Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1877-04-18
Thrilling Incidents of the st. Louis
Fire.

AUDITORS Office OF the Missouri Pa
cltic Railway. The Auditor of the
ro2d, Mr.. G. L. White, has. for some
weeks past, been very sick, and Mr..
Hazen was in the habit of nursing
him and sitting up with him, in his
room, on the sixth floor, at the hotel.
After the alarm of fire was given, on
yesterday morning, he was the first of
the two to wake. He saw the flames
coming III, and at once woke up Mr..
White. The twain Immediately set
to work to pick up the bed
clothes and make line. Mr..
White says he felt strangely weak
at tirst-so weak, in fact, that he
had to put his foot on the sheet and
pull with both hands, in order to tight
EN- knot. When the rope of sheets
had been made fast, Hazen said :
White, you'd better so first, you are
the lighter, and II follow YOU" Mr..
White started and got down to the
fifth floor successfully, (The room was
on the Walnut street slde.) Mr.. Hazen
followed and got safely down to the
same floor. Here they stopped few
minutes to partially dress themselves,
and then set to " DIRK to pick up more
clothes and make a longer line. The
line had been heightened, and
Hazen was descending by means of it,
when between the fifth and fourth
floors the rope parted. There was the
sharp sound OF parting linen and dull
sound us Hazen struck the cornice and
fell to the pavement dead. At the
time of Mr.. Hazen's fall, Mr.. White
was sitting on the window-sill In the
fifth story. He at once proceeded to
gather up more clothes and make a
better line, and SO got down to the
fourth floor. Here he called to the
tiremen below, and lowered his rope,
to which they attached a hempen cord,
which he pulled up and made fast, and
so came down on terra trina safely.
Mr.. and Mrs. Andrew Einstmann
and Mrs. Scott, the mother of the lat
ter, occupied room on the Fourth
street front. They received the warn
ing late, and all hope of escape by the
halls was vain. They rugged one of
these vain and delusive ropes of blank
cts. Mr.. EinStmann, in order to test
the strength of the rope, started to
climb down first. Slowly but surely
one of the himsy blankets parted its
threads, and away down on the hard
pavement he fell, with sickening
thud, while the vast crowd groaned in
unison. Mr.. Elnstmann never moved.
Mrs. Scott, an old lady, feeble and
weak, did not see the horrible fate of her
son-in-law. She started down this
ladder of death, and the poor old lady
fell to the pavement below, and lay
motionless, with bones broken and
blood oozing from a terrible cut across
the forehead, which dyed her silvery
hairs. She was not killed, but last
night she lay very pale and weak, in a
bedroom in a residence at No. GOT
Catalpa street. The doctor said that
she could not live through the night.
Down in the parlor the form of poor
Andrew Eintsmann lay, awaiting
the burial of to-day. Mrs. Eintsmann
alone survived. She saw the fate of her
husband and mother, and reckless, car
ing not whether she lived or died. she
loosed her hold OF the window Two
OF window, intent upon saving his
OWE life. The falling body of Mrs.
Emstmann struck him. InstiIctively
he caught her. He held her for an in
slant. 1t was enough. The force of
hel fall was checked, and she fell the
one remaining story to the pavement
beneath, and was unframed. "Oh,
why did | not die, too? mCaned she,
last night, as she sat beside the body
oil hel husband, and rocked her body
backward and forward in the ecstasy
Of her grief.
Sergeant Fox stated last night to q
Globe Democrat reporter that. in his
opinion, one room in the Southern
Hotel, was the scene of terrible
tragedy while the fire was raging.
Officer Blackboard was on the fourth
floor endeavOring to aid the inmates to
escape. Just as he kicked in the door
of the room referred to by the Ser
geant, he heard two pistol-shots, and
saw man and woman lying on the
floor, apparently dead or unconscious.
Before he had time to examine them,
the suttoCating smoke drove him from
the apartment, and he thinks that they
a,suredly persisted. The theory
Of the Sergeant is that the couple were
husband and wife, and that. driven
distracted at their perilous situation,
they preferred instantaneous death to
torture by fire, and ended their exist
ence by means of powder and ball
81. Louis Globe Democrat.
Phelim Toole, an old sailor. rs could
be told 10y the "cut of his jib." is en-
ployed on Fire Escape No. 5. Some
of the ladders had been taken, and, in
consequence, much trouble was had in
handling the machine,
When II vas fret raicnd On FDurtI