e beyond aid, and death was too plainly marked upon their pallid
features. Some were injured by the fall, and lay writhing in agony;
some moaned; while others shrieked with pain; and others, again, when
released, started off for home, apparently unconscious of the awful
scene through which they had passed. The bodies of the dead and
wounded were mostly taken to the Ninth Ward Station-house, which is
near the school. In a few minutes, news of the accident spread through
the neighbourhood, and mothers came rushing to the scene by scores.
Occasionally, a mother would recognise the lifeless form of a child as
it was lifted from the mass, and then the piercing cry of agony that
would rend the air! One after another, the bodies of the dead were
removed; and at length litters were provided, and the wounded were
carried away also. Nearly one hundred families either mourned the loss
of children, or watched anxiously over the forms of the wounded.'

The coroner's jury which sat on this case of wholesale destruction of
life, decided that no blame could be imputed to any of the teachers in
the school, and that the deaths were a result of accident. At the same
time, they strongly condemned the construction of the stair, and the
unfitness of the balustrades to withstand pressure. The whole case
suggests the impolicy of giving spiral staircases to buildings of this
class: in all such establishments, the stairs should be broad and
square, with numerous landing-places.

Strangely enough, the sensation caused by the above catastrophe had
not subsided, when another case of destruction of life occurred in New
York from a similarly groundless fear of fire. This second disaster is
noticed as follows in the newspapers:

'Monday night (January 12), between the hours of nine and ten o'clock,
a frightful calamity occurred at 140 Centre Street, in a rear building
owned by the Commissioners of Emigration, for the reception of the
newly-arrived emigrants. The building is five storeys high, and each
floor appropriated for the emigrants--the upper rooms principally for
the women, and the lower part for the men. In this place, six human
lives were lost, and perhaps as many more may yet die from the
injuries sustained. It seems that between nine and ten o'clock, the
City Hall bell rang an alarm of fire in the fifth district, and some
of the women on the upper floors called out "fire," which instantly
created a panic of alarm on each floor among them,