Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1877-04-12
LAST NIGHTS DISPATCHES.
A HOLOCAUST AT ST. LOUIS.
THE SOUTHERN HOTEL IN
ASHES.
FrightfaI Loss Of Life.
About Fifty Persons Known to
Have Perished.
HEARTRENDING SCENES AND
INCIDENTS.
Graphic Description of the Terri
bic Calamity.
A PARTIAL LIST OF THE VICTIMS
AND OTHER PARTICULARS.

ST. LOUIS, April IL.
The Southern Hotel in this city was
destroyed by fire at 2 O'Clock this
morning. About fifty lives were lost,
as heal as can be obtained UP to this
time.
The most frightful calamity that has
ever befallen st. Louis took place at a
very early hour this morning, involv-
ing the destruction of the Southern
Hotel by fire and the loss of a large
number of lives. The exact number
can not now be given, but it is feared
that some forty or fifty persisted, either
by being burned directly or first
smothered by the smoke and then
consumed. The fire caught in the
store rooms in the basement and was
first seen coming through the ground
floor just north of the office, and in
ten minutes it had assembled the eleva-
tors and rotuhda and spread itself
over the sixth floor under the roof.
This floor was occupied entirely by
employees of the hotel, the largest part
being women. The fire spread rapidly,
filling every room and hall with flames
and smoke, and the scene was
one of the most terrible descrip-
ton. Frantic men, women and chill
dren ran through the halls shrieking
in the most h~eartrending n in
their wild and desperate effort TO es-
cape. The smoke vas so dense in
sons of the halls that the gas jets
we're extinguished, which rendered
egress to those most familiar with the
building a matter of great difficulty.
The density of the smoke in the halls
drove many guests and boarders back
into their rooms and they rushed to
the windows as a means Of escape.
Ladders were raised as soon as posi-
BILE and women and children with
nothing on but night clothes were
taken from the burning building.
Some tainted from fright and others
sunk exhausted to the ground from
nervous prostration. The ladders
were generally too short to reach the
fifth and sixth stories, but by hosting
some on the one-story balcony on the
east side and the two-story balcony on
the north side of the building these
floors were reached and all those at the
windows were rescued. The Skinner
fire escape was brought into service
and was the means OF saving many
lives. While this work was going on
some frightful scenes occurred. One
man, who had been occupying a win
dow on the street front of the hotel,
became desperate at the seeming de.
lay in effecting his escape, with ner.
yous hands tore the sheets from his
he'd into strips and tied them together.
Fastening this improvised rope to the
window sill and, disregarding the fact
that it did not reach more than twenty
feet, he let himself down hand over
hand. Men below who saw his posi-
ton turned away their heads to avoid
Witnessing the %sickening event that
was inevitable. Finally he reached
the end of the sheet, and then, for the
first time, he seemed to realize his pc.
sition. He stopped, threw his head
back, revealing a CHASTITY face, and
swung slow to and fro. Swayed by
the breeze which the roaring flames
above created, his limbs swung around
convulsively as though to catch around
something. Then he let go and groans
went up from hundreds as he whirled
around and round and finally struck
on the stone tagging. He died
in a few minutes. Two other
men jumped from the fourth story
windows, one of whom seemed not &c
be dangerously hurt, while the other
expired in a few moments. A woman
in The fifth story became panic strick-
en- and jumped out. She alighted on
her feet and was carried to st. James
Hotel still alive. Her husband, who
had been standing by her side, then
tore up the bedding and let the strips
so made out of the window. To this
the bremen attached a rope, which the
man hauled up, making it fast to a
window sill, and safely descended by
it. A man named j.. Il. Wilson
jumped from a fourth story window
and was instantly killed. Andrew
Ensman and Mrs. Scott met their
death in the same way. The mortality
among the female help of the hotel is
feared to be great. There were some
200 of them, all of whom were lodged
in the upper story Of the building.
The panic among them was perfectly
terrible, and a number OF them jumped
from the upper windows. Among
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