The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1877-04-26
A FIERY EPISODE.

Ex,erience of Two Rescued Inmates of the
southern Hotel-Gallantry of the Fire
men. "a
In giving his Testimony before the
Coroner, in St. Louis, on the 18th, dur
the progress of the investigations Of the
Southern Hotel disaster, Professor John
X. Rees said:
r am professor of mathematics and
astronomy at Washington University /
have been .boarder at the Southern
since last December occupied room
ON the 9th floor, at the east-entl. l-0n'
the night Of the fire ] was awakened by
my wife, WHO said she had heard a
scream in the hall, and thought there
was a fire, | told her l thought not,
but | went to the door and found the
hall full of smoke. / told
her zato put on aay few things and
we started out, but were driven back
by the smoke; We went ( to the
window to get some fresh air, and then
again attempted to 60 into the hall, but
the smoke was terrible, and my wife's
health was very poor, and I dared not
make the venture. Just then two wom-
en- rushed into the room, and j told them
TO go to the windaw. 1 then shut the
door. The smoke was now. almost suf-
locating in our room, and we had to 60
to the window and lean out to get fresh
air. We noticed that every thing seemed
quiet below There was one engine at
the ,eornerof Fourth and Walnut Streets,
and one coming down Elm Street. We
could see no one at the windows on our
side Presently the fire escape made its
appearance About this time / saw a
man in the room adjoining US lower
himself by a sheet rope down to the fifth
story window, where there,were two 9th
er persons. From there they called to
the firemen for help, The fire-escape
was raised slowly, so as to come within
couple of feet below the fifth story win
dow, where they were, which was
diagonally below US. The fremen ran
up it rapidly and took out the three per-
sons, The firemen then asked if |
thought we could reach the ladder by a
rope from our window, so as to avoid
moving the ladder, which is very cum
bersome. As my wife had spinal
trouble, and was quite i'll, and as both
of the other women We're very large, |
replied that thought we could not do
it with any degree of safety and that the
| ladder had better be moved The fire
man said all right, and he would see
what he could do. He ran down and
the escape was. turned around, wheeled
down. the street about 10 feet and again
turned toward the wall. The top came
within 10 feet of our window. A man
ran up with rope and | threw
him 4 sheet rope. He caught it
and fastened his rope to. it, and l
then, pulled it up, ,Wnen 1 had secured
it two of the firemen came up to our
window hand over hand, very rapidly.
1t was certainly brave act. They low
cred me to the ffth-story window by a
rope, and / stopped on the ledge. Then
he tied the rope around my wife to let
her down. to me, and would have lower
ed her to the ground, but L was afraid
that in her weak condition the rope
would cause her serious injury. So we
swung her out to the ladder, where
Thorn received her, and carried her part
of the way down. The ladder, standing
SO high as it did, yibrated very freely,
making it very difficult for him to bear
her weight, and after going down a
portion of the way, he gave out, and
she had to climb over on to his
back. Then he took her safely to
the ground. Andrew Kirk then came
up and promised me he would not leave
! the window till he saw me safe. Toole,
with great presence of mind, tied rope
around the first chambermaid, and low
cred her. Thinking he intended that
should take her off out of the fifth story
ledge, caught hold of the rope to help
her, but Toole called to me to let her go,
and I did so. He then let her down to
the balcony. The rope in sliding down
struck me across the neck and burned
me severely. The other woman was
lowered in like manner, and after that
the rope snarled, and had to be taken
down by the ladder. I have seen fire
work in Milwaukee and New York, and
! am free to say that the Skinner escape
was excellently managed L saw the
firemen take out seven persons with it,
1t worked slowly, but SO
surely and skillfully that it gave us conf
dence, and there was not scream from
our side of the house. After the scream
which awakenedu us, there was no scream
or other noise, every body seeming to
feel confident. that they would be saved.
1t seemed strange to me, on reading
| over statements made by witnesses yes
terday, that although Capt. Warner be-
came satisfied that the building was
gone, and althoughMr. Cook and others
had time to discuss the advisability OF
moving their baggage, and finally to
remove it to a place of safety, yet no
attempt was made to alarm such of us
as were on the upper floors and were in
such imminent danger of being burned.
If we had had an alarm a,little earlier,
Mr.. and Mrs. Clark, who were only
thirty feet from us, need never have
been lost. Toole tells me that within
twenty minutes from the time we were
taken out, that portion of the wall fell
in, which shows how narrowly we