Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-12-28
BURNING or THE SPOTS WOOD no.
TEL.

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'p.'on u '"o ,'.pie soehes AZ TIC ouih-
ing OF the Spotswood Hotel;
Built without any brick partitions above
the first floor, the flames having once COTTON
a Roadway, any attempt to check them was
worse than futile. In few minutes after the
fire was discovered by the Waterman. who
happened to pass the pantry where stove
had been negligently allowed to burn, and
which, becoming red hot, communicated to
the floor, it had rushed with lightning speed
from cellar to garnet, and by the time the
fire department had become thoroughly or
ganized tor work the whole interior of the
immense structure was one sheet of living
fiame-,nad Wild Kissing fame--in its re-
sistless, desolating sweep, hurting athwart
the frosty sky masses of burning timber, like
some volcanic demon laboring to disgorge it.
self--now silent as if to gather new strength
now roaring cracking thunderinp ms if
striving to drown the shrieks of its victims.
the hoarse confused cries o{the firemen, the
shrill whistles of the engines and the agoniz-
ing hum of the swaving crowd of citizens be-
low ready TO do and die in the cause of hu-
manity, but powerless.
Here is a mother barefooted on the frozen
streets and lust as the cry of fire had startled
her from her slumbcrs raises that most agon-
izng of cries. "save nv children ~ here
wife pleading for some tidinps of her husband,
who when last seen was Drawing fire and
smoke to save some relation; there a man
stupefed by horror and fear; beside him an
other, whose gallant shirt knows not the
meaning of the latter word and who, having
saved one friend, is preparing to rush again
into the jaws of death to rescue another. Here
is Young Sam Hines, who has lust brought
two friends from the fourth story out ard
PUSHES back for third, who is seen at the
window of his room from the street below;
but now the stairway is in flames Only one
chance remains; it is to lump. He prepares
for the fearful leap Brave hearts will catch
him. if he brushes them. Too late; the fire
fend has claimed him. A volume of black
sitting smoke envelops him; angry forked
flames leap like serpents' tongues from with
out the mass, and his gallant soul is in eterni-
to-
Creeping, writhing, kissing during the
lulls of the winters blast-rushing as it
springs fresh from its lair-ihe demon finally
seizes upon two large buildings adjoining the
hotel. Then the scene, if possible, becomes
more fearful thar before, mipghng as it does
the falling of the walls and the crashing of
the floors with the other horrors of the scene
At one time it appeared as if the destruc-
ton of the whole block was inevitable. The
hiSht was thN stNSISct VI. tiS NiHtcI, thc
spray of the streams falling in hail upon the
half dressed inmates of the hotel, as they
stood watching the means of egress from the
building, to see if the next rushed out was a
brother, sister, husband, son, or daughter, or
to give word Of encouragement to some one
poised between two horrible forms of death
and powerless, except to cry out above the
din below, 'saye me! am burning."
This heart-rendHg appeal rang out from
more than fifty windows, and rang out only
once. 1t is not known positively that there
are more than five actual victims of the flames,
but the universal fear is that this does not
approximate the number. One short hour
and the fire tiend had done its work. Its
progress had been stayed, but two-thirds of
the block fronting main street and running
back nearly the same distance was fiery
cbarnel lake, still smoking and seething, but
conquered.
" hen the fire first broke out, and the wild
cry rang through the house, repeated from
mouth TO mouth with frantic and despairing
energy, your correspondent, whose room was
in the left wing of the building in the third
story. woke up, and after getting on some
clothes rushed into the long passage, now
filled with smoke. A terrible scene met the
eye through the smoky atmosphere. The
forms of the half-dressed males and females
Souiu pe sSS' iuShibes tNey hHcW hOt "HitH-
er, and shrieking with dispar. Proceeding
further to the head of staircase all egress
was blocked up with an indiscr inmate mass
OF luggage and people trying to escape. Rush
ing then to the right wing of the building an
other staircase was reached which brought
one to the second floor, and here the long
corridors but served as tiues to conduct the
flames through the building. Continuing on.
the ground floor is reached at last, and then
the cold, icy air strikes the face. A piteous
scene. Here saw the wife of Captain Me-
Phail in her bare feet, with blanket wrapped
around her, while her husband half dressed,
carried their infant child whose piteous
cries could be heard above the din of the
falling timbers and crashing floors. But here
was an act of chivalry worthy OF mention. A
man named Towers sprang forward, pulled
off his shoes and gave them to the lady, and,
dvesting himself of his overcoat, wrapped
the child in il and carried it distance of
several squares to the house of friend of
McPhails. Again there was another cry,
"a man at a fifth story window !" | looked
up. and there was c.. A. Schaffter the State
Superintendent of Public Printing, clinging