Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet by H. P. Wood

entrance and are confronted with a five-story building of the sort common in New York’s less desirable neighborhoods. Flames shoot out from the lower floors, and panicked residents lean out every open window, calling for help. A rapt audience crowds together on bleachers, but Archie urges Kitty up toward the front.
    A sudden explosion ignites the third floor. People dangle out windows and cling to fire escapes, waving fruitlessly at the audience for assistance. A hook-and-ladder truck arrives; its telescoping ladder is leaned against the building, and a firefighter scrambles up to pull people from the higher floors. Meanwhile, other firefighters spread out a large net. One by one, the panicked residents leap from the building into the air. The audience tenses. “Jump!” they cry. “Jump! Jump!” They cheer at every successful rescue. A pump wagon pulls up in front of the building, and the fireman’s hose springs to life, spraying a cascade of water that does exactly nothing to tamp the flames. Victims appear on the tenement roof, while the fourth floor also catches fire. A young woman leans out her fifth-floor window, clutching a baby swaddled in a blue blanket. “ Il mio bambino ,” she sobs at the sky. “ Si prega di Dio, salva il mio bambino !”
    Kitty can’t help but get caught up in the drama. “Is she quite all right?”
    â€œPah,” Archie says. “They do this a dozen times a day.”
    â€œHow’s it work?” Kitty whispers.
    â€œGas jets. Pipes installed inside each window send out those flames. Since it’s gas, it doesn’t respond to water, which makes for a good show. But it’s completely controlled. Glorious, no? Hold on, here comes the best bit.”
    A second fire truck pulls up to the building, and an enormous ladder extends upward, leaning against the side of the tenement. A fireman clambers up the ladder as the young mother waves to him frantically. “ Mio Dio ,” she cries. “ Salva il mio bambino !”
    â€œOh, mio Dio ,” Archie mutters. “ Mio Italiano es horrible-o !”
    Even at the top of the ladder, the fireman is still slightly below and to the side of the woman in the window. He braces his body against the ladder and reaches up to her, while she reaches down toward him, their hands inches apart. “Pass me the baby,” he shouts. “ Bambino ! Give me the baby!”
    â€œ Non posso ! Non riesco a raggiungere !” She stretches her arm out farther, starting to lose her balance on the window ledge.
    â€œCome on, lady! Pass me the darn kid!”
    An explosion rips through the fifth floor, sending the woman tumbling out the window and knocking the fireman off the ladder into the net below. The woman clings to the window ledge with one arm, still holding her infant.
    The audience is riled, and people stand up. “Jump into the net!” “It’s your only hope!” “Save yourself!” “Save your baby!”
    The woman sobs hysterically and clutches the window ledge. “ Oh Dio ! Mio bambino !”
    The roof moans and collapses on itself. People trapped on the roof leap from the building, some landing in the net, others crumpling into broken heaps on the street.
    Kitty looks to Archie, wide-eyed.
    â€œIt’s a padded floor,” he whispers. “Painted to look like sidewalk. It’s completely choreographed. Il genius-o , no?”
    The young mother clinging on to the building appears to be losing strength in her arm. Her body swings as she struggles to grip on the ledge without dropping the baby. She screams, an inhuman shriek that rattles Kitty’s bones. A firefighter climbs toward her, while others gather by the net, imploring her to hold on. But she loses her grip and drops, curling her body around her infant like a comma.
    The crowd cheers and celebrates as the firemen send one last blast of water at the burning