A NEW YORK MOTHER'S EXTREMITY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1271, 29 November 1884, Page 3

A NEW YORK MOTHER'S EXTREMITY.

A six-storey house in New York caught fire early on the morning of the Ist of August, and of the five persons who were in it at the time one was burnt to death, one fatally injured, and the other three so dreadfully burned that their lives were despaired of. The one who lost his life outright was a child, named James Gibbons, four years old. The firemen found him in his bed burned to a crisp. He was the youngest of three children, the family of John Gibbons, a carpenter, who was absent at work at the time, while the mother was preparing his breakfast. The exoeriences of the poor mother in the endeavor to save her offspring were terrible almost beyond expression She was unable to carry the three, and quickly decided to carry the baby and the one nearest to it. With heartrending screams she left her four-year-old boy, and with the other other two hurried through the blinding smoke, up two flights of stairs leading to theKfyoof, when she sank exhausted. The flames leaped in about the landing below and sent the smoke to where "the mother and ohildren lay. The fire caught her clothing and that of her babies. With a superhuman effort she struggled up to the roof, the flames and smoke following after her, She could not open the scuttle but the fresh air revived her. She was seen by the firemen, who burst into the adjoining house, and ascending to the top, tore the burning clothing from mother and children. Their flesh was cooked in some places. They were carried downstairs amid the women's wails for her little son who was left to die.