The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1883-01-18

In the SlXbn-SLOry WlnUOW, Tlg0C over JllS
unfortunate, sat the figure of man, crouched
| upon the window sill, gazing, like one absent
minded, into the fiery abyss below ,motonless,
but from time to time sending up heart-rend-
ing shrek. Steadily the flames encroached
| upon him. but he did not seem to mind it. The
flames singed his hair and licked his night
clothes. One despalring look he gave to the
crowd below, and then tumbled back into the
sea of fire.
A man and woman appeared at window
of the third story. They were recognized as
! Allen johnson and wife. A canvass was
stretched below the windows of their apart
ment, formerly occupied by Professor Hask-
ings and LADY, and thousand voices called
beseeching them to jump. Mr.. johnson kissed
his wife, then leaped into the air and shot
downward into the canvas, but his weight was
! such that the canvas was pulled out of the
hands of the few who held it, and he alighted
on the ground with deathly force. His wife
followed. Her body struck the veranda and
fell to the ground lifeless. Mr.. John on died
shortly afterwards in the express office, and
his dead body was laid beside that of his wife
until they were borne away. About dozen
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, with
blood and brains oozing from the wounds
through which the bones protruded. Some
were carried to the express Office, others to
the ground floor fthe Mitchell building where
cots had been hastily arranged, and from there
they were carried off to private houses ofkind-
| hearted people.
The scene in the alley west of the burning
building was sckening. AS early as o'clock
the bodies of seven unfortunate waiter girls,
once blooming in youth, were stretched upon
the snow and ice, with broken limbs, writing
in agony until death ended their suferings.
| 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 fire laddies 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 sad
| havoc with the unfOrtunates who made the
| frightful leap for life. Several of the bodies
were fairly cut deep into by the wires, and
then the torn and bleeding forms would drop
to the ground. Others would hit the wires
crossways, rebound and be hurled to the
ground with a dreadful crash. The poor un-
fortunate waiter girls all lodged in the sixth
story and the attics The saddest lot had fallen
on the sixty young girls. Only eleven were
heard from as alive as late as this evening.
| Another escape to be recorded is that of a
/
was seen swinging himself from the fifth floor
of the burning building until his feet touched
the window below. Kicking IN the window,
he dropped and grabbed the sash. This was
repeated until he reached the balcony, from
which he was rescued with his hands severely
cut.
Mrs. Bleiker, wife of the manager, jumped
from her window in the second story, and re-
ceived very serious injuries, although it is
thought she will recover. Charles Kelsey, a
colored lad about eighteen years of age, valet
! to General Tom Thumb, was burned to DEATH
The rest of the company escaped uninjured.
d. G. Power, the well-known inventor and
real estate man, who came to Milwaukee in
| 1851, and had for some years been a resident
of the Newhall House, is among the dead. He
lies in the Morgue, without any marks of in
jury except that his head and face are terribly
burned. He probably never knew that there
was fire or if he did was at once sutfocated so
that he could not leave his room, which was
| in the upper story of the hotel. He was in
| many respects a most remarkable man. He
came from Ireland, where he was born, about
1920, and came to Milwaukee, and, while deal
| ing somewhat in real estate, devoted most of
| his time to inventions.
| j. T. Richie, of Louisville, KY, said that
he was awakened about 4 o'clock by the great
noise and clatter. He partially dressed, and
then found that the hotel was on fire. He
was on the floor over the office, and on open
ing his door found the corridor full of smoke.
He worked his way to corner room and got
into it, He found man there partially dressed,
| tearin g his sheets and blankets to shreds and
twisting them into rope. The man had tied
one end to a chair. Richie pulled up the bed
to window and attached the hastily impro
vised rope to it, and then the two descended
to the balcony, and after screaming to the
firenen ladder was placed against the bal
cony J and they finally reached the ground.
The Tom Thumb party and large number OF
people we're on the balcony, and Mr.. Richie
says the scene was the most appalling he ever
saw. The flames were fast closing in on them,
and they were so frightened it was impossible
to tell which way to try to escape. An old
woman, lying on the balcony, who travels
with Mrs. Tom Thumb, had both legs broken
ard was otherwise badly injured. She was
moaning and Wailing, crying most piteously
for some one to carry her away. The whole
party, in an almost nude condition, was con-
.veyed to the Plankinton, where they received
every possible attention. Mr. Richie lost al
most all of his clothing. He left on the II
O'Clock train for his home.
At the Morgue the scene was indescribable.
Crying women ,groaning men aud dead bodies,
IL co mblned to make horror deathly to look
pom. At IL o'clock there were sixteen bodies
n, and the number was quickly swelled to
twenty-five. There is hardly doubt but that
one hundred lives were lost by the fire.
The Wealth of the South
We have time and again stated that the
South was practically less known to the
world than the Territories'of the country
that the resources of this section far sur
passed those of any known portion OF the
globe and that the dead wealth, which
abounds in every direction, would furnish
larger returns for capital judiciously in
vested than in any other portion of our do
main. The minerals, the timber, the soil,
the water-power, which exist in the South,
and which are undeveloped, offer greater
inducements for capital and enterprise
than the gold fields of the Rocky mountains
and the Pacific slope. Slavery made them
a sealed book. Now that freedom prevails
everywhere within the jurisdiction of our
laws, is it not reasonable to expect that an.
other decade will witness marvellous ma
terial change-especially as railroads are
net-working almost every Southern State
and new fields of wealth exposed almost
every day !?
Gen. Bradley t. johnson, who spent
some time last spring in Southwest
Virginia and North Carolina, recently de-
vered speech in Baltimore, and from the
knowledge he then gained by pract ical OBJ
servation, and what he has learned about
the States to which he refers, tersely pre-
sented the advantages offered to all who
may seek to better their fortunes in the
South. He said. and truthfully;
FLORIDA is as large as New York, New
Jersey and Connecticut. Texas is larger than |
all New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The |
unsettled Northwest beyond Minnesota will |
make twelve States as large as New York. All |
this territory is virgin. There is more land |
belonging to the United States in Mississippi |
than in Kansas, Nebraska or Minnesota. The |
Southern country is less known than the new |
territories. In old Virginia, within three hun |
dred miles of Washington, there are deposits
Of minerals and metals more abundant, more |
various, and more valuable than in any other
equal area OF territory on the continent OF
which we now have knowledge. One county |
there, OF six hundred square miles, has no wag-
on roads and no wheeled vehicle has ever been |
in it, unless such one has been there IN Il e |
last twelve months. ventui e to say that the
mountain region of North Carolina, in soil, in
climate, in diversified wealth of mine and for.
est is unexcelled unnn this ulOhe In the fine |