Connecticut western news., 1883-01-24
THE MILWAUKEE FIRE.
THRILLING SCENES DESCRIBED BY
 SOME OF THE EYE.W1TNESSES.
LEAPING TO DEATH.

THRILLING SCENES DESCRIBED BY
 SOME OF THE EYE-wITNEssEs.
 LEAPINa TO DEATH.
 About a dozen persons jumped from the Michigan street front. Each leap meant death or shattered limbs, and not less than four unfortunates at one time lay upon the icy sidewalk in front of the Chamber of Commerce, clad only in night shirts, blood and brains oozing from wounds through which bones pro- truded. Some were carried 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 the private houses of kind hearted people. The scene in the alley west of the burning building was sickening. AS early as six o'clock the bodies of seven unfortunate waiter girls were stretched upon the snow and ice with broken limbs, writhing in ag- ony until death ended their sufferings. After almost superhuman efforts ladders were stretched from the roof of the bank building across the alley to the sixth story of the hotel, and the brave firemen carried ten girls across the frail bridge, four of them dead.
 HEROINE.
 The heroine of the fire is now said by Milwaukee papers to have been Kittie Iinehan. She had charge of the laun- dry department. Through her individ- ual efforts the lives of five of her asso- ciates were saved. Her brother rescued her at last, when she again returned to the rescue, and lost her life in the hero ic effort to save more lives. A modest monument to her memory would not be out of keeping with such unusual acts of bravery. Imposing marbles have been raised to commemorate efforts infinitely less meritorious.
 THE ARRESTED RAR-KEEpER.
 Scheller, the bar-keeper of the New hall House, who has been arrested, charged with setting the building on fire, came to Milwaukee with MT. An tisdel from Detroit about nine years ago, when the latter assumed charge of the Newhall House. He had been chief clerk in the Riddle House in that city when MT. Antisdel kept it. The two men, it is said, have always been warm personal friends. Scheller learned the printers trade in his youth, and worked at it in Detroit for six years. Besides Scheller's well-known financial difficulties and his high insurance, another thing which gave rise to the first suspicion, was his attempt to blow up the Newhall House by gas explosion some two weeks ago. So great was the danger of..Scheller being lynched in Mil waukee that he was secretly taken from the jail there and sent into the interior of the State.
 DEATH TRAP.
 Since the fire swept away the wood- work, it is plainly seen that the Newhall had but four outer walls and one eight inch transverse wall each way. The rest was all balloon. The architect was the late Stoddard H. Martin of this city. On being asked about it one day, when the house was in process of erection, he said: ooh, it must be built cheap. When the lath are nailed on that will brace the walls" A gentleman who saw the house built says he noticed that the flooring, instead of running continuously along the surface of each story, went only from wall to wall in each compartment, leaving space from bottom to top within each balloon well. MT. Martin conversed with the gentleman referred to about this, and said: eff this building ever takes fire in the basement it will reach the roof and envelop the whole building in fifteen minutes. I would not sleep in it over night"
 A DETECTIVES STATEMENT,
 Detective Riemer, one of the first off, cers to arrive on the spot, says: "We held canvas, but what good was it for people falling from such height2 The poor girls came down 'thud, thud, and as each one would fall we would try to catch her, only to have the corners of the canvas pulled from our hands in spite of us. At one time the back alley was a mass of gore, and seven girls were piled there dead, while number were groan- ing in the agonies of death. Our men report that they could hear the cries of the dying as far off as the corner of Fourth and Chestnut streets. One poor fellow crawled down from window to window for distance of three stories, and then gave out, fell and was killed. His hands were torn in shreds from fall ing and catching"
 NEARLY ESCAPED.
 Capt. O'Connor says that of the re- mains thus far found, eight were taken from point directly in front of the office counter of the hotel, or at the head of the staircase communicating with Broadway. The victims seem to have reached that point in their flight, but could get no further. In one in- stance the remains found led to the belief that one man had fallen upon another already overcome by the fire