as they couldn't be driven out, at last it wuz a great
writhin', strugglin' mass of animal forms appallin' to see, while the
ears wuz deafened by the maddened cries of leapords and hyenas--the
wild jabberin' of monkeys, snarlin' and growlin' of panthers, tigers
and bears, roarin' of lions--hybrids--hissin' of serpents--pitiful
frightened neighing of ponies, trumpetin' of elephants. A great
screamin', roarin, hissin', writhin', fightin' mass!

But as they refused to be driven to safety, the keepers after heroic
efforts to save 'em, give 'em a more merciful death. It took fur
greater heroism to do this, for some of 'em wuz dear pets, and it wuz
like slayin' their own children, and they aimed their revolvers at 'em
through tearful eyes.

A bareheaded bystander sez, "The fire started in Hell Gate."

Sez I, "Jest what you could expect of that place, I never hearn no
good of it yet."

But the wild crowd surged to and fro. Earth and Heaven seemed filled
with the dretful roar and confusion--

It wuz a riot of deafenin' noise and clamor below, and fur fur above,
Dreamland Tower flamed up a immense pillar of fire, blazin' out for
the last time over sea and land, and with a dyin' effort at
decoration, crashed down, sendin' up a shower of golden sparks a
hundred feet high.

Jest then a woman sez, "The little Incubator Babies have been
forgotten."

"Not by me!" I sez, and I strove to push my way towards 'em, the woman
toilin' along by my side through the inferno of clamor, steam, smoke,
and shriekin' rushin' humanity. But jest before we got there we met
the good doctors and nurses who wuz bearin' 'em to safety, and I sez
to the woman, "It will be a shame if them helpless mites are ever
brought back to this place of danger."

"Danger!" the words rousted up afresh my agonized fears. Where wuz
Josiah? Where wuz my idol? The woman tried to comfort me, for I wuz
now cryin' aloud, and callin' on his name.

She sez, "He will escape; men can git round so much easier than
wimmen."

"Have you a husband in this dretful place?" sez I.

"No," sez she, "only their dust, I have got three in a vase on my
mantle piece in Surf Avenue." Instinctively I thought "she'd had
husbands to burn, but some wimmen can't get one to save their lives,
and them that get one can't keep track on him."

But I d'no whether she saved her vase or not, for we wuz parted by the
hustlin', tearin', scramblin' mob, and I wuz carried in another
direction, cho