Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-06-02

treated to decided sensation about
o'clock last evening. The morning had
been showery, but about noon it cleared
off finely with a strong southeast wind.
About 6 o'clock dark clouds began to gather
in the west, and shortly before z o'clock
there were few faint flashes of lightning
with an accompanying rumble of thunder
in the distance. while light rain began to
fall, but there was nothing in the storm at
this time to excite any alarm in
the minds of the most timid.
A few minutes later the residents
of the locality mentioned above were
startled by particularly sharp report and
binding flash of lightning, followed the
next instant by the screams of woman
and the cries of children, as if in great
fear, and the loud voices of excited men.
The screams of the woman, the cries of
the children and the loud voices of excited
men proved to emanate from the occu-
pants of the boarding house and saloon of
Theodore JAMS, 148 and $50 North Fort
street, formerly known as the United States
hotel. Among the residents of this vicinity
almost opposite, was GLOBE reporter.
Naturally, he was among the first to reach
the street in response to the alarm. AS he
did so he was confronted with the spectacle
of men, women and children rushing from
the building in the widest excitement,
many of the men with clothing in their
arms, others dragging trunks behind them
and still others removing furniture, while
smoke was seen issuing from the lower
story of the building. Paying no atten-
ton to the excited crowd, the reporter went
for the location of the fire that caused the
smoke. This was found to be in a closet
off sleeping room on the first floor i'm
mediately under the stairway leading to
the second floor of the building. The
closet was about five by ten feet, with
door from the sleeping room.
Around the wall on nails
were some twenty pieces of mems
wearing apparel, all on fire in spots. 1t
took but few minutes to subdue the
flames, and then an investigation was made
as to the origin. Immediately adjoining
the sleeping room with which the closet
connected was the dining room, at the ia
bles of which some dozen men were seated
at supper at the time. Off the dining
room was the kitchen in which three women
were engaged, and scattered about the
building we're as many more men and the
children of the family. All told of the
loud report of thunder and to experiencing
light shocks, but nothing serious, followed
by smoke and the smell of burning cloth
from the closet. A minute examination of
the closet showed the plaster of the wall
intact in every place. Going outside fiat
copper lightning rod, disconnected at
the top and bottom was found, from which
piece about two feet long had been torn
out and thrown into an adjoining lot, as
occupants said by the lightning. Six feet
off window of a room on the second floor
and over the one with which the closet con-
nected on the first floor, was found broken,
also it was claimed by the lightning. Any
way, the clothing in the closet was
set on fire in different places, and five min
utes after every garment was removed, and
all evidences of fire extinguished. The
walls of the closet were SO hot as to be
painful to the touch. That the fir was
caused by lightning is undoubted. but how
it got into and out of the closet without
breaking the wall is a mystery.
But this is not all. A lady who had sought
shelter from the rain under the porch of a
! house at the head of Fort street says she
was so blinded by the flash as to be unable
TO distinguish the street car she wished to
hail, which was passing at the instant. It
seemed to her as though wave of fire
lined the whole of Fort street to Seven
cornerss and parted near where she stood
with a sharp crack, like the report of
pistol shot, which preceded the roar of thur
der.
The passengers of crowded car were
all stunned with the shock, and lady who
was in the act of alighting from the same
car at the corner of Fort and
Tenth streets, was so stunned that
she did not recover for several hours after.
She was spreading her parasol, as she
stepped from the car, and as her feet
touched the ground came the fash and
report, and blue smoke rolled up from the
ground around her, and sparks of fire
flashed from the street car rails.
child standing by a window at 81
West Fourth street was also stunned, and
declares he was Struck
A puff of fire and smoke was thrown out
from cook stove in the same house,
where lady was cooking,
At house nearly opposite JAMS place
family of three were seated at supper
The lady of the house was just in the act
of handing favorite dog a choice bit of
meat when the discharge took place, and
while no one of the family felt the shock
in the least, the dog dropped as if dead
and lay in a stupor for some time.
Fire alarm box. IA, Wabashaw
and Exchange street, was burned
out, so that policeman
who went to it to turn in an alarm for fire
at JAMS place could not do so, and ran to
No. engine house, when the engine and
hook and ladder turned out, but all evil
dences of fire had been extinguished when
they reached the spot The fire alarm tel |
egram pole at No. engine house was
shattered and the alarm box in the house |
burned out. At the city hall Police
man Nugent, who was on
duty at the time, received
shock that rendered him insensible for an |
instant, but nothing serious resulted. |
The telephone wire in the Office of Chief |
Engineer Black was also burned off, and |
other damage was done to the fire alarm |
system, but repairs were promptly made |
and by 10 O'Clock the system was again
in good working order.
Shortly before u. midnight, another |
sharp lightning, thunder and rain storm |
occurred, and about five minutes past ~ |
there was a bright illumination of the east |
ern horizon, indicating a hot and lively |
fire, but as the illumination was brief lived |
and no alarm was turned in to the fire de- |