The Girl from Hong-Kong: A Story of Adventure Under Five Suns — page 283: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

: THE GIRL FROM HONG-KONG. 977: exits being in front, one on the left back of the blazing pyramid of flames; and four in the rear in the shape of French windows, used only by the employees. Had a few ‘signs been hung about the building informing the visitors of these latter exits, to be. used in case of danger, scores of lives would have been saved. : ~The dreadful crush is all toward the right, away from the fierce flames, and then in the direction of the three front doors. , Those fortunate souls nearest. the exits escape without the least trouble. Would to God the stream could keep on flowing without interruption; but what seems to be- the inevitable result in all such cases occurs. _One doorway becomes choked—twenty persons en- deavor to squeeze through where three might pass, and,- in.frantic fear, shriek and fight like wild beasts. Another exit, through the energies of two heroic gentlemen, '1s_ being kept clear; the horrified ladies pushed through in rapid succession, when one unfortunate woman trips over her skirts, and in a flash a score have piled upon her in one maddened, shrieking mass, upon which the hungry flames presetitly sweep, seeking victims. _ . The scenes that occur within that fated building inside the few minutes necessary for the interior to become a holocaust of flame would fill volumes. They are heart- rending to a degree never exceeded. The human mind fails to imagine any more terrible spectacle on earth, and gay Paris, bubbling over with life and amusement, must receivé a shock from which it will take years to recover. While this awful scene is occurring inside the doomed building, that outside is also a spectacle never to be for- gotten. The crowd has gathered like magic and fills the neig“boring thoroughfares—the Rue Francois, the Place Alma and the Avenue Montaigne, in all of which car- riages are mixed up by hundreds with the mob. In all these streets there is a continuous stream of fire- maddened people just issued from the trap, and mostly wemen without hats or skirts, the latter having béeén torn from them in the frenzied panic or burned off. Carriages are taken by assault and the wretched victim whirled away home. An inspired pen alone could.do