A Colossal Fire.

Evening Star, Issue 8529, 30 May 1891, Page 1 (Supplement)

A Colossal Fire.

A CHICAGO MUSEUM IN FfcAMES. The fiercest and moat destructive fire that has occurred in Chicago since, the great fire of 1871, whi3h resnlted in th* destruction of the city, broke out on April 14, and swept through Wett Madison Btreet. The extensive retail furniture house of Mr John M. Smyth, which was perhaps the largest in the world! was totally destroyed. The Dime Museum of Messrs Kohl and Middleton was also so completely consumed that nothing is left. Five buildings on the north side of the street, from Union street to the Haymarket Theatre, were likewka destroyed. The block of buildings of which the theatre forms part, and the public school adjacent, were badly scorched. No fewer than thirty-six fire engines were upon the scene to combat the flames, while eight hundred firemen and three hundred police were engaged \a combating the conflagration. The datnagft and loss occasioned by the fire is estimated at not less than 2,000,000d01, of which 900,000d0l will be lost by the destruction of Mr Smyth's furniture warehouse. Although several firemen and others are unfortunately reported injured, no lives were loat. The fire originated in John M. Smyth's waggon sheds at the baak of the -furniture warerooms, adjacent to the back portion of the Dime Mwenm. The actors on the stage at Kohl and Middleton's Museum were startled by flames leaping through the windows behind the scenes, which opened oa to tha bank premised. They became panio-Btrickea, and jumped wildly over the footlights into tho auditorium. Here there were about three hundred people attending the hourly performance in the theatre. They canght the infection of blind terror, and tore down the- stairways howling and stamping like a tribe of Indians on toe warpath. Women and children, who formed evei» half the audience, were crushed underfoot; and jammed against the door-prats in the narrow exits. Policeman Sheeny mad* his way through the smoke atid succeeded in relea»ing twenty caged monkeys that were | chattering and screaming in. terror. Some of the poor boasts rushed straight for the. flames, aud were burnt up in a fh&i>. Other* seachc-d the streets and were seen lost to sight along the cornices and awnings, over the businesa places, disappearing in. every direotion. The "freaks** were alt fcrrtbly frightened, but all succeeded in getting all alive. Mdme. Carver, the 9001b " fit woman," dragged herself to one of the back windows, and was about to throw the "Midget," who la billed on the boaids as her son, into the Btreet, when she was. stopped.. Dola Lorenzo, the albino, was to blinded by the smoke that she was found ruflhing wildly about, and was caught mi rescued only with great difficulty. The "pig beaded boy" had to be dragged out forcibly, as he wa& unmanageable through fright. An enormous wa* burned, the firemen beiag afraid to release it. The reptile lashed about savagely but vainly, trying to smash the thick parte glass window which formed its cage walls. The building was soon blaring asd roarbg like a Uaat furnace. The oaUa fell inward* within an hour, and there was nothing left 1 »f the fine block of buildings but a heap off bricks and cindera.