The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1883-01-11
THE NEWHALL HOUSE FIRE.


morning. From t. q latest reports it is
known that at least ninety persons lost
their lives either by burning, suffocation
or in jumping from the windows and
roof
The following description of the
scenes and incidents at the fire are from
the Sentinel of this morning:
"Ihe fire was scarcely noticed until
the general alarm was turned in when
they saw, to their horror, that almost
the entire south front of the Newhall
House was one sea of flames. There
were bat few people on the scene. But
the scene developing before the horror
stricken few was one which none of the
eye witnesses will ever forget. In a
| moment every window of the large six
story hotel structure was filled with
struggling guests, frantically and piteous-
ly beseeching the few below for aid,
which it was impossible to render. But
few of the unfortunate inmates gained
the front entrance on Broadway or the
side entrance on Michigan Street, al
though many might have been saved if
some lmm ediate attempts at systematic
rescue had been made. The halls OF
the hotel were the scene of the widest
confusion. Men, women and children
rushed up and down the halls in the
dense, suffocating smoke, avoiding the
binding flames and roaring blaze, and
in their frantic efforts rushing by the
stairways and windows leading to the
fire escapes, stumbling over bodies lying
unconscious on the carpeted walks, only
to join soon the many FRUSTRATED
forms whom a kind fate had touched
with the dark wing of that messenger OF
death, Inconsistencies. The fire started
apparently on the third floor over the
side entrance on Michigan street, and
before the department got the steamers
fairly in position, the flames had enyelop-
ed the whole southeast corner of the
building, the fiery element licking its
way greedily and with lightning rapidity
towards the northern wing. The multi.
tude which by this time had swelled
to thousands, stood in perfect awe, but
but few having elf-possession and
resolution enough to lend helping han d
OH the canvases stretched out to receive
those of the despairing inmates of the
burning pyre who risked the leap down
to the stone sidewalk, 100 feet below. A
poor follow stood on the cornice of the
tifth-story corner window for twenty long
minutes, not daring the fearful leap.
Finally he became bewildered and slid
off his perch to the canvas below. The
few who held it could not give the neces-
sary resistance. The body fell unhin.
dered by the canvass, with crash which
sent shudder 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 bound, the terrible spectacle seemed
to have paralyzed every bit of will power.
"In the sixth-story window, right over
this unfortunate sat the figure of a man
crouched upon the window sill gazing
like one absent minded into the fiery
abyss below, motionless, but from time
to time sending up heartrending shrek.
Steadily the flames encrouched upon him,
he did not seem TO mind it. Then the
flames singed his hair, licked his night
cloths, one despairing 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 Allan johnson
and his wife. A canvas was stretched
below the windows of their apartment.
formerly occupied by Prof. Haskins and
| lady, and thousand voices called to him
to jump. Mr.. Johnson kissed his wife,
| then leaped into the air, and shot down
wards into the canvas, but his weight
was such that the canvas was pulled out
of the hands of the few who held il. and
he alighted on the ground with deathly
force. His wife followed. Her BODY
struck the varandah, and fell to the
ground, lifeless. Mr.. johnson died
shortly afterwards in the express office,
and his dead body laid beside that of his
wife until they were borne away. About
a dozen jumped from the Michigan street
front. Each leap meant death or shat
tered limbs, and not less than four I'M
fortunates 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 the wounds
through which the bones protruded.
Some was carried to the express office,
others to the ground floor of the Mitchell
building. where cots had been hastily ar
ranged, and from there they were carried
Oft to private houses of kind hearted peo.
pie. The scene in the alley west of the
burning building was sickening. AS
early as o'clock the bodies of seven un-
fortunate waiter girls, once blooming in
youth, were stretched upon the snow and
ice, with broken limbs, writhing in agony
until death ended their sufferings. AT.
ter 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 lad
dies 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