—between thirty and forty.

It is reported that the Dodge gold mine in Lisbon, N. H., is yielding far richer ore than heretofore, and the company is realizing a handsome profit. Twenty dollars is realized from a ton of ore. A block of gold worth over S4OO was taken from the mine a few days ago. T —About $6,000,000 worth of sugar was lost during the flood in Louisiana. Of the rice crop destroyed by the overflow it is estimated that about 5,031,940 pounds have been lost, which, valued at six and a fourth centsj aggregates $311,996 —The prospect is that this season will turn out (he largest cotton crop gathered since the war, and that the wheat crop will be an increase of 25,000,000 bushels over last year’s.