The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1858-03-09
ESCAPE OF PANT
LIZ FROM A BURNING HOTEL.

oeio" We give part VI pElfd'o lo'Ioi
from DR.. C. d. White. giving some partic-
ulars of this awful scene of the late FIRE in
St. Louis. with full account of the very
remarkable escape from death of DIR. w.
himself, his wife. three little children and
their nurse. by jumping from three story
window of the burning hotel. The letter is
as fellows:
ST. LOUIS. (King's Hotel,) Feb. 81.
Dear Sir As you have been previously
Intermediary telegraph, the Pacific Hotel
1.-THE house at which we have been boarding
for some time, past) is burned. Attwenty
minutes past three, Oh Saturday morning,
we were reused by lian-like roaring OF
our hosts large dog, and the simultaneous
cry of fire frer' resounding through
the building. We all at once jumped out
of bed, and opened the door and looked
out, when the stair case, 1.-THE only avenue
of ESCAPED was enyel"ped in flames, in one
solid sheet at least twenty feet high. We
were ia the third story. and our case was,
indeed. vely desperate one; there we
were, confined to our room, with certain
death if we remained another inmate, and
almost certain death if we took the terrible
leap. raised the window and looked out;
it was q fearful moment; not sound es-
capped my wife or children, or Alice. (the
nurse); all waited my action. | snatched
a nattrass from the bed, and drepped it
out; it fell as faverably as l could wish
Bidding all good bye" l jumped and
found myself in safety. l looked up, Mary
Ellen This wife) was at the window, called
to her to threw the children, which she
obcyed at once, and it is almost miraculous
to relate. l caught them all one after the
other, then braced myself to catch her,
which l did it no doubt saved her life, but
nearly proved fatal to me; she is quite
large woman to fall on a man that distance.
My friends took each child. and carried
them to fire, short distance off, to save
them from freezing; another strong man
TODD up my wife, and carried her into a
German drinking shop, and fortunately
met an omnibus driver at the door, whe,
seeing our situation, hurried to the stable,
only two squares off, and brought around
an omnibus, to take us to the hospital, but
Mrs w. objected. and wished to 60 to
Kings where VIC did. DR.. Pope was i'm
medately sent for, and came at once. He
examined US thoroughly. Mary's hip is
seriously hurt, tit is her left one) and l
think that the inside of the socket that re-
ceives the head of the thigh bone is frac-
tured She is unable to help herself or to
move. l do not think that she is in any
special danger, but the shock was terrible.
Reaction did not fully take place sixteen
hours after the injury. Neither of the
children was severely hurt, think. My
pack was wrenched in catching Mrs W.,
aud DR.. Pope said it was truly miraculous
that it was not broken in catching such
weight. l cannot get up a stair four inches
it is necessary for any one man to suffer,
bat do not complain. l have saved my
wife and children and their nurse 1.-THE lat
ter'S back was hurt some, but she walked
home a few hours afterwards). Only fancy
to yourself our situation, nearly naked. and
cold enough to have frozen any one to
death in one hour. and | am sure you will
not have a very agreeable picture, to say
the least of it. In one minute from the
time we got clear, the roof and floor fell
into the cellar. There were eight full
grown men burned to death within fifteen
feet of our room, and yet we all escaped
tw" women and three helpless children
when the chances were even, and the men
rected me how to act, and so quickly, fer
it was all done in less than it takes YOU to
read this. A lady friend of ours, on the
same floor, jumped and broke her lower
jaw all to pieces, broke her left leg, Just
above the knee, and the bone ran through
the flesh, So that it stuck cut three or four
inches. think she must die, as she was
also pregnant at the time. Another young
floor below US, and was killed at once. A
man near us took the same jump we did,
broke both lrgs, injured Lis head, and was
otherwise badly bruised. I think the
Waterman ian Englishman Henry Peters,
was drunk and asleep. as have seen him
asleep when ON watch. previous to the fire.
He was burned SO badly that he could not
be recognized, and think cannot live. He
was in the office, within ten feet of the en-
trance. 1t is beyond question that the
dog saved all of our lives by his noise, and
such a noise no man ever heard from the
throat of any dog before. Another man.
wnpan. child and nurse on the same floor
with US jumped and were all killed. One
corpse was found all burned 20 crisp with
his vaise fast in his hand. One young man
jumped and did not hurt himself, but an
other jumped on him and killed him. All
the strangers that were in = the house were
lost; those that were saved were boarders.
A RECKLESS MANA man called Bill
Farr, was killed on last Christmas day, at