The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1883-01-24
4 FEARFUL FIRE
VISITS MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, AND
DESTROYS VALUABLE PROPERTY
AND MANY LIVES.

4
steamer Lady Elgin, twenty year
ago, occurred on the morning of tn,
10th. The Newhall House, one O
the best known hotels in the west
was discovered to be on fire shortly
before 4 o'clock, and in a short tim,
the building was In ruins, with forty
or more dead bodies burned beneath
the debris. The fire broke out il
the south end of the huge sixth
story building and sped with light
ming rapidity. In the twlnkling O
an eye dozens of doomed inmates
lost their lives.
In the hotel building a scene Of
the utmost terror prevailed. The
corridor was filled with dense smoke
and half stupefied persons lying
across the Railways. The shrieks
of the women and the groans of the
men filed the air. The few who APP
peared on the scene did all they
could to rescue the bewildered
guests, and a great many were tax
en- out at the front entrance and
from the small balcony running
along the Broadway side of the
building; but on the south and west
sides of the building the scenes were
dreadful. One after another of the
unfortunates jumped from the fifth
and sixth stories and fell to the
stone pavement below, in most cases
being killed instantly. The patrol
wagon was filed with seven dead
bodies in as many minutes after its
arrival on the scene. They were
taken to the Central Police Station,
as no other place was available.
Many not quite dead were laid on
the floor of the American Express
Office, where their groans were
heartrending. Upon the icy flag
stones the body of an unknown man
was found lying, covered only with
a shirt, both legs broken, and his
skull cleft in twain another poor
fellow had crawled up to the Cham
Der of Commerce steps, his back be-
ing broken. Seven bodies picked
up in an alley, were those of waiter
girls, who in the frenzy of the panic
jumped to the ground. Among the
guests, twenty bodies were so burn
ed as to be unrecognizable at the
mOrgue.
A bridal tour was turned into a
Miss Sutton was married
the day before the ill-fated fire in
Chicago to John Gilbert of the Min
ME Palmer troupe. She is now
lead, and he cannot recover. He
Jumped from the window with his
wife in his arms. John F. Antes-
lei, the proprietor of the house, is a
-aving maniac. He ran up and
iOwn the street crying, "Oh, my
God, who set that firel" His son
md partner is paralyzed with hor-
'or. The scene all the morning at
he police station was simply indie
icribable. There were six persons
from one window-sill on
fifth story, crying in agonizing tones
or help that could not be rendered.
One after another lost their grip
md met their fate. One man Nv
citing himself down his arms
ength from the fifth story window
put his feet through the window be-
Ow and reached the fourth story in
safety. This operation he repeated
until the third story was reached.
Each point gained in his perilous
descent was greeted with encourag-
ng cheers from the bystanders. As
ne was putting his foot through the
.op of the second story window his
land slipped from the sill above,
md with a wild shrek of despair he
ell backward, turning over several
lines and striking the pavement on
MS head. He was mangled beyond
Another man jumped
rom the fifth story window and
struck the telegraph wires from
which he bounded up, and came
lown in a mangled mass of flesh
md bones. A number of people
dropped out of the different stories,
nto canvass awnings, but in a ma
ority of cases they were killed out
light, or sustained injuries from
which there is little hope of recov-
,ry. During the progress of the
ire tive men appear
I'd at window in the upper story,
md as they looked upon the scene
below the floor of the room gave
way and both, with one agonizing
shrek, fell backward into the vor-
.ex of fiume. Allen Johnson and
wife sprang from the fifth story
window. He was caught in the
,anvas. but sustained injuries from
which he died at six o'clock the fol-
owing morning. His wife struck
he telegraph wires and bounded
,ver She was also caught, but was
70 badly injured that she only sur
rived her husband about an hour.
While these things were being
transacted on the Broadway and
Michigan sides of the ill-fated build
ng, one of still greater horror was
being enacted In the alley at the
'ear. The servants quarters were
n the northwest quarter of the
remote from the quarter
n which the fire was raging, but all
means of escape by the stairway
we're cut of by the flames. As the
terrible roaring and cracking of the
lames struck upon their ears, they
became panic-strieken and eight
6llowed each other leaping from
he dizzy height to the ground in
he alley. The jumping canvas was
,n hand, but it was powerless in the
conflict with death, and was coated
,ver with the vietim'a blood. At
his juncture the cool-hearted hero
If the day appeared upon the top of
he building directly opposite the
quarters with ladder in