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THE TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1898.
turesque details were always as could climb from one fire escape to down the door to the room where he
complete as the names, initials, ad- the other and get in the window, was.
dresses etc.
Inside the flames was cutting the
“They found him asleep and-and
But on this day, while several floor in half. A man and woman a feature of the story is they couldn’t
BY N. Y. JOURNAL REPORTER.
reporters were waiting for his fire and two children in the front room get the kid out of his arms to save
*
—
story, he was shuffling and hesitat- were passed out by the way the the two separately. They had to
|J|O M E o t the best news- ing over a fire. His sense of the man came. I heir names
carry them out together.”
O paper reporters can great was evidently struggling with “Keep them till afterwards.’
The reporters laughed at Itzig.
" not write a sentence some other feeling or observation, “The thing to do was to get to “ What’s the hero’s name?” asked
...».
. -*
n o t e x p e c te d to d o so. what was the matter.
more of ’em. The man—the fellow
“Oh, he wasn’t a hero.
He
It is their business to collect facts,
“It wasn’t much, onlv a two- that had come up tc save the whole wouldn’t have done it if he hadn’t
which they relate to others who alarm fire, and it didn’t do no dam- crew — had to get down and crawl started to, being there first. Be-
put them in form as a “news story”. age to speak of,” he said. “’Twas along on the floor under the flames, sides he didn’t save the last child
Something is lost of course, by n ’t in a good neighborhood either— and they licked his pack hair off you see, but had to be rescued him-
this method of second-hand teiling, just a tenement house, No. 16 Es- and set his coat on fire. But he self.
for a writer cannot reproduce a sex street, five story, red brick, full got there. And he found two men,
“ Did you interview him?’’ quer-
scene from imagination so well as of families with kids, kids by the three women and five kids huddled ried Chapman, who was writing
he could if he had seen it, but the hundreds, eighty-seven. But you in one corner, one woman and two the story.
assistants, or “reporters’ boys’’, as see there was a panic and a_ babies unconscious from smoke.
“No, not much; he wasn’t able
they are called, are not sent out somebody, you know how it is when The others were getting air by to talk.”
alone on any incident that promis­ th e g eese— the East Side Jews—get breathing low down on the floor.
“Not even to tell his name?”
es much importance. Their work a scare turn into ’em! Just de­ “The men had to be made to go “He didn’t want to,’’ said Itzig.
is the small news of the day, which scribe top-floor families out by way down to the rear fire-escape with
“But the fireman; you said,knew
is intenden only for short para­ of the roof to the next house, third the women and jump. This took him?”
graphs. That these results are oft­ and fourth cooped up in halls,some time, and the flames burst out of
“Yes — not very well — only his
en interesting enough for long ac­ of them rushing to the fire escapes, tho rear, cutting off that way out. first name.”
counts is due, in part to accident; others too askeered to move, just So there was the five kids. I — I
“What was that?”
in part, however, to the industry shriekin’ and rendin’ their gar- think the man said he grabbed two
“I—well, I didn’t think to ask.”
and the understanding developed ments, as the bible says.
and was going to throw them out
“Didn’t think to ask! Didn’t
by long training of native intelli­
“Across the street,” he hurried to the old people, but they had run think to get the most important
gence.
point in the whole story! Are you
on, “the other ’Motzos”—another away. So he had to go front,
Isaac Hofstein, or Itzig, as he was slang word for East Side Jews—
He started to run for it, but was losing your mind?” cried Chapman
called for short, was such an assist­ “out on escapes with their hands set fire to and had to lie down and j in amazement.
ant. He was a child of the East and faces raised to the sky, crying, roll the flames out and crawl again.
But one of the other men was of
side tenements, and his work at po­ ‘Ei wei, ei wei’. You know how it The firemen had come, and they quicker perception. “ Was his name
lice headquarters was chiefly is. You can describe it and I’ll had caught the kids all right. The Isaac?” he asked,
among his own people, the Jews of give you the names. But the fire­ fireman who caught ’em was Jerry
Dzig flushedt
the New York Ghetto. Shrewd men was late, on account of no one Sullivan, truck eleven the first
“Itzig,” said a reporter who had
and accurate, he was always to be knowing how to ring in the alarm. there and_”
gone behind him, “your hair is all
trusted to fetch • all the facts and Samuel Bernstein, forty-two years
Give us that later.”
\ burned off and your neck is blis’
state them correctly. None of the old, No. 16 Essex, next door to the
tered.”
“The fellow inside sneaked back
other boys could “heat” him, and
“Yes, and you’ve got on your
fire, tried it first, then—”
the same way and got two more.
none were so accurate as Itzig, who
“Oh, come to the point,” I inter­ The firemen had a ladder up to Sunday coat,” cried another.
never failed to get names and ad­ rupted. “ What about it?”
“Oh, get out!” said Itzig. “I t’s
take the chidren. One was left. As
dresses, and never got them wrong.
“Wei!, there was a fire rescue. It he w’ent back for that he seen the so disgusting when you reporters
This devotior to accuracy and wasn’t very hard either. You see—”
go sticking your noses into other
game was up. He had to shake his
completeness sometimes made his
, . ,
.
,
,
people’s affairs!’-
“Give us the name of the rescuer coat, which
was
burned,
so
he
I
'
I
_____
accounts a bore, for he brought in while you’re about it.”
whacked
it
against
a
wall
till
it
details that were of no use, but it
“ Try, Try A gain .”
“Oh, it was jost a fellow passing was out, and wrapped the last kid
was an invaluable trait, of course, by ran in and saved some people,
in it.
A little girl was kneeling at her
and very rare, except among first- mostly children.”
“Then came the fun The flames mother’s side the other evening,
rate men of all sorts. His work
“ Didn’t you get his name?”
covered the back of the house and saying her evening prayer just be-
was libel-proof, and no other paper
“I got the names of them he sav­
could go over his investigation and ed, which was the most import­ was coming out of the window’, fore retiring. The child had been
House full of smoke,floors hot,hall- somewhat naughty during the day,
add new particulars to his story. ant.”
way ablaze,solid you know,hemmed and the mother was urging her to
When he came back he was done,
“ Well, go on.”
in by fire, babe in arms—that’s the keep trying to be good and telling
and he would sit down with his
“The fire,” resumed Itzig, “start­
notes and tell all about the fire, ac- I ed in the basement,shoemaker shop, feature of the story! The stairways her she should ask God to help her
cident or crime with swift ease and Abram Koswingky, thirty-six years fe ll, the hall floor curved, the whole try and try again. Finally the little
.,
• . ..
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ii
, building shook. The fellow thought girl finished her prayer as follows:
unhesitating assurance.
old, married, three kids, oldest four i . .
.
a
-
n
,
,,
,
,
.
.
of
a
lot
of
things,
but
they
didn
t
“God
bless
us
all
and
make me a
One day, however, there was an —dou you want names and ages?” i,
. .
,
...
...
,
,
,.TC
j. j
cc
have anything to do with getting good little girl, and if at first you
exception. He had been to a fire.
“If they did or suffered any-
,.,’^vi
_ _____;
. ,,
out
of
that
hole.
There
was
an
awful
don’t
succeed,
try,
try
again.”
To cover so common-pace an inci­ thing.”
crash’ and he just sank in a heap.
dent was child’s play to him, and
“No, they got out easy bv a rear , T . . , , . .
* *
Itzig wiped his face. The perspira­
God’s P u nish m en t.
something he liked, because he re­ window, through the area
to No. 22
joiced in description and the hero­ back. But the flames were just tion that had started to it damped
Mamma (excitedly and sympa­
ic. It was a never-failing pleasure climbing up the stairways. Escape his handkerchief.
to him to discover and celebrate a by the front door was cut off when “The next thin8 that man kr,ew’ thetically).—“Never mind, Harold!
God will punish Tommy for strik­
bold rescue by a policeman, a fire­ I got there. I - I happened to be he wafi in a dru8 8tore’ No’28 Essex’
ing you.”
man or a neighbor.
over that way on a suicide and and tke t,re wa? ° ut’
Harold’s Brother.—“ He has pun­
“ But how did he escape?
“Say, it was great!” he used to heard the wails, you know. Some-
ished Tommy already. I think,
say, when he came to tell about body had to help, or we’d have had asked one of the reporters. “ Didn’t mamma.”
such a deed. “William J McGlorv, a big story, with a dozen roasted to he 8° down with the walls when the
Mamma.—“ How do you know?”
number four truck, twenty-eight death. Put in ,‘Scared, white faces crash came?
Harold's Brother. — “ ’Cause I
“ No,that part of the house didn’t just now busted his drum for him.”
years old, No. 17 Cannon street, looked out of the windows each
be—” then laying down his notes second, then disappearing back in fall, and you see, the fireman knew
Itzig would reproduce, with ges­ the smoke.’ It was tough, I tell him. \\ hen he didn t show up they Woodworkers, don’t forget to eend an
ture.-, grimaces and language, often you. There was a way to get to the crowed the air well from next door, o rd er for a set of th e F o re tn er A uger
slangy, a vivid picture. The pic­ third story by the next house. You , got through a w indow and battered B its. P rice, $2.60 by m ail. See ad.
A Reporter’s Boy.
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