BRAVE FIREMAN LYNCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 360, 12 March 1880, Page 16

BRAVE FIREMAN LYNCH.

(From the New York Express, November 17.) A bepohter visited Beilevue Hospital last night for the purpose of ascertaining the condition of Fireman Patrick Lynch, who, saving two children from being burned to death at tne Cannon Street fire last Thursday night, nearly lost his own life in his efforts to save others. He is burned in a terrible manner, and it is not yet known whether he will survive or not. From his own lips the writer received the following account: — '• Was it by the orders of your foreman that you entered the burning building ?" enquired the writer. "No, sir. The foreman, noticing that it was extremely dan-, gerous to enter, instructed his men not lo do so. I had no idea of goiag in until I saw a lot of children and a woman on the second floor, trying to escape and screaming as loud as they could. I knew, by the headway the flames were making, that in a few seconds all of them would be lost ; so I forgot orders, discretion, and everything else, and rushing through the smoke arcpnded the staircase. I succeeded in getting a hold of the children, and, making sure of their safety, started after the woman. I knew when I ascended the second time that I could not return that way ; and therefore calculated on saving the woman and myself by getting out on the roof. The woman was in her nightdress, aad as I grabbed her around the body the flames shot up and burned, the hair off my head and also burned my hands. I clung to her, however, but she fell lifeless, and then I found my arm was sprained as well as badly burDed. I also became very weak, and was almost suffocated with smoke. I dragged myself to the top floor, and tried to get through the scuttle, but found it nailed down tight. It was then I realised my own danger. " There were two doors leading to apartments on that floor, but both of them were locked, and I was too weak to force the locks. I don t know how long I was on the floor ; it seemed like an age to me, but it could not have been more than a few seconds. It was sufficiently long, however, for me to think of every act of my life. Things which happened when I was a boy came to my mind, and as I felt certain that escape was impossible I prayed to God to forgive all the wrongs I had ever done Him. At that moment I determined to make one last effort. Rushing to the front hallway I noticed a window ; and without conjecturing or caring where it led to, for by this time the flames were on top of me, I threw myself against it, and fortunately landed on the fire-escape. There was no ladder to ascend or descend, so my condition appeared very little improved. Noticing that by jumping I could reach the gutter of the roof, I did so, but my maimed left arm was unable to render me any assistance, and I fell back on the fire-escape. A dense volume of smoke reminded me again of my danger, and the secoad time I grasped the gutter, and by a superhuman effort reached the roof, where I fell prostrate with weakness. Two of my associates on the engine reached m 3 from an adjoining roof, and carried me away in time. I his is all I have to say about the matter." " What do the doctors say about your case ?" '•They say I will get well ; bat oE course they would not tell me anything else, if they kuew I would not recover. They are doing everything in their power for me, and I know if it rests with them I will get better."

•' Don't you think it was very foolish for you to enter the building, when it was deemed hazardous by your foreman ?" " That's what my wife and' everybody else says ; but I don't sec how any fireman or any man could see a lot of women and children burn to death and not take long chances to save them. If the same thing was to happen to-morrow, and I *as well, I would certainly do what I did the other night."

At Bishop Guilbert's taking possession of his cathedral— that of Amiens — on the 18th November, his reception by the civil and military authorities was cold, not to say hostile, the " Marsellaise" bein» played by the band of the 72nd legiment a3 His Lordship passed! but the attitude of the people, who assembled in large numbers was most sympathetic and loyal towards their new bishop. ' The sale of Church property in Italy since the 26th October, 1867, up to the end of September last, whether by public auction or by private bargain, has been made in 130,514 lots, containing an area of 556,518 hectares (107,991 acres), at the estimated value of £17,054,1G0, and realizing £20,655,550. Count Lobanoff, the new Russian ambassador to London, and successor of Count Schouvaloff, who leaves Bnglaud with the brilliant repute of being the most fascinating foreigner seen in it for a generation, is a man of great wealth, having inherited a good deal of the famous Potemkin property. His carnage horses are grand animals, " Tartars of the Ukraine breed," and he has half-a-dozen pa»es sons of chieftains of the Caucasus, intelligent and handsome lads° dressed in their national costume. His servants are all liveried in the costume worn by the msnial kind in the time of Catherine the Great but his coachman and footmen wear the military garb which was the vogue at the court of the first Alexander. This half European half Oriental state marks all details of Lobanoff 's home, and he has a wealth of barbaric pearl and gold in his table appointments The Globe states :— " Intelligence has reached us that whilst crossing a sterile tract of country between Dar-es-Salaam and Nysswasswa, the elephants attached to the Belgian Elephant Expedition marched uninterruptedly without food for forty-two hours and without water for thirty-five hours, carrying at the time burdens weighing 12 cwt. each animal. This wonderful example of endurance goes to confirm our opinion to the utility of the elephant as a means of transport in tropical Africa." Saturday, Dacember 13, the King and Queen of Spain, while driving in the Atocha-shreet at Madrid, met a priest takin<* the last sacraments to a dying man. Their majesties alighted from their carriage and lent it to the piicst, followiag on foot, amid the acclamai tions of the populace.