The Van Buren press., 1877-04-17
Burning Of the Southern Hotel At St.
Louis.

ST. LOUIS, April 1l.-About . o'clock
this morning the Southern Hotel, the
finest editice of the kind in the city, was
discovered to be on fire. The salvage
corps responded to the alarm before it
was sounded on the city bells. Before
the engines arrived, the entire upper
stories were in flames. At 2 o'clock, the
scene in the immediate vicinity of the
hotel, was indescribable--the excitement
being of the most intense character the
windows in the upper stories were crow
ded with shreking men and women,
whom it seemed impossible to save. A
few have been rescued by ladders, plsc-
ced on the Fourth-street portico, but ON
the other three sides of the building,
bounded by Fifth, Walnut and Elm, the
ladders fell far short of reaching the
windows.
Peter Blow, son of the former minis
ter to Brazil, was sleeping in his room
on the sixth floor, and succeeded, after
strenuous exertions, in escaping with his
life, and a broken arm. The building is
i stories in height, and Mr.. Blow thinks
hat majority Of the inmates of the
two upper stories Of the building must
have persisted. Two men unrecognized.
were killed by jumping from the third
story windows, and third one badly
mangled. Five women were rescued
from the sixth story. on the Fourth-st.
side, by the heroic efforts of the firemen,
who, after ascending the patent ladders,
succeeded in getting a rope to the half
suffocated creatures.
The fire is said to have originated in
the store-room.
About 200 servants, mostly females
were lodged in the fifth story, and it is
feared large number ofthem were lost.
Several jumped from the windows, and
were killed. Their bodies were taken
away by friends, and their names are
not ascertained. The scenes at the fire
were of the most terrible and sickening
character, several, in desperation, leaping
from the windows to escape the flames.
AT quarter past two, or about half an
hour after the fire was discovered, the
entire roof was ablaze, and the flames
were rapidly descending to the lower
stories. Half an hour later the floors
and interior walls began to fall. The
roof fell in, and there is now nothing
left Of one of the finest hotels in the
country, except the Walnut street front
and parts of Fourth and Fifth street
faces.
The loss on the building and contents
will be from s750,O00 to 100000; in.
surance unknown.
The most frightful calamity that has
ever betallen st. Louis, took place at an
early hour, this morning, involving the
destruction of the Southern Hotel by
fire, and the loss of a large number OF
lives the exact number cannot now be
given, but it is feared that some forty or
fifty pcrishcd, either by being burned
directly, or first smothercd by the smoke
and then consumed From the best in
formation at hand, the fire caught in the
store-room in the basement, and was first
seen coming through the ground floor,
Just north of the office, and in ten min
utes it had assembled the elevators and
rotunda, and spread itself over the sixth
floor under the roof. This floor was oc-
cupied entirely by employees rf the ho-
tel, the largest part of whom were fe-
malrs.
The fire spread rapidly, filling every
room and hall with flames and smoke
and the scene was one of the most terri
BILE description. Frantic men, women
and children ran through the halls shric,
king in the most heart-rending manner
in their wild and desperate efforts to es
cape. The smoke was so dense in some
of the halls that the gas,jets were extin-
guished, which rendered egress to those
most familiar with the building matter
Of great difficulty.