The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1883-01-19
HOLOCAUST.
Milwaukee the Scene of a Fire
Horror Never Equaled
in the West.
The Newhall House, a Six-Story
Hotel, Burns In the Darkness.
Shocking Loss Of Life-Thrilling Expert.
ences or Some OF Those Who
Escaped.

About o'clock on the morning OF the 10th
inst flames appeared in the basement of the
Newhall House at Milwaukee, and with mar
velous rapidity made their way TO the roof,
giving nearly 800 people the choice of roast
ing alive or leaping to the icy pavement
The sitting smoke drove many to the win
dow sills, where they chung desperately for
a time, but were soon compelled to let go
their hold and be crushed on the sidewalk
Three fruitless attempts TO save life by hold
ing canvas beneath the imperiled
guests were made by firemen and
citizens The servants were cut off from
the stairways, but fireman with ladder
bridge rescued eight girls by taking them
across the alley One man slid down rope
of sheets tied TO n sewing machine. din
ingroom girl rushed down the blazing stair
ways TO the office. In ninety minutes the
walls fell in with deafening crash. The
loss of life will probably reach 100, while
there are twenty-five missing. The pecun-
larry loss will probably aggregate $500, OO0 A
correspondent at the scene OF the holocaust
furnishes the following details of the dread
full calamity:
The fire was said to have caught in the
basement, shot with lightning rapidity up
the elevator-shaft, and burst forth in
terrific volume from the roof. The flames
spread out in the different stories as they
were reached, and in n few minutes after
the first alarm, the floors on the south
end of the building were sea of fire, all
burning at once. Guests, awakened from
their sleep by the heat or the bursting of
the flames into their rooms were forced to
the windows. where their heartrending
cries rang in the ears of the vast concourse
of people gathered in the street, powerless
TO render aid Men who in the daily
walks of life have been accounted
heartless and unfeeling wrung their
hands in despair, running about utterly be-
wildered eXclaiming: INV God! nv God
this is horrible!" Then a black object would
appear on the outside of the window driven
out by the smoke and flame, a piercing
scream rend the morning air. and heavy
thud would announce that human being
had dropped from the dizzy height TO meet
death on the pavement below.
At one time there were six persons hang
ing from six window-sills at the fifth story
at the same time, crying in agonizlng tones
for the help that could not be rendered
them, and one after another loosened their
grip and met their fate.
One man, by letting himself down at arms
length from a tifth-story window put his
feet through the window below and reached
the fourth floor in safety The operation
was repeated until the third floor was
reached, each point in his perilous descent
being greeted with encouraging cheers from
the bystanders AS he was putting his feet
through the top of the second story window
with wild shrek of despair he fell back
ward. turning over several times and strk-
ing the pavement on his head, and was man
gled beyond recognition.
Another man jumped from the fifth-story
window, struck the telegraph wires on Mich
igan street, bounded up, and came down q
mangled mass Of flesh and bones.
\ number of people dropped out Of the
different stories on TO the jumping canvas,
but in a majority of cases, they were killed
outright or sustained injuries from which
there is little hope of recovery.
During the progress of the ire two men
appeared at a window in an upper story,
and, as they looked down upon the scene
below, the floor of the room gave way, and,
with an agonizing shrek. they fell back
ward into the vortex of flames
Mr. Allen Johnson and his wife sprang
from tifth-story window. He was caught
In the jumping canvas, but sustained in
Juries from which he died. His wife struck
on the telegraph wires, bounded over, and
was also caught, but was so badly injured
that she only survived her husband about an
hour.
In three quarters of an hour after the dis
coVery of the fire the building was total
loss AT $50 o'clock the Broadway front of
the building, unsupported by rafters from
within, gave out, and came laundering to
the pavement Shortly after that the tot
terlng walls of the southeast corner of the
building followed, tearing heavy telegraph
pole TO the ground, which felled Ben Van
Haag, a truckman of Hook and Ladder Com
pany No. 2 beneath its weight Poor Ben,
favorite in the department, received fatal
injuries. He died in q few hours later faith
full Co his post unto death.
While these scenes are being enacted on
the broadway and Michigan sides of the i'll
fated building, one of still greater horror
was being enacted in the alley in the rear.
The servants quarters were in the northwest
quarter of the building, remote from the
place in which the fire was raging, but all
means of escape by the stairways was cut off
by the flames AS the terrible roaring and
cracking of the flames struck upon their
ears they became panic-stricken and eight
of them followed each other in leaping from
the dizzy height to the ground in the alley
The jumping canvas was on hand, but it was
powerless in the conflict with death, and
was clothed over with the victims blood
At this juncture the cool-headed hero of
the day appeared upon the top of the build
ing, opposite the servants quarters, with a
ladder in his hand For moment the long,
unwieldy thing poised in mid air and then
descended, with a crash, through the win
dow of the hotel 1t framed a bridge across
the alley, however, and before it became
steady in its position the man had crossed
over into the hotel Then, amid the cheers
of the multitude below, the man dragged
the helpless creatures across the slender
bridge until fully dozen were rescued They
were all of them in their ptght-clothes, and
many were badly frozen before they could
be taken TO shelter A woman in n dead
faint, and unable TO help herself in any par
ticular was dragged across in safety, but at
one time the whole of her body was hanging
over clear of the ladder, while the brave
man held her by one of her ankles The
crowd below held their breath in suspense
expecting every moment to see the ladder
turn over or break beneath the terrible
strain The man, however, was equal Co the
emergency, and, by n herculean effort,
pulled her upon the slender bridge and final
" placed her out of danger, while the
crowd which had endured the most painful
suspense for fully ten minutes, burst forth
with round after round of applause.
As early as o'clock the bodies of seven
unfortunate waiter-g girls, once blooming i'm
youth, were stretched upon the snow and
ice with broken limbs, writing in agony
until death ended their sufferings After
almost superhuman efforts ladders were
stretched from the roof of the bank-buiding
across the alley to the sixth story of the
hotel, and the brave fire-laddies carried ten
girls across the frail bridge, four of them
dead The maze of telegraph-wires en-
circling the building on the south and
east sides played sad havoc with the
unfortunates who made the fright
full leap. Several of the bodies were
fairly cut deep into by the wires, and
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