| Show 1 r Adventurers Adventurers' Club Red Death and Black Panic Dy 01 FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter MILTON AUERBACH of Atlantic City N. N J J. brings us today's thrill and It happened to him on his first day back at work after being mustered out of service after the war The war didn't give Milt much of anything to write home borne about but the minute he got home things began to happen to him That's the way it always Is Adventures happen most often right in your own back yard This IbIs one I started tar led with a cry and a roar On Ore January 7 1919 1918 shortly before five o'clock in the afternoon a woman thrust her head out of a window win dow on the fourth floor of the Sauer building on Penn Perm avenue Pitts Pittsburgh burgh and screamed one ono word Fire Th There re was wal a moment of quiet quietA A fireman standing on the sidewalk turned and started to run toward his bis engine house hOUle He lIe had taken two steps when lieU Hell burst Its boundaries boun boun- daries darles and began beean roaring In the Ule streets of Pittsburgh Celluloid Films Exploded There was wa a m loud load shattering BOOM A gush gash of smote smoke from froma a first floor window and a bright red flash streaked out from somewhere bel between the first and second stories A mans man's body shot ahot out oat of 01 a window as though hough It had come from a cannon head cannon head first rat A man standing In la front of 01 the building was wa thrown halfway across the street Flame ran through the whole edifice edifice blazed blazed fifty feet from the top of the roof Highly Inflammable celluloid films stored In the building had exploded and turned the whole place into a funeral pyre in fn which nine people eventually lost their lives MUt Auerbach was In an office on the sixth floor There were eight of them there Utere altogether salesmen altogether salesmen and stenographers busy at their respective desks making out reports and finishing up for the Ute day They heard the terrific report and made a dash for the door When we opened the door says Milt were were enveloped In A SHEET OF FLAME We turned then and ran to the windows facing the tho street By Dy the time we reached them the flames were at our heels They Were Vero Jumping to Death Milt saw law one of the girl stenographers escape through the window Another one followed her It was Milts Milt's first day in the office He lie thought there must be a fire escape down which the girls were nee fleeing The porter h L c r- r f p. p f. f I Holding the Girl He De Stood on 00 a Narrow Ledge was climbing out of or the window now and Milt told him to hurry so he could follow Then the porter was gone and Milt started out tho the window after him lie He pushed out his head and recoiled recalled In horror There was NO FIRE ESCAPE there I Down below on the side aide sidewalk walk he saw the bodies of the two girls Iris and the porter Another girl tried to push by him Milt kilt caught her and she fainted tainted Still holding the Ute unconscious girl in his arms he climbed out of the win dow and stood on a narrow ledge With his free tree hand h he clung to the window sill Inside wIde the office the tho remaining sale salesmen men were huddled in a corner comer the flames had not yet let reached shaking hands and saying laying good bye toone toone to toone one another Fire engines began to arrive In the street below They spread a net but from the sixth floor it appeared to be about the size of ofa ofa a dime No one dared Jump Milt MUt says lays because It would have been im impossible m possible to gauge the Ute distance to that net correctly Other trucks were unreeling hose lines JInes Still others were raising ladders But the hose lines didn't hold bold out much hope Water Vater would be of little help to the people trapped in the building The ladders were their only hope hooe He lie Couldn't Get to tho the Ladder They were hoisting a ladder Udder right under the ledge to 10 which Mill Mil was wast clinging but bat to Milts Milt's dismay they had It 1 on OD the wrong wrone side of 01 the trolle trolley wires and could not lean It U against the building The Tho unconscious girl was getting heavy beavy In his arms Ills His other hand band still clinging to the sill sW was tired and Just about ready to to lose Its hold bold Milt wit looked inside and noticed that the Ute flames didn't seem to be com ing fig an any farther tarther Into the office There was a little space apace in there that tha t they did not cover over He bundled the unconscious girl back in n through th the te e window and followed himself In other parts parta of the building dense fumes were driving people t to the upper floors Fire began beian to spread to the building next door Everywhere Everywhere Every where In the burning structure people were clinging to the windows as al Milt MUt Auerbach had and the streets streeta were filled with people shouting ove over r and over again the monotonous warning refrain DONT On 00 the sidewalk dot dozens ens of limp motionless bodies testified to the soundness of that advice Few of those who jumped had landed In 10 the nets Now firemen were fighting their wa way Inside the build ing Two men their clothes ablaze but bat still sUll alive were carried carded out oat A little farther In 10 the they found the bod body of 01 a woman her hair gone rone and her clothing In ashes just Jost a few feet teel from a stairway that would have led her to safety Milt Was Almost Electrocuted Meanwhile up on the sixth floor Milt kilt Auerbach waited Impatiently impatient y for tor the firemen to raise their ladder again At lut last he says a ladder ladde r did cUd reach our floor A fireman came up and relieved me of the girl In my arms He lie carried her down to safety and then the men followed That trip down the ladder was almost as bad as 81 the IUS suspense pense o of waiting walling for tor it II It swayed alarmingly as 81 Milt started down It 11 The rungs rung os s were far apart Every step Milt MUt took made him feel teel as If It he were missing his ha foothold Down he went The bottom of the ladder was wa a set In the top of the fire tire truck and In order to get down from it Milt had hac d to rest his ha hand on the back of one of the horses that drew Crew rew tt 11 t That That's a where Milt Mill got one final thrill For as he put lut his hand on the horseback horse horses s back an ao overhead electric wire broke It fell hit the horse and spar sparks ks flew Just as 81 MUt Mill landed on the ground the Ute horse hone fell feU beside WinSTONE Win him hIm hIm- STONE DEAD DEAD ELECTROCUTED Nine line people died in that tire fire and many more were injured The girl 1 Milt had held on the window ledge was in a coma for months as a resul result I of her ordeal But Dut MUt was lucky lIe He came out without a scratch O tl o Service |
