National Republican., 1877-04-12
SACRIFICED IN THE FLAMES.

tlVW ulcdbtCib tohoW uioootCis IN 4uiNh
successionl Scarcely is the pail Of one
ghastly horror removed from grief.
stricken people than another BY grim acct
dent comes to smother happiness and hope.
Just as the oppressive sadness Of the dis.
ss,rous Brooklyn theatre fire Is amelior-
sted by the softening influences of time
there comes another scene Of human secri-
Gee and human sufferings which appalls
and makes sick the human heart To-day
St. Louis is In mourning. The fire fend
has done his destructive work. and the
dead can be counted by scores. A fine
hotel, one Of the largest and most costly In
the country, has been devoured by the
flames, and over fly lives destroyed. 1t
was the FIRE fiend's work of but an
hours duration. and yet II was complete
Ia 1t ru nous results. There Is something
about this scene Of destruction even more
terrible than that which spread grief
through Brooklyn, and sent thrill Of hor.
ror over the civilized world. Here We
have great city asleep. In central 10.
caliy stands the Southern hotel It Il q
magnificent ediice. Within its walls ara
sleeping, wholly unconscious Of impending
danger, nearly thousand souls. But at
midnight. when the eyelids are weighed
dowo with heavy sleep, and the silence
which reigns between night and day ID
upon the city, there comes piercing through
the air the startling clang Of the alarm
bell. In moment the silence gives way
to confusion and din and uproarious tu-
multi. From the ground floor Of this mag.
nifcent ediice a raging fame of FIRE has
crept up to the very roof filling the
apartments with o dense and sitting
smoke. Those who have been aroused
from their slumbers by the commotion
without an d the smoke and boisterous roar
of the flames within rush wildly into the
passagewsys of the great building, only to
6pd them filled with a dense smoke. To
rush on seems like mad run into the arms
of death, while TO hesitate seems to mean
destruction. There are no fire escapes
save the regular psssageways, and these
seem impassable. There are no window
escapes, no iron ladders, as there should
be, and to leap from the windows to the
ground is certain death. It was in this
deplorable condition that at least four hun.
dred persons living on the third, fourth,
fifth and sixth stories Of this large building
found themselves on Tuesday ct mid.
night, and ffty Of them were sacrificed to
the flames. Iron ladders extending
from the ground to the roof, attached to the
outside of the building and placed in line
along each row Of windows, would have
saved every victim that perished in this
holocaust. The press will now give o
series Of criticisms on fire escapes and
proper exits from public buildings. Blu,
1t will avail nothing. It is stwice told tale.
an old song that has been sung in vain fol
years and hundreds OF yeap. Men will &c
on building large ediices for the accommo
dation and entertainment of the public
and yet make Of these establishments trap
Of death and places Of destruction. Tn,
inspection made of our public building
shortly after the Brooklyn disaster proved
that there Is not structure In Washington
that Is properly arranged for escape II
case Of fire. A few more cases Of wantol
sacrifice of human life such as that Of tn,
Brooklyn theatre and the Southern hote
may possibly create q public sentimen
sufficiently strong to compel proper re
gard 10 be paid for the ssfety of humal
lite In the arrangement and construction O
buildings of public nature.