Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1883-01-11

nerce element licking lts Wpy Rreeulll
and with lightning rspidity toward
the northern wing. Some blundorin,
individual seeing reflection of th'
holocaust on the sky turned in al
alarm from Box s, corner of Ess
Water and Division streets at $40 q
m, causing q loss of work of one
steamer for ten minutes OF precious
time Just when the fire was all it,
worst and every window In the huge
building
LINED WITH sHRIEKING HUMANITY
The multitude, which by this time had
swelled to thousands, stood In perfect
awe, but few having self.posseesion
and resolution enough TO lend help
ing hand On the oanvasses stretched
out to receive those of the despairing
inmates of the burning pyre who
risked to leap down to the stone side.
walk, 100 feet below. At first there
we're only Lieut.. lockwood, Detect.
ives Rclm and McManuS, Oflioera
O'Brien and Campbell End o few Sen.
tinel men stretching the heavy can.
vas, which required fully thirty
strong men to handle successfully. A
poor fellow stood ON the oornice of
the fifth story corner window for
twenty long minutes, not daring tho
fearful leap, but finally he became be.
wildered, to Judge from his actions,
or dumbfounded by smoke, aud
slid off his perch to tho canvas
below. The few who held 1t could
not give it the necessary resistance
and the body fell unhindered by the
canvas, with crash that sent shud.
der through every witness. The
shattered body was carried into the
American express Office. All the
while hundreds of people had been
looking ON, nobody responding to the
demands of the officers for aid.
Everybody seemed to be SPELL
TERRIBLE SPECTACLE
seemed to have paralyzed every bit Of
will power. In the sixth story win.
dow, right over this Unfortunate, sat
the figure of man, crouohed upon
the windowsill, gazing like one alb
ssnt-minded into the fiery abyss be-
low, motienless, but from time to
time sending up heartrending cry.
As the the flames encroached upon
him he did not seem to mind it.
Then the flames singed mis- hair
and licked his night clothes, and with
enc despairing look at the crowd be
low he tumbled back into the sea of
fire. A man and woman appeared at q
window of tho third story. They were
recognized as Allen johnson and his
wife. A canvas was stretched below
the windows of their apartment, for.
merly occupied by Prof. Haskins and
lady, and thousand voices called,
heseeching them to jump. Mr.
johnson kissed his wife, then leaped
into the cir and shot downward onto
the canvas, but his weight was such
that 1t pllled out of the hands of the
fes who held it, and he alighted on
the ground With deathly force. His
vlfe followed. Her body struck the
vorahdeN 4nd fell TO The ground life.
less. Mr.. Allen died uhortly after
wards In the express cftice, and his
dead body was laia ltaiie tliss ). his
wife until they. W ay.
ADout a nozes * srva the
Michigan street front.
EACH LEAP MEANT DEATH
or shattered limbs, anu not less than
four unfortunates at one time lay up.
on the 10y sidewalk in front of the
chamber of commerce clad only In
night hhirts, blood and brains oozing
from wounds through which bones
protruded. Some we're earned to the
ex press office and others to the ground
floor of the Mitchell building, where
cots had been hastily arranged, and
from there they were carried off to
private houEes of kind hearted peo.
PIC.
The scone in the alley woat OF tho
burning building YVES aickening. AS
early az O'Clock the bodies of seven
unfortunate wator girls, once bloom
ing in youth, were stretched upon the
snow and ice, with broken limbs, and
writhiuR In agony until death ended
their suffsrings. After almost super
human efforts ladders were stretched
from the roof Of the bank building
across the alley to the sixth story Of
the hotol, and the brave fire iaddies
carried ten girls across the frail
bridge, four of them dead.
THE MAZE OF TELEGRAPH WIRES
encircling the building on the south
and east sides, played havoc with the
unfortunates in their frightful leap for
life. Several of the bodies we're fairly
cut deep into by the wireS, and then
the torn aud bleeding forms would
drop to the ground. Others would
hit tho wires crosswayr, rebound and
be hurled to the ground with dread
fol crash. To the poor unfortunate
waiter girls, all or whom lodged In the
sixth story and sttics, the saddest lot
had fallen. OF the sixty young gals
only eleven were heard from as alive.
L. is feared that the estimate
Of fifty lives lost as formed thiE morn,
ing is Jar too low and that fully
double that number were burned OF
smothered to death In the blazing
pyre. The police patrol soon com
menced their dreadful work of gather
ing the dead and wounded. The for
mer were taken to the morgue which
was soon filled, the latter to the Cen
tral police station, where they were
cared for by physicians. From [
o'clock the interior of the building
was
ONE MASS OF FLAMES.
The upper floors soon giving way
and carrying the lower floors Will
them laundering crash was heard fo
blocks and then the fire shot up full
fifty feet, sendlpp a shower o