The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-06-18
DEATH In THE DRAW.
In Response to q Midnight Alarm the
Fire Department BUSHES Madly
to the Scene.
State Street Bridge Being Open, Hose Cart
and Two Men Plunge Into the
nfrk River.
[Chicago Times.l

(Chicago Times.l
At 1920 this morning an alarm of fire was
turned IN from box 10, at the corner of Lake
and La Sale streets. The cause was the dis
covery of flames issuing from the fourth
story windows of Nos. 143 and las Lake
street, occupied as a hardware and house
furnishing store by Cragin Brothers &
Chandler. The department was promptly
on hand, and the conAagration extinguished
before it had crept down lower than the
third floor. The damage done aggregated
81, 200, and the insurance was placed with
Eastern companies.
But the slight interest felt in the fire faded
away when the awe-stricken crowd learned
that hose cart coming to The scene of action
from the North Side had driven off the street
into the river because of an open bridge.
Rumor said that five men had been drowned,
then three, and then one. The latter state
ment in the end proved correct, and as soon
as it was ascertained that the scene of the
catastrophe was State street bridge, there
was general rush for that locality. Per-
haps the story of the affair can best be told
in the words of the driver, James Foley:
''Our cart number he said, twas IL, and
we came from the eDgine-house at No. 225
Michigan street. nigh on to l o'clock, max
ing for the Lake street fire in obedience to
telegraphic call. I was driving, and there
were beside me on the hose-cart Captain
Godfrey r. Charleston, Pipeman Lewis Lar
sen and Henry T. Coyle. We were coming
down at a spanking rate and everything
looked all right ahead; but there's lamp
Just north of the bridge about twenty feet
that blinds one so he can't see beyond it. l
| had just got past that when
saw to my horror that the bridge
was open. The horses 1 was driving
are old stagers at the business, and l
| pulled them up with q short turn, to which
they calamity answered by coming back
| almost on their launches. But it was no
60. The impetus of the cart actually forced
the whole concern right over the brink.
! Charleston jumped off; SO too did Larsen. /
let go the reins as we went over and leaped
as far to one side as l could, striking the
water maybe half dozen feet from the rig.
/ stuck IN the mud and lost one boot. bu
after desperate struggle managed to get
ashore by the aid of Charleston. Poor Coyle
went right in with the cart, and that's the
! last we've seen of him."
sWas he an old hand on the force?"
No; he was on his 60 days trial; but
what is the worst of all he was the only sup
port of sister and widowed mother"
"Where did he liver
"At the corner of Hubbard and Halsted
streets"
GLOW old was he?'
mot over PSI
"Could he swimT'
|
do him? He was all tangled up with the
pipe and things. Even 1, with all my luck
had deuced narrow escape"
The bridge tender Ernest Sass, was seen:I
How did this accident happen?'
Sass, who appears to be an ignorant Ger
man, could hardly answer for excitement.
At last he sputtered:
ut was no fault of NINE"
"Oh, d-n all thatl" cried half dozen ex.
cited men; tell us the facts"
he Al, 70
Laurie was coming up the river from the
east and whistled for passage. l rang the
bell as usual, and then opened up. Just
at that moment, crash, CHATTER, bang! l
heard the cart coming, and the next mo-
ment it tumbled right over into the river,
and that's all know about it,
But have you no warning light, or any
thing of that kind to tell whether or not
the bridge is open?
mo; never heard of any,"
Meanwhile the crowd kept gathering, and
the curses showered on the system of bridge
tending which had resulted in sending
! Pipeman Henry T. Coyle to his untimely
fate. were both loud and bitter. The Annie
Laurie, one of the innocent causes of the
, sad affair, lay Just below the bridge. hav
! ing stopped Immediately on her pilot
Witnessing the fatal plunge. A tug occu-
pied a position on the other side, while over
. Its bows men peered down into the gr1my,
, somber depths as though to seek out the
dead man, the drowned horses and ruined
! cart. Lieutenant Martin Hayes promptly
appeared, accompanied by several policemen
and at once set about hunting up means
whereby to recover the body. A general
sense of outrage prevailed among all present
which was by no means lessened when it be
. came known that this was the second simllal
, accident of the night, and that an aget
! woman had almost come to a watery grave
: some hours earlier through the nearly Grim
inal carelessness of the Clark street bridge
tender.
; At 80 o'clock Chief Benner organized
!, force of fremen to search the rive
for the body of the drowned hosemal
and the cart and horse. Office
, Little rendered valuable service. At
!. quarter before 2 o'clock the graphing iron
took hold of the hose cart and animals
They were found about Is feet east of tn
! bridge. A passing steamer, which had gon
= out of the river q few minutes after tn
. accident, had stirred the water to the bot
. tom, the commotion thus caused doubles
= carrying the cart some little distance from
b where it had struck.
The search had failed to discover the bod.
of Coyle up to 2 o'clock. 1t was the theor
of the chief and Officer Little that it ba
70 been drifted some distance away from tn
bridge by the action of the waves raised b.
the passing steamer. The cart and hors
were easily got ashore by the aid of bloc
n and tackle.
q While the search was in progress the bridg
y was crowded with anxious spectators.