The Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1870-1875, 1870-12-26

Intensely Cold Weather-.AnOtheI
Terrible Fire-The SpOtsWOOd Ho
tel, Richmond Virginia, TOlalll
DestrOyed-SeTerai Persons Per
ikh In The FLAMES.
/ RICHMOND, Va, Dec. 25.-Las
night was the coolest for thirteeI
years. The ground was covered with
snow and the Thermometer indicated
degrees.
at quarter pGst2 o'clock this morn
ing. just as the porter had commenced
waking up the passengers for the
Southern train, the Spotswood Hotel
/ was discovered 10 be on fire on the
lower floor, An effort was immedi-
ately made to awaken the guests. The
scene became indescribable. Men
were rushing about trying to save their
baggage, aud women nearly naked and
barefooted rushed into the snow into
the street. The steam engines were
promptly on hand, but the water being
frozen, IL wts some time before water
could be thrown on the building. In
! twenty minutes the flames spread to
such an extent that escape by the
stairway was cut of. The guests then
commenced leapiDg from the windows.
z. 7. Clarke, of Philadelphia,
steward of the hotel, leaped from the
third story window, receiving fatal
Injuries. The most fearful scene of
the disaster was the appearance Of
Miss Emily Cornelius, of Baltimore,
hOusekeeper, at the window in the
fifth story with one or two other
ladies, screaming for help. The fire
companies ladders we're put up but
failed by two stories to reach the
window, aud while the fireman were
endeavoring to lengthen TIE ladders
the crying women disappeared in the
thick smoke and we're lost, the room
Frightening up moment after with
flames.
Up to noon to-day, the only burned
whose names are Known. are Aras-
mus Russ, clerk of Libby Prison dur
ing the war; Miss Emily Cornelius,
housekeeper; Samuel W. Robinson,
clerk with Euker & Bro, and Samuel
HaDes, clerk with Milhiser & Co.
The register of the hotel was con-
sumed, and it is impossible to give
the names of the strangers lost. Sew
eral have persisted, as there are about
a dozen unclaimed trunks belonging
TO persons from New York and other
Northern cities.
The weather is so intensely cold
that the telegraph wires and buildings
are covered with ice, and FIVE steam
ers are encased with ice an inch
thick.
Among the remarkable escapes was
that Of O. Shelter, attached to the
Office of State Printer, who was in
the fourth story, aud escaped by
dropping from window cornice to
window cornice until be escaped to
the ground. He was badly burned,
however. The correspondent of the
New York Herald had a narrow es-
cape. The guests lost all their cloth
ing, and the ladies had to walk bare
footed over the snow to places of
shelter. Total loss. 100000. The
insurance is mostly in Nothern COM
panies. Business houses we're de-
stroyed. including Messrs. Branch Il
Currant's crockery store, Adams Ex-
press Company office. HoWe's machine
store and other smaller stores.
The following are the additional
names of those who are known to have
been burned TO death: w. +. A,
Thomas, Agent for the Pilgrims Pro.
gress; u. II. Pace, of Danville, Va,
u. 8. Mail Agent. and j. B. Faress,
Messenger of the Southern Express
Company.
The SpottsWood Hotel was valued
at $4,000, and insured in Northern
Companies for sec, 900.
Messrs. Subtell. Lusk & Co, pro-
prietors OF the Spottswood, had the
furniture insured for $50. 600, and the
wines and carpets for 81 600 in the
North British Company.
All the goods ready for delivery in
the cellar of the Southern Express
Company we're destroyed. The Com
paDy's money safes are buried in tie
ruins.
An incident of the fire was the ap
peararce of q man at one of the upper
windows, paralyzed with fright, who
sat tearing paper into small pieces
and throwing them out of the window,
till he fell back among the flames.
Among those who had very narrow |
escapes were NJ. Mailfort, of New |
York. engineer of the work on river |
distinctions, S. D. Pierce, of Colum-
bia, S. O., private secretary of Senator |
Sprague, and Mrs. E. Msgill proprie-
tress of the Theatre. The DeHaven |
Troupe lost their baggage.
The hotel register was found to-
night, and only six Strangers are not |
accounted for. 1t is probable that
some citizens have taken some of
them to their houses. The name of
the housekeeper burned was Mrs.
Emily KinBemarly.
The following are the names Of
the missing strangers: j. 81. Will
cox, of Lynchburq; N. B. A. Lille,
of Pampa, Fla; George and b. An
drews, of Syracuse, N. Y; N III.
Grotte. Of New York, and j. Holmes,
Jr., of Jackson, Tenn.