THE BURNING OF A HOTEL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6621, 6 February 1883, Page 6

THE BURNING OF A HOTEL.

FEARFUL LOSS OF LIFE.

The American papers contain long accounts of th-: burning of a ho:ol at Milwaukee by which 100' lives were lost. The fire started apparently on the third floor of tiiedoomed buihiing, over the side entrance on Michigan-street, and before the department got tl.e Steamer* facing iu position the flames nad enveloped tLe whol* south-cast corner of th". building, the fierce element licking its nay greedily and with lightning-like rapTdity tuwaids the nortlkrn wing. Snow had been falling all night, silently weaving a shroud for mauy—how many no one can ask without a shudder on beholding what is left of one of the largest hosteines in the northwest. There weio but a few people present—police and night reporters and tome belated straggler for homo—but the scene developing before the horror-stricken few was one which none of the eye-witnesses will ever forget. In a moment every window of the large six-storey hotel structure was filled with struggling guests, frantically and piteously beseeching those below for the aid which it was impossible to render. But few of the unfortunatate inmates gained the front entrance on Michigan-street, although many tn:g- / have be a saved if some immediate

attempts at systematic reijcue had been made. The halls of tho hotel were scenes of the wildest confusion. Men, women, and children rushed up and down the halls in the dense, suffocating smoke, avoiding the blinding flames and roaring blaze, and in their frantic efforts rushed by the stairways and windows leading to the fire-escape, and stumbling over bodies lying unconscious on the carpeted walks, only to join them, and soon there were many prostrated forms whom kind fate had touched with the dark wing of that messenger of death, unconsciousness. The multitude, which by this time had swelled to thousands, stood in perfect awe, but few having aelf-posse;sion aud resolution enough to lend a helping hand on the canvases stretched out to receive those of the despairing inmates of the burning pyre who risked the leap down to the stone sidewalk, one hundred feet below. At lirst there were only Lieutenant Rocktvood, Detectives Reim and McManns, Officers O'Brien and Campbell, aud a few Sentinel men, stretching a heavy canvas, which required fully thirty strong men to handle successfully. A poor fellow stood on the cornice of a fifth-storey corner window for twenty loug minutes, not daring to take the fearful leap. Finally he became bewildered, and, to judge by his actions, dumbfounded by the smoke, and slid off his perch to the canva3 below. The few who held it could not give it the necessary resistance, and the body fell, unhindered by the canvas, with a dull thud which seat a shudder through every witness. The shattered body was carried into the American Express office. All the while hundreds of people had been looking on, nobody responding to the demands of the officers for aid. Everybody seemed to be spell-bound. The terrible spectacle seemed to have paralysed every bit of will-power. In tho fifth storey window, right over this unfortunate, sat the figure of a man crouched upon a window-sill, gazing like one absent-minded into the fiery abyss below. He was motionless, but from time to time sent up a heartrending shriek. The flames encroached upon him, bat he did not seem to mind them. Then they singed his hair aud licked his night clothes. One despairing look he gave to the crowd below, and then tumbled back into the sea of fire. At the morgue a horrible sight was beheld. The two small biers were soon tilled with bodies tightly packed, and then the bodies of girls, women, men, and waiter boys were laid promiscuously on the stone flags almost in a heap as the police patrol brought in the bodies three and four at a time. At half, past six 17 bodies were laid down.' The place was locked up between the trips of the patrol wagoD, aud therefore no identification was possible. The floor at the general office of the central police station was turned into 3 lazaret, persons fatally hurt winding themselves in the blankets on the floor in excruciating pain.

Tom Thumb and his wife nere rescued from the burning hotel by Policeman O'Brien, who took one of the little people under each arm aud carried them down stairs and across the street to the American Express oflice. They wore in their night-clothes, and Mrs. Thumb suffered much from the cold. The general, immediately upon being planted in the Express ofSce, began mourning the loss ol valuable diamonds and other jewellery belonging to his wife. The latter heard him through, and replied, reprovingly : "What if I have lost everything ? Just look at those people there," pointing to the mangled forms of twenty dead aad dying men and women lying upon the floor. The little woman then bravely began relieving the sufferings of those around her by supplying them with water, and by the display of other act 3 of sympathy and kindness.

Joim Gilbert, comedian of the Minnie l'almer Company, jumped from the third storey with bis wife in liis arms. About the same time a ma:i named Johnson jumped from the window above. He jumped on Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert, and the united weight of both men crushed his wife to death. The actor's head was cut and bruised in a frightful maimer. He was picked up in an nti. conscious state, and taken to the l'lankinton House. Mrs. Gilbert was not an actress, but a young lady of culture and refinement. [ Tliere was a strange incident occurred when ' Mrs. Gilbert's body reached the morgue. An | Irishman identified the body as that of his ' daughter. He at once proceeded to strip from the fingera of the dead woman her 1 sparkling rings, and wrench the ornaments ' from her ears. At that moment old Mrs. ' Donahue reached the morgue, and, with a ' passionate burstof grief, recognised the body as that of her dauyhter-in-law. " It's my 1 child,'' cried the alleged father, still stripping the jewellery from the dead ; woman's person. The grief-stricken old ; lady and robber confronted each other, and the painful scene amid the ghastly sur- ; rouudings created the greatest confusion. ' Fifty-one bodies have so far been recovered, ' twenty-eight of which are burned be- \ yond recognition, leaving thirty still missing. ' It is not known, but supposed, that the register i 3 in the safe, which will be reached P by the diggers to-day. The court in the centre will also be reached, where probably 1 most of the bodies will be found. The ex- ! cavators reached the west wall to-day, L where five bodies were found in a heap under the location of the servants' quarters. J A correct estimate as to the loss of life is " impossible to form until the books of the hotel can be got at. The above estimate of ; fifty-oue dead and thirty missing, making the probable total loss of life eighty-one, is thought to be as nearly correct as possible by all parties, The afternoon papers made the following exaggerated statement : Taken to the morgue, sixteen; recovered from the ruins, twenty-one ; sinco died, eight; dead not taken to the morgue, live. Total, fiftyone. This does not include the fragment of bodies found. About forty people reported missing are yet uuaceounted for, which swells the list to ninety. It is almost a sure thing that orer one hundred people lost their lives by the calamity. It is stated that the fire was the work of an incendiary.