Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-01-11
Il Connected Narrative.

MILWAUKEE, Jan. 1O.-Twenty -four hours
have elapsed since the most terrible catas-
trophe befell Milwaukee, and the i'm
mensity of the dreadful disaster seems to
increase instead of wane Swith feeting
time. A dread seem to creep over every
one passing the huge pile of smoking
ruins that mark the place where only two
days ago the palatial Newhall house stood
with its 200 inmates, who awoke yesterday
morning from their slumbers to stand face
to face with the grim reaper.
Snow had been falling all night silently
WEAVING sHRoUD
for many-how many nobody can ask
without a shudder on beholding what is
left of one of the largest hostelries in the
Northwest. Early in the morning at 3:47
o'clock an alarm of fire was turned in
from box 439, corner of Vliet and Eight
zenith streets, and many good citizen,
counting the strokes of the alarm, ascer-
tanning the locality and casting look at
the black sky hanging heavily over
the housetops, went to rest again
with the relieved feeling that the alarm
did not denote a dangerous box"
and that Milwaukee's tried fredepar tment
would do its duty. About a half hour lat
er, at 4:05 a. M, the two ominous strokes
of telephone alarm called the rest of the
department not engaged at the Vliet street
fire up again and three minutes later at
4:08 a. M, an alarm from box Is, corner
Michigan and Broadway, rang out. Chief
Lippert hurried from Eighteenth street to
the scene as fast as his trotter would carry
him, and he made such good time that he
could turn in
A SECOND ALARM
minutes later. At Alp a. m. the whole de-
partment was called to the scene, leaving
the chemical engine to battle with the
blaze in the remote part of the city. The
operators in the train dispatchers' Office of
the Chicago, Milwaukee & st. Paul railroad
in the Mitchell building had seen from
their quarters light smoke issuing from
the attics of the Newhall house. 1t was
scarcely noticed until the general alarm
was turned in, when they saw to their
horror almost
THE ENTIRE SOUTH FRONT
of the Newhall house one sea of flames.
There were but few people at the scene,
the police and night reporters and some
belated stragglers for home. But the scene
developing before the horror stricken few
was one which none of the eye witnesses
will ever forget. In a moment every win
dow of the large six-story hotel structure
filed with struggling guests frantically
and
PITRoUsLY BEsEEoHING
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, although
many might have been saved if some i'm
mediate attempts at systematic relief 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 PROSTATE
forms whom kind fate had touched with
the dart of that messenger of death, IN
consciousness. The fire started apparent
ly on the third flour of
THE DOOMED BUILDING
over the side entrance on Mich
igan street, and before the de,
partment got the steamers fairly
in position, the flames had enveloped the
whole southeast corner of the building, the
fiery element licking its way greedily and
with lightning rapidity towards the north
ern wing. Some laundering individuals,
seeing the reflection of the holocaust in tbs
sky, turned in an alarm from box 81.
corner of East Water and Division
streets, at $40 a. H., causing the loss of
the work of enc stream for
TEN MINUTES OF PRECIOUS TIME.
just when the fire was at its worst and
every window in the huge building lined
with shrieking humanity. The thousands
stood in perfect awe, but few having self
possession and resolution enough to lend a
helping hand on the canvas stretched
out to receive those of the despairing in
mates of the burning pyre who risked the
leap down to the stone sidewalk 100 feet
below. At fist there were only Lieut..
lockwood, Detectives Reimer and McMan-
us, Officers O'Brien and Campbell and a
few Sentinel men
STRETCHING HEAVY CANVAS,
which requires fully thirty strong men to,
handle successfully. A poor fellow stood
on the cornice of the fifth story corner
window for twenty long minutes not dar-
ing the fearful leap. Finally he became
bewildered, to judge of his actions, or
dumbfounded by smoke and slid off his
perch to the canvas below. The few who
held it could not give it the necessary re-
sistance. T he body fell unhindered by
the canvas with crash which sent
A sHUDDBR THROUGH EVERY WITNESS.
The shattered body was carried into the
American express Office, all the while hun
dreds of people had been looking on, no
body responding to the demands of the