Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1874 — THE FALL RIVER HORROR. [ARTICLE]

THE FALL RIVER HORROR.

Burning of* Colton Mill at p*j| R iTr| . | Maas.- I Twenty llvn Lo«( and Mslmj o(h<i Ptr»on» InjurnUSunu Fatally. .B-’- 1 • ■ Sept. is. The following- account of the fire in Fall River to-day is takfnr’fefm a dispatch to the Boston Journal: Mills Nos. I and 2of the Granite Works had been running about twenty minutes when the operatives in No. 1 were —- l ar;!ect with a cry of tire and the escape of smoke from the fourth Story. In this, next to the upper floor, was the hiule-warp spinning dejxirlfffixit, and there were nearly 100 girls at work under a male overseer. On the upper floor, the liftii. 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 this attic, coining from the windows below and up the great tower in the center of tlie building, in which were all the stairs communicating with each story. The lire caught in the mule-spinning-room. in the northwest end of the mill, from friction in u-mule-head , and spread-' ing, by means of oil on the fi,„, au d about the machinery, with great qui. kness, 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 blank, 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, aud gave tlieir sole attention tothose whom they had at work. They called to them to save themselves, and pointed out Wavs of escape, principally fire-ladders. 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, yete wrenching themselves away when taken forcibly to the tower while yet there was some chance, or to Zfie iron ladder that reached two of. the scut-tle-windows of the south end opening upon the roof of the balcony at the head "of tlie Twelfth street tire-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 tire frightened them away from these ladders they rushed to the windows of the south gable end, nearly sixty feet front the ; ground, but Mitred 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 nil dinging to it would come down in a bunch. Similar scenes were going on iu the mule-spinning-room. The flames Met ascended rapidly to the entrance of the tov-xr on Uiu, 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 #nd dropped or tbrew themselves from the guards. There was ample time for every one to havejiecn saved had the girls taken the course directed. The Superintendent, as soon as the alarm was given, rushed to the upper story, and. with "tlie overseers, did a,l possible to save life. When the means provided for escape in the mill were rendered unavailable by heat, flames and smoke, the people procured beds, and mattresses for the poor unfortunates to jump upon, and many did throw themselves ; from windows, to, in almost every case, receive fatal or terrible injuries. The firemen worked to keep the flames out of tlie south end, whither many operatives had fled. Ladders, long as at command, were used to rescue the girls, and it is said that four firemen lost their lives while thus engaged. One fireman was lowered from the roof by brother firemen into the building and remained so long trying to drive girls forth that he had to be let go by those who held liis rope, driven away by the smoke, and lie was lost. Morgues and hospitals were speedily improvised, thc’Mission Chapel being taken for the latter, and as fast as the girls could be picked from under the windows of the mill stretchers were ready to carry them to either chapel or Central Station. At the latter place Twenty-five bodies were soon lying, and other unfortunates had been taken to stations or to . homes. In a number of instances bodies could not be recognized, the; were so disfigured, begrimed and dirt-covered. In Mission Chapel were those whose sufferings were intense. Every doctor in tlie city was summoned at the earliest moment. It is not too high to place the number killed at forty, and the injured at twice that number. Julia Coffey states that when-she first heardthe alarm of tire heavy columns of smoke burst through the spool-room floor. The erowd of little children Surrounded the overseer, and with Tiirn rushed for the ’ staircase, but they were forced hack by the flames. Then all made for the : elevator, hut it would not, work. At this juncture the leaping from the windows menced, A number of men in tin is loom began uncoiling a long rope to let the operatives to the ground. Several were landed in safety, when itwfts -bHrned off twenty-five feet from tlie ground. Tlie smoke had become so dense that those wlio remained crowded to the windows for air. Some, leaping head foremost, were killed. Others, suffocated, fell back and perished in the flames. Tlie Boston Herald'a account says: As far as can he learned under the present excitement and turmoil the fire originated • the tpwer iii tlie fourth story, and an attempt was made to extinguish it with pails of water, but ineffectually. During this endeavor a door leading to "the gpookrooin, which opens south on the tower- staircase, had to be closed to keep the help back and prevent a panic; but when the flames had gained such strength that it was found impossible to quench them the escape of tl> girls had beeh cut off The frightened and terrified creatures, with - the roaring flames- on The lower staircase, rushed in a body lor the fireescape, but tlie dense volumes of smoke that poured into the room, and the biting flames, forced them to tlie northeast end of the .department, at which end, unfortunately, there ,were'no means of escape. Many, in tlie meantime, had become suffocated. ' Others,preferring death by falling to the ground, sprang recklessly from the windows, and were picked TipTjriTigledjhleed'-”' ing', dead, and dying. .jFall River dispatcher of sue ffOtliM place the number of killed at twenty, missing three, and injured —many probably fatally— at thirty-six. It is only within a comparatively recent period that the, many important uses to which slate is applicable have come to be fftiderstood. Experiments show that an inch slab of slide is equal t© one of granite three to four inches, and of marble eyen eight to ten laches thick. It is also an almost perfectly ■non-absorbent article, for, if an inch slab be immersed in water for three months, it ip'found on merely scratching the outer Surface to be perfectly dry underneath; on this account it is not liable like stone to he injured by frostWhen enameled, according to the process now in vogue, its value is greatly increased and its uses'multiplied. this process there is first the ground coating burnt in, and afterward rubbed down to a fitie surface to prepare it for the pencil of the artist, who gives it the appearance of the richest sienna, brocatella,. granite, porphyry, or even inlaid work, ! after which it receives the first coating ! of enamel, and is again subjected to heat, i and again (rubbed down: it receives in all three epats ofl enamel over the painting, all burnt in at a very high heat— W. T. Sun.