The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-01-15
PREVIOUS FIRES IN ST. LOUIS.


The Real Cause of the Destruction of the
Southern Hotel
Chicago Times.
The burning of the Milwaukee hotel re-
calls to the public mind the disaster which
occurred in st. Louis in May, 1877, in which
30 many lives were lost. To the general out
side public the destruction of tine Southern
Hotel was regarded as most unhappy acct
dent, one, perchance, that nothing could
have averted, but to others it was an open
secret that the destruction of this old land
mark WAS not to be looked upon as vista
ton OF Providence, nor even as unhappy ac-
cident, but coarse, cruel and criminal piece
of carelessness and wilful neglect on the part
-sof those intrusted with the lives of the people
from the many lands who slept beneath that
roof. The true story of the ruin aud DESC
lation which the people beheld on Walnut
street on the morning of the 18th of May
will be called apoeryphal by some, and those
are they who kept the true story out of the
St. Louis papers at the time of the catastro-
phe. 1t must be conceded that the Southern,
a first-class hotel, had the reputation of be-
ing we'll managed and properly conducted on
ordinary occasions, but there We're times
when the help and the management grew
careless in the conduct of affairs. But the
COutneTn was ana DaQ Oeen 4 great nOtel,
and il now and then the help enjoyed q lit
tie jubilee without tearing down the house
who would be the wiser. and who would say
that one of them would be discharged? 1t
was a custom long followed to pay the help
twice each month, and on the 18th of May
the usual amount was disburSed. Times
were good in ST. Louis then, and the South
ern, one of the two leading hotels, was
doing fiourshng business. In fact, it was
quite full on that occasion, and as the
boarders one by one retired the walters,
watchmen, and bell-bovs on duty that night
proceeded to get in the same condition, The
carousal began, it is stated on the authority
of one of the help, early i'll the evening, and
at midnight one of the party supposed to
have been a Waterman, went down into the
basement at the foot of the grand stairway
to get something from the storeroom to
drink, and while fumbling around among
the jars and bottles to find an article with
favor to suit his TASTE upset a candle which
he had lighted to assist in the investigation.
The candle slipped out of the clumsy fingers
vi the inebriate and fell into pile of canvased
hams, which were wrapped with brown pa
per. The paper, saturated with a certain
amount of grease, famed up instantly, and
the Waterman retreated to the door
VAIN ATTEMPT TO EXr1NGUIsH THE FLAMES.
He then began to play upon it with hose
it being then about 1895, without making
any effort to turn on an alarm. Seeing
that his work was Intellectual
he called another employee of
the house, and the two strove together,
trying in vain to put out the flames and con-
ceal the fact that they we're i'll n condition
unfit for duty, and ont of their places at that
1t was not until the fire had burned nearly
an hour, according to the story of an eye
witness, that the alarm which called out the
city fire department resounded through the
streets. BY that time the thick black smoke
caused by the burning OF the house had per-
vaded nearly every hall in the building, put
ting out nearly all the lights. The peculiar
construction OF the building which had an
opening from the ground floor to a large
skylght III the roof and the location of the
fire at the very foot of this opening caused
the fire to burn the more rapidly after it
once got above the ground floor The flames
first struck the elevator shaft. which went
through the stone floor to the basement, and
the race of the flames through il attracted
the attention OF a select poker party Oh the
larlor floor, in which game one of the pro-
Jrietors held A hand. After that the
fire received all proper attention, guests
such as could be reached, being
warned, and all the precautions necessary
for the protection OF life were taken. But it
was made too late which the fearful holo
caust with which the world has become ac-
quainted has already shown. Many of the
rooms in which guests were sleeping could
hot be reached on account of the binding
sitting smoke, and they slept on until
crowded from their beds by the heat or sufo
Gated in them without moving. Many people
jumped madly from the windows of the
fourth, fifth and sixth stories, to be mashed
into a mass by collision with the sidewalks
Some having more presence of mind made
zones Of hedclothing and lowered themselves