Rescued by an Heroic mother.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 471, 14 May 1890, Page 6

Rescued by an Heroic mother.

Patrick Dailey is the captain of the canal-boat A. C. Chandler, belonging to New York Central Railroad, and he lived with his wife Ellen and five children, Hanorah, aged ten; Alice, aged nine; Richard, 'aged eight; John, aged seven; and Denis, aged three, on the boat. The Chandler and the Pratt, another canalboat, were towed from Gowanus on Saturday and tied up at West Sixty-first street, side by side. Dailey had a little party in the cabin of his boat, made up of friends from the canal-boats in the neighbourhood on Saturday evening, and it broke up about 11 o’clock. The Daileys were soon in bed and fast asleep. Before going to bed Mrs Dailey turned down the light in a large lamp and left it burning as a protection against river thieves, as had been her custom for years. The family were aroused a little after midnight by a loud noise. The lamp had exploded and the burning oil had been scattered in every direction in the cabin and into the open bunks where Dailey and his wife and children were sleeping. Mrs Dailey jumped out first from the bunk. Her clothing was on fire. She wrapped herself in a sheet and put out the flames, but not before her arms and legs had been badly blistered. All her children were in a blaze, and although she was nearly frantic from pain she did not lose her presence of mind. Her husband was no help to her. When he was awakened, his hair, whiskers, and clothing were blazing, and ho rushed madly on deck, seemingly crazed by pain and fright. He ran up and down the deck tearing out his hair and whiskers by the bandful, and the wind fanned the flame in his clothing into greater activity. He would have jumped overboard had he not been caught by Captain Johnson of the Pratt. Johnson struggled with Dailey, threw him down on the deck and poured buckets of water over him. He was badly burned all over his body and face, and was delirious. He had to be held constantly to keep him from jumping into the water. In the meantime the fire was making rapid headway in the cabin, and Mrs Dailey was battling with the flames and making an heroic effort to save the lives of her children. She shouted for help through one ot the cabin windows, and then crawled on her hands and knees through the suffocating smoke to the bunk where her eldest daughter, Hanorah, was crying piteously for assistance. Mrs Dailey picked Hanorah up in her arms and dashed through the smoke and flames to a window in the side of the cabin and pushed the child out on the deck of the Pratt. The child’s clothing was burning, and the fire was put out by Mrs Johnson, whotook thelittle one to her cabin. Mrs Dailey went back to the bunks through the smoke again, aud took Alice under one arm and Richard under the other, and got back to the window in safety and passed them out to the deck. Then the brave mother made another trip across the cabin and got John, and passed him out of the window. She thought that they had all been saved and climbed out herself, and fell in a half-fainting condition on the deck. She lay there for a moment, and then heard some one say that one of the children was missing. She jumped wildly to her feet, and before anyone could restrain her, dashed again into the cabin through the door to the bunk where little Dennis lay unconscious. She rushed out with the child in her arms and fainted on the deck. The fire in the cabin was put out before the arrival of the fire-engines. Dailey and his entire family were taken to Roosevelt Hospital. Dennis, the youngest child, died soon afterwards. All the members of the family were severely burned about their faces, bodies, and arms, but they will probably all recover.