Nebraska advertiser., 1858-03-04
neStrnctiYe Ere in 50. LouIs.

From the St. Louis Republican OF me
22d. we extract the following:
One of the most calamitous events that
has ever occurred in this city, involving
= fearfulextent of loss to life and prop
errv. transDired Saturday morning, be-
tween the hours Of three and four o'clock.
The Pacific Hotel, situated on the corner
of Poplar and Seventh streets, together
with the contents Of a number OF stores.
on the first floor beneath, was entirely
consumed by fire, nothing remaining but
the ~blackened and crumbling walls.
The loss of property, though large, Is
nothing TO the destruction OF human AXes
which this catastrophe has occasloned'
From the best information we can gamer
there were about one hundred persons
sleeping in the Hotel at the time of the
occurrence. 1t appears that the entire
building was enveloped in the raging ele-
ment before scarcely any of the lodgers
were awakened to a full sense OF Nhelr
danger. rAnd when the inmates were
were finally aroused it was only to find
all opportunities of egress closed to Them
for the staircases in front and behind were.
/ already gone or so nearly SO hat an
attempt to escape by those means would
be only rushing into the arms OF lneylta-
bic death. The scene that ensued bat-
Aes any effort at description. The rush
ing of men, women and children to and
fro to avoid the blistering heat and to
search for ways to reach the street.-the
shrieks. Of the terror-stricken and the
/ groans of those bound to their rooms by
walls of scorching ire-the shouts of those
who had been called to the spot from the
surrounding neighborhood-the Chamber
ing over swaying and Keeling joists-the
falling floors with their load of heavy fur
niture and their dearer burden of human
lives-all this and more that was intense
ly terrible and fearful, it is not given TO
our pen TO adequately describe,
The stairs gone, the roof andfoors inch
by inch, giving way, and the lurid flames
shooting up momentarily thicker and hot
ter, many sought to escape the impending
hazard of being burned to death, through
the scarcely less dangerous prospect Of
jumping to the ground from the windows.
Mr.. d w. Strader, n Of the lesses
of the Hotel, says:
l suppose there must be between twen-
ty and thirty lives lost.
The loss of property is variously esti-
mated. The account which comes near
est to accuracy seems to be as follows:
Pacific Hotel, owned by George B.
Field, loss estimated at $4,000, insurance
SO, 600.
Ellis s. Granville, grocers, on taking
stock, January l, had goods valued at 3d.
900, since which time considerable ofnew
goods have been taken in. Their loss is
now estimated at $1,000, insurance for
$4,000.
Dumont G. Jones, drug store, loss set at
$4,000, insurance 81, 800, in the Globe
Mutual.
- Hirsch, dry-goods store, loss S4,-
900, insured for $4,000. ~
Julius Ullenhoff, china and crockery
store; loss covered by an insurance policy
of $4,000.
Goats s. Brothers feed store, on Pop
lar street; loss $500-no insurance.
D. w. Strader & Co., lessees of the
premises; total loss $3,500to S4.000-no
insurance.
Had the books of the Hotel been saved
it might have been easy to estimate the
number of the lost. But it is even diff
cult to enumerate those who have escaped,
for they are scattered about in various
parts of the city, and the whereabouts of
but few is yet ascertained. There are
rumors of several being missing, whose
names have not been reported, because no
one knows them. 1t is certain there were
a great many strangers in the house, and
the anxiety of the public TO know the pre-
else extent of loss of life will not be abat-
ed until every vestige of the mingled frag-
ments in the building has been removed.
More melancholy spectacles to behold
than the charred and broiled remains of
those already taken out, we hope never
again to see. A ~lifeless body is at any
time a mournful sight, though laid out in
the most careful manner, and shrouded in
the purest habiliments. But to look upon
headless, limblesse trunks, scorched to the
bone, crushed, mangled and torn, picked
out of heaps of Goals, dirt and cinders,
poisons sight, and sickens the most steeled
and hardened heart. Death, too, in no
form, is more dreadful than to be met in
the awful manner in which the unfortun-
ate victims of the Pacific Hotel disaster
met it. Blissfully unconscious of any i'm
pending calamity when they retired to
bed, u~nprepared it may be, to die, they
awoke in the midst of crumbling walls,
shrieks and shouts, to find that their last
end was come in a shape terrible and in
evitable. What agony they suffered, what
prayers they offered, or with what resig-
nation they submitted to the general ca
tastrophe, no human mind can know.