Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-01-11

smoke, and slid eff his perch 70 the canvas
below. The few who held Is could not give
it the necessary resistance, and the body fell,
unhindersd by the canvas, with crash
which sent shudder through every witness.
The shattered body was carried into the
American Express Office. In the history
window, right over this unfortunate, sat tae
figure CT man crouched on the window sill,
gazing like one absent minded into the fiery
abyss below-motionless but from time to
time sending up q heart rendering shrek.
Steadily the flames eneroached upon him. He
did not seem TO mind it. Then the flames
singed his hair and licked his right.clothes.
One Departing look he gave 10 the crowd be-
low, then tumbled back into the sea CT fire.
a man and woman appeared at window of
the third story. They were recognized IS
Allen johnson and his wife. A canvas was
stretched below the windows Of their apart
ments, and q thousand voices called, bessech-
ing them to jump. MIR. johnson kissed his
wife, then lsaped into the air, and shot dowE.
ward into the canvas. But his weight was
such that tie canvas was pulled out Of the
hands of the few who held il, aud he alighetd
en- the ground with oesdly foIcs. His wife
followed. Her body struck the verandp, and
fell to the ground lifeless. Mr. johnson died
shortly afterward in the express office. About
EQCZSu JuLHpSufICIk1 Tile hllcii3n zu-Stfceblr0nV.
Esch leap meant death or shattered limbs, and
not Lass than four unfor;unates at one time
lay upon the icy sidewalk ia front Of the
Chamber OF Commerce clad only In night
shirts, blood and brains oczipg from wounds
through which bones prosruded. Some were
carried to the express office, others to the
ground floor of the Mitchell building,
where cots had been hastily arranged, and
from there carried off to private houses OF
kind-heartsd people. The scene in the alley
west OF tie burning building was sickepipg.
As early as 6 o'clock the bodies of seven
unfortunate waiter girls were stretched upon
the snow and ice, with broken limbs, with
ing in agony until death ended their
efforts ladders wers stretched from
the roof of the bank building across the alley
way to the sixth story of the hotel. Brave
fire laddies carried ten girls across the frail
bridge, four of them dead. The maze of
telegraph wires encircliBg the building on the
south and east sides played sad havoc with
the unfortunstss who made the fsightful leap
for life Several bodies were cut deep into
by the wires, and then the torn and bleeding
forms would drop to the ground. Others
would hit the wires or s,ways, rebound, and
be hurled to the ground with dreadful crash.
to the horror Of The unfortunate Haiter-girls,
who all lodged in the sixth story and attics.
OF sixty young girls, only eleven were heard
from alive as late as yesterday evening, and
it is feared the estimate Of fifty lives lost. SIS
formed yesterday morning, is far too low, and
fully double that number were burned or
smothered to death in the blazing pyre. The
police patrol soon commenced their dreadful
work of gathering the dead and wounded.
The former were taken to the Morgue, which
was soon filled; the latter to the central po-
lice station, where they vera cared for by
physicians. From o'clock the interior of
the building was one mass of flames, the up
per floors soon giving away and carrying the
lower floors with them.